Spin This

Has Bill O'Reilly been smoking the same stuff that Pat Robertson has? Last week, Bill had this to say about San Francisco: "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead."
Fair enough - the folks here in Northern California have always envisioned themselves as their own republic anyway, so what's all the fuss about? "And if al-Qaida comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."
That's heading into Robertson territory. You may recall in previous episodes of "Spot the Pinhead" when Pat Robertson suggested that the Almighty was actually a vindictive sort who would probably bring down some natural disaster or plague if you didn't happen to agree with the somewhat whimsical notion of "Intelligent Design" (what about the platypus, huh Pat?).
A check on Bill's website tells us that "tonight on 'The Factor,' Bill O'Reilly takes on the orchestrated campaign organized by left wing critics who have whipped up controversy about his satirical riff on the city of San Francisco."
Gee, that sounds a little like spin control, coming from a guy who describes his show this way: "'The O'Reilly Factor' is driven by me. I will not stand for 'spin.' I look for guests who will stand up and verbally battle for what they believe in."
Maybe - but what about his comments from February 2004 about San Francisco's refusal to halt issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples? "The situation's now much bigger than just gay marriage. It's clear the authorities in California are not going to enforce the law, even though it is clearly stated. This is a massive breakdown in social policy. That's the fundamental problem. The combination of a frightened governor, a sympathetic press, and activist judges have nullified California's legal definition of marriage. And now full-blown anarchy is underway in the city by the Bay."
How about the time that the San Francisco Chronicle reported that O'Reilly's program had been dropped by a local radio station (June 2003)? "Today's example comes from Web sites that picked up a false report from The San Francisco Chronicle that said a San Francisco radio station dropped The Radio Factor. If anyone had bothered to make even one phone call, they would have learned that Westwood One made a deal with another San Francisco radio station, weeks ago to move The Radio Factor. Thus the word "dropped" is obviously inaccurate and dishonest. We'll see if The Chronicle runs a correction, but you can bet you won't be seeing many corrections on the net." Ironically, again, this was taken from Bill's Internet web site.
Okay, so maybe we should let Bill have a chance to clarify his position on San Francisco's "Hot Talk" AM 560 (also home to Rush Limbaugh): "What I said isnÂ’t controversial. What I said needed to be said. IÂ’m sitting here and IÂ’m looking at a city that has absolutely no clue about what the world is. None. You know, if you had been hit on 9/11 instead of New York, believe me, you would not have voted against military recruitinging. Yet the left-wing, selfish, Land of Oz philosophy that the media and the city politicians have embraced out there is an absolute intellectual disgrace."
Thank you for those kind words, and now I've got to get back to paving that Yellow Brick Road. See you in the funny papers, Bill.