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December 10, 2004

Special Guest on Bill O'Reilly: Ted McGinley

So... did Bill O'Reilly jump the shark?

Read Geraghty's summary of his radio interview on O'Reilly and decide for yourself:

I also mentioned that while the original story may have been an error, it’s tougher to say that it was just an innocent mistake to not present the opinions of the forensic experts CBS consulted who said the document wasn’t real, and for misrepresenting Marcel Matley as a forensic expert when his expertise is solely in handwriting. They also didn’t mention that Matley said he can’t verify a photocopy, and CBS only had photocopies of the memos.
(At what point does a mistake in vision become willful blindness? Didn’t Rather himself say “the camera never blinks”?)

O’Reilly said he had covered all of this on his show earlier, and that no one was tougher on Rather than him. Okay.

I said that Rather kept insisting that the memo’s source was “unimpeachable”, which, I added, only told us that the source wasn’t Bill Clinton.

(Bill didn’t laugh.)

“Rather is defending his people,” O’Reilly said, attributing Rather’s actions to loyalty to a longtime employee. (It’s ironic, just last weekend I just watched the last half hour or so of the movie “Shattered Glass.” One of the big themes of that film is the tension of New Republic editors who wanted to defend the reputation of reporter Stephen Glass, in the face of building evidence that Glass’s magazine journalism was largely imaginary. Loyalty to your subordinates is often an honorable trait, but it shouldn‘t be a higher priority than the truth.)

And then O’Reilly denied that he was too easy on Rather or anyone else, because he had reduced Rather “a puddle” when he had interviewed him. And he had interviewed Peter Jennings, and all these other mainstream media figures.

Hmmmm... "just looking out for the folks," Bill? Since when did Dan Rather -- who used transparently false documents to drive Bush out of the White House and then dishonestly used inexpert experts to defend them, all the while accusing his critics (his provably correct critics, let me add) of being "politically motivated internet partisans" -- become one of the "folks" that needed "looking out" for?

Again: did O'Reilly jump the shark?

Let's just say that he made a perfect splashdown just outside the shark pen barely getting his leather jacket wet, to be immediately hugged by Joanie, Richie, Pinkie Tuscadero and Jennie Piccolo.

More... And in The Corner, they're citing O'Reilly and some CBS blowhard whining about that bloggers are exploiting this whole damned "freedom of expression" loophole.

Nice job, O'Fonzereilly. I think you've got three seasons of declining ratings left. Richie was the heart and soul of the show, and he just left to direct Eat My Dust.

Irony is a Bitch Update: So... did Ace of Spades HQ jump the shark, too?

I'm worried it has. I began worrying especially when I read more about Ted McGinley. If you don't know who he is, the link in the title tells you; but suffice to say he's the patron saint of jump-the-shark-ings. If he joins your cast, you've almost certainly jumped the shark. Married With Children, Happy Days, The West Wing...

... and even The Love Boat, where, damn it all, he played a character called Ashley Covington Evans, also known as ACE.

Not even a win in the Wizbang Top 100 Blogs polling can save this site now.

Oh, well. A year is a decent run.

posted by Ace at 02:43 AM

Comments

O'Reilly just goes out of his way to defend everyone as part of his routine; it's nothing new nor is it necessarily a bad thing. Though I am not quite sure what he's doing here... I need more information.

Posted by: mAc Chaos on December 10, 2004 03:08 AM

First off, Bill is still way too cozy with his former CBS mates. Second, he is not cozy enough with the issues he speaks so freely about..The problem with O'Reilly is he has no time to read. Between his radio show, and the TV thing, he leaves himself little time to get caught up. And sadly, when he does have time to read, I guarantee he aint reading blogs.

If he were reading blogs, he'd have a heck of a lot more red meat in his segments. As it stands now, gay marriage, rap music, and Church VS State is the only thing he cares about.. He fucking cares about all the crap that liberals make fun of conservatives for carring about.. He projects the worst charicature of conservatism (Unread, uptight, beholden to old money [CBS] and fake)

Another TV channel for conservatives is long overdue. If we gotta start it on the net, then so be it. Fox needs some comp.

