Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Bill O'Reilly blows wind
I confess that I enjoy watching Bill O'Reilly, but sometimes he blows a little harder than is good for him. I caught only the end of tonight's show, the viewer email segment. Apparently last night's show including a bit on gasoline price gouging, in which O'Reilly seems to have taken a populist anti-oil company position of some sort. One of his loyal readers suggested rather gently that O'Reilly did not perfectly understand finance. Reilly jammed him, saying that he understood finance "very well," and then went on to declare that ExxonMobil "will make about 140 billion
Uh, no. ExxonMobil will not make "140 billion
UPDATE: I TiVoed the late broadcast. I misquoted O'Reilly slightly, and have reflected that above. He did not say "net dollars," which is good because it made no sense (my bad), and he was speaking somewhat prospectively, predicting XOM's profits for calendar 2005 rather than in the last year. The basic point holds, though: O'Reilly ranted that ExxonMobil would "make about 140 billion in profits this year," which is just plain false and which proves his reader's point quite nicely.
5 Comments:
By 
cakreiz, at
Thu Sep 08, 09:50:00 AM:
Bill is a bloviator, no doubt. And he's not as smart as he thinks he is. And he's pompous, abrupt and a show off to boot. But he's forthright and tries his best to be fair. I can't get enough of the guy. I'd want him on my side in any fight.
By Charlottesvillain, at
Thu Sep 08, 09:53:00 AM:
Agree with most of what you say, cakreiz, except I most certainly can get enough of the guy. About 15 minutes a night is about all I can handle (which is triple my tolerance of Keith Ohlberman.)
By cakreiz, at
Thu Sep 08, 10:14:00 AM:
100% agreement on msnbc's smug Mr. Olberman (liked him much more when he was doing ESPN.) I actually prefer Bill on the radio. But you're right- 15 mins of Bill is plenty. Interestingly, the guy I dislike is Hannity- who foolishly believes he's an original thinker when he's a tired hack.
By TigerHawk, at
Thu Sep 08, 10:46:00 AM:
Hannity is the dumbest conservative on television. The guy doesn't have two brain cells to rub together.
By Cardinalpark, at
Thu Sep 08, 11:57:00 AM:
Your point about his vacuous oil profiteering comment is correct. When I saw it between US open points, I had to chuckle. What a moronic set of comments. Meanwhile, you've got guys working for the oil companies in the Gulf risking their lives to get the platforms back up and running, which they are doing heroically. And the last point -- the reason everybody can get gas, albeit at a high price, is due to the free market. Last time around, Nixon imposed idiotic price controls, which meant queueing, rationing and no availability. Very glad we ain't trying that again. Bill is entertaining and, like the rest of us, sometimes right and sometimes way wrong...
