O'Reilly Fesses Up

Bill O'Reilly said


“…I don't hold [Bill] Maher to the same standard as the Washington Post, as he's a comedian, a man who makes a living expressing a point of view….Talk radio is entertainment. People on there make a living expressing opinions. It's not a news form. Therefore, the standards aren't the same.”

Fox News has repeatedly defended its evening shows as being “opinion” not news.  Now that O’Reilly has outed Limbaugh, Ingrahm, Savage and other radio talk show hosts who make their livings “expressing opinions” as entertainers, isn’t it time to change the name of Fox News because its shows feature hosts and guests who spout opinions to entertain their audience?

The old World Wrestling Federation, WWF, was forced to change its name back in 2002 to World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE, when a British court ruled that the World Wildlife Fund was entitled to the exclusive use of “WWF” outside the United States.  Said Linda McMahon, the wrestling group’s CEO, “[w]e will utilise this opportunity to position ourselves emphasising the entertainment aspect of our company, and, at the same time, allay the concerns of the Fund.”  (Yes, that’s the same Linda McMahon that ran as a Republican for a Connecticut U.S. Senate seat last Fall.)

Back during its heyday, when Hulk Hogan changed overnight from a yellow clad hero to a black clad villain, very few of the WWF’s fans blinked an eye.  To paraphrase Ms. McMahon, “that’s entertainment.”

Comcast owns the cable channel E! (Entertainment Television, Inc.).  With Comcast’s purchase of NBC just approved, maybe NBC and News Corp could work a swap.  NBC gets all two or three of Fox News’ actual newscasts and Fox’s night-time line up can move over to ET.

I see Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin as being much more comfortable being down the hall from the E! News staff (which features the hosts of Ask The Answer Bitch and H’Wood Party Girl).  Hannity and O’Reilly might be a bit perturbed at first, putting on airs; but, they’ll get used to it.

Think the Tea Party demographic will mind?  I bet they’d like not having to switch cable channels between E! and Fox News – the new tagline could be “All E! All the Time!”