Posted by: streetGOP on December 10, 2004 03:15 AM

wow! Ace reveals himself as a star of the Love boat.
and now he's on O'Reilly? schmoozing w/ Tina Brown?
The mind boggles.
To think we knew him when....

As for shark jumping--nah.
only those who forget their fans and lose their moorings will land anywhere near a shark tank.

Posted by: on December 10, 2004 04:29 AM

oh, and PS...notice how the Establishment media wants restrictions on the blogosphere...in preparation for Hillary's run for the Presidency.
She doesn't want any blog vets for truth on her large, and lying , arse.

Posted by: on December 10, 2004 04:39 AM

Whether O'Reilly had good mojo in the past is irrelevant to me now. He followed up his brown-nosing of Rather by spending way too much time on his program pleading for Bush to make Clinton SecState and, when that didn't happen, pleading for Clinton as the new SecGeneral of the UN after Annan's ouster.

Defiantly defending Rather while aggressively promoting Clinton indicates that O'Reilly's not even watching out for himself.

Posted by: Interested-Participant on December 10, 2004 05:04 AM

His suggestion that Clinton should be SecState made me almost fall out of my chair.

Posted by: mAc Chaos on December 10, 2004 09:13 AM

I can't speak for anyone else, but as far as I'm concerned Bill HAS jumped the shark. I can't watch him anymore.

Posted by: Dianne on December 10, 2004 09:34 AM

P.S. Ace, however, has NOT jumped the shark. :)

Posted by: Dianne on December 10, 2004 09:35 AM

I loved him in Platoon and Any Given Sunday.

Oops, wrong McGinley.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

P.S. Ace, you haven't jumped the shark. But if you ever do, jump it. . . like a Viking.

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on December 10, 2004 09:47 AM

That's OK Ace. Even if you have jumped the shark (and I'm not saying you have, just leaving the possiblity open) we will always have your early years to look back fondly on:

Democrats as D&D figyres;
The Complete Paul Anka;
Johnny Coldcuts.

It will be like watching Happy Days reruns. If Fonz is in the Cloth Jacket, you know you have a show going on. If Fonz is in Leather and speaking wistfully of Pinky Tuscadero. You know you are in trouble. If Mork from Ork shows up, forget it.

Nanoo Nanoo,

Senator

Posted by: Senator PhilABuster on December 10, 2004 10:56 AM

Funny you should mention the whole "shark jumping" phenom - I'm beginning to think "blogging" has just about hit the point of no return. All you have to do is monitor the comments of some of the larger blogs to see the level of idiocy that's invading them. Not that that has any reflection on the quality of work being put out by the bloggers themselves, but it does provide some indication of the "retard-o-meter" - eg. there are some seriously stupid newbies joining the blog-commenting community these days.

You see the same thing on messageboards - find a cool one, and wait a few months, next thing you know it's all 15 year old boys startin fights with the first person they come across.

Cool. *rolls eyes*

/now ending blog snobbery

Posted by: fat kid on December 10, 2004 11:49 AM

Ace, you couldn't have jumped the shark since I just found you recently and enjoy your stuff too much. Unless I'm the Kiss of Death, of course.

As for O'Reilly, I just can't watch him any more. His ego is completely out of control. Between his put downs of the Swift Boat Vets, kissing Rather's butt and that self-agrandizing interview on 60 Minutes, I just don't have the stomach for him any more.

Posted by: Rob on December 10, 2004 12:15 PM

Yeah..I thought Blogging jumped the shark when Fat Kid started his site up. :)

Posted by: Senator PhilABuster on December 10, 2004 12:24 PM

I think I've been around longer than Ace ;) :P

QED, right? hahahahhaah

Posted by: fat kid on December 10, 2004 01:55 PM

Just fact-checked my own @ss.

July '03 was my start date...

Posted by: fat kid on December 10, 2004 01:56 PM

But now McGinley is on a show, Hope & Faith (IIRC), from the very beginning and it seems to be lasting a few seasons. Perhaps the curse has left McGinley and moved on to a new host body.

Posted by: Eric Pobirs on December 10, 2004 03:32 PM

I thought ACE was the place with the helpful hardware man.

Birds of a feather flock together.

