Before you think he is, he’s not. Dan Rather’s mistake of running with a story he should have been more skeptical about is only the cover for Bill’s other objective. Like so many before him, O’Reilly is not defending Rather. Rather, he’s protecting his bread and butter – old-school journalism. The Bush papers (and Swift Boat Vets before that) are not the fault of bloggers who got away with something “wip[ing] out a lifetime of honor and hard work” simply by having a LiveJournal account. In fact, if O’Reilly had done his homework, he would know that the bloggers were the first ones to debunk the papers.
And if you think O’Reilly isn’t protecting himself, check this quote out:
Unfair freedom of speech did him in. This is not your grandfather’s country anymore.
Nice. Nothing like playing the Fear card. But, to be fair, he’s right. This isn’t your grandfather’s country anymore. No more will the Hearst’s and Clear Channels (other side)of the world have sole ownership of information. They may control certain media, but there is always a voice available to, well, people like me. Not that anyone reads this, but I can still publish it, which is a step in the right direction. And there are many other smarter and more dedicated people out there whose voice is being heard on the internet. They are the ones who have kicked in grand-dad’s teeth and changed the media.
O’Reilly mentions that the flaw in journalism is that journalists rely on other journalists for information. I submit that what is really pissing him off is that, under the Old Guard, he was only accountable to those from which he got the information. Now, he’s accountable to everyone. Me, you, Slashdot, Boing Boing, Fark, hell, even Jason Kottke can weigh in if he wants. Yeah, I think that might have something to do with Bill’s defense of Dan.
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