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This information serves no purpose other than to explain how I managed to catch Bernie Goldberg on The O'Reilly Factor last night.
O'Reilly appeared to be weighing in on the excessive media coverage of the Michael Jackson Memorial by spending an excessive portion of his show covering it. Not satisfied with just one overwhelming irony, O'Reilly also argued with black author Marc Lamont Hill that the black community shouldn't be heralding Jackson as a black entertainer because he had white children, that there was no racial component involved with Michael Jackson's success because he helped break down racial barriers, and then went on to complain that not enough people were talking about Jackson's child molestation charges during the memorial coverage, even though a year or two ago he had told Hill that mentioning allegations of racism during the week of Jerry Falwell's death was out of line.
Then, just for fun, he trotted Bernie Goldberg out to complain about the media.
For those of you unfamiliar with him, Bernie Goldberg is a political commentator that spends the majority of his time complaining that the mainstream media (or MSM, if you must) is overwhelmingly liberal, socialist, and godless. In short, he's just like every other conservative political commentator, with the exception of being so good at his job that he actually inspired one nutjob to go on a killing spree.
During their Michael Jackson Memorial discussion about how shameless and pathetic all of the Michael Jackson Memorial
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This isn't a shocking accusation. In fact, it's typical of Goldberg's criticisms of any news coverage he finds unfavorable. It is also an accusation lifted from his new book, "A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media," which is (surprise, surprise) a harsh indictment of the media unfairly favorable coverage of Barrack Obama. In the book, Bernie calls Chris Matthews "...a journalist hooker putting out for Obama from the moment the senator showed some leg.”
Now, I am not interested in defending the integrity or honor of the mainstream news media. I don't think there's too much to defend. But Bernie Goldberg's comment caught my attention enough that I looked up and watched the rest of the interview. So I noticed that Bernie Goldberg's book was being plugged on the bottom of the screen during the entire interview.
Bernie has every right in the world to hawk his book, and to make television appearances with the intention of hawking his book. No criticism there. But let's level the accusatory playing field here. Bernie Goldberg accuses television journalists of being whores because their main goal has been to attract a wide audience for their respective stations by discussing the Michael Jackson Memorial, with the intention of making money through high ratings. Bernie Goldberg then appears on television to attract a wide audience for his book by discussing the Michael Jackson Memorial, with the intention of making money through high book sales.
If A equals B, and B equals C, then A must equal C. Bernie Goldberg is a whore. Even worse, he's the kind of whore that parades up and down the street berating the other whores for being so cheap and easy. He's not just a whore; he's a nasty whore.
Of course, if Bernie is a whore (by his own definition) for selling his political opinion, where does that leave bloggers like myself, who spout their own narrow political opinions for anyone with the bandwidth and patience to read them? I can't speak for others, but I can certainly tell you that I am no whore; I collect no revenue for what I do. That makes me a slut.
I can live with that.
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