The O'Reilly Thing

Submitted by Philip Bramley (Australia), Feb 6, 2005 at 05:14

Having recently seen a documentary (here in Australia) on the Murdoch press, and one of its creations on Fox News - "The O'Reilly Factor" - I was disappointed to see Daniel Pipes appear (in print) on one of O'Reilly's shows. O'Reilly is absolutely appalling! The show is all about O'Reilly, forget about the content.

For those of us who are trying to make sense of what is happening in the Middle East; the events of 9/11 and the antagonism towards the Western world by Arabs towards the western world etc - the Middle East Forum clearly provides learned comment and balanced opinions on problems within that troubled area. On the other hand "The O'Reilly Factor", on the Fox network, is one of the most appalling television shows I have seen, pumping out disinformation and vested political interest with reporting which defies any credibility to be taken seriously.

In Australia we generally don't get that sort of Orwellian news reporting but with Murdoch's reach extending globally, more and more programming here is beginning to be look like, what passes for informed news, that as shown in the U.S.

Please keep the work that you do, in reporting on the Middle East, at the learned level, so that the high credibility of the work that you do is maintained.

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