Posted by: Ron on December 10, 2004 05:49 PM

My oldest brother went to college with Ted in the late 70's(USC), Ted would attend a party in the summer my parents always thru. One time, I front of many guests I asked him "So, now that your on Married, will the show get cancelled?" Oh you should have seen the look, Priceless"

Posted by: kaos on December 10, 2004 06:06 PM

Good Point. Anyways, this was where i met her. You can join for free as well www.redtricircle.com

Posted by: click here on March 12, 2005 03:50 AM

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Podcast: CBD and Sefton Charge the Democrats with fomenting violence against the nation with their rhetoric, Virginia redistricting going down the tubes? Trump's bully pulpit is not censorship, Lee Zeldin is a star, J.B. Pritzker is an idiot, and more!

TJM watched a stupid stoner comedy and laughed.

ANOTHER LEFT WING ASSASSIN ATTEMPTS TO KILL TRUMP
If I understand this, the left-wing Democrat assassin attempted to get into the White House Correspondents Association dinner, and was stopped at the magnetometers, which detected his gun. I guess he pulled out the gun and was shot by Secret Service agents.
Erika Kirk was present.

Forgotten 70s Mystery Click
You made me cry
when you said good-bye
70s, not 50s
Now that is a motherflipping intro

Podcast: Sefton and CBD wonder about the Chaos that Trump is creating in the minds of the Iranian junta, Virginia redistricting is pure power grab, Ilhan Omar is many things ...and stupid too! Amazon censoring conservative thought again, and the UK...put a fork in it!

TJM explores the films of Peter Weir, director of Master and Commander

TJM discusses the different adaptations of Dune

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"The Athletic posted a lengthy article about a statue outside Globe Life Field, presenting a virtue-signaling moral grievance as unbiased news coverage." [CBD]

TJM discusses Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Portlandia: Would you like to double down on your meal?

Important Message from Recent Convert to Christianity and Yet Super-Serious Christian Tuq'r Qarlson: Actually Muslims love Jesus, it's Trump and his neocons who hate him

Tucker Carlson Network
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The people in charge [Jews, of course -- ace] don't want you to know this, but Muslims love Jesus.

Islam reveres Him as a major prophet and messenger of the Lord, believes He performed miracles, and states that He will return to Earth to defeat the Antichrist. That's why Donald Trump's painting depicting himself as the Son of God offended the president of Iran. It was an attack on his religion as well as Christianity.

Trump's trolling tweet was ill-advised, but Tucker is just lying when he claims the Christianity-hating President of Iran was "offended" by this.
He's one step away from announcing his official conversion to Islam. He literally never stops praising Islam. Well, he suddenly became Christian two years ago, there's not much stopping him from converting again.
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TJM definitively ranks the films of Alfred Hitchcock

@KFILE 21m

Politico is reporting that multiple people have abruptly resigned from Eric Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign: "Members of senior leadership have departed the campaign, including Courtni Pugh, a strategic adviser who served as Swalwell's top liaison to organized labor groups."

So the campaign is collapsing due to the truth of the sexual harassment allegations.
That hissing sound you hear is the air going out of the Swalwell campaign. UPDATE: No it wasn't, it was just Swalwell one-cheek-sneaking out a fart on camera
Eric Swalwell more like Eric Farewell amirite
thanks to weft-cut loop.

This is the dumbest AI bullslop I've seen in a while: the CIA can use "quantum magnetometry" to track an individual man's heartbeat from twelve miles away
I wouldn't click on it, it's not interesting, it's just stupid clickslop. I just want to share my annoyance with you.

Oil prices plunge on bizarre realization that Eric Swalwell may actually be straight. A rapey molester, allegedly, but a straight one.

Artemis II Crew releases clearest images of the Far Side yet recorded

Classic Rock Mystery Click
This is super-obscure and I only barely remember it. Given that, I'll give you the hint that it's by the Red Rocker.
And I guess you think you've got it made
Oh, but then, you never were afraid
Of anything that you've left behind
Oh, but it's alright with me now
'Cause I'll get back up somehow
And with a little luck, yes, I'm bound to win
Now twenty people will tell me it's not obscure, it was huge in their hometown and played at their prom. That's how it usually goes. When I linked Donnie Iris's "Love is Like a Rock," everyone said they knew that one and that his other song (which I didn't know at all) Ah Leah! was huge in their area.

Sarah Longwell spotting