This is the second op ed piece that I have written and submitted to the New Haven Register on Bill O’Reilly, but the the first one that they have published, perhaps in last Tuesday’s paper.
The link below is dead. The article is no longer posted at the New Haven Register. Luckily, I have found the artice on my own hard drive.
Bill O’Reilly throws mud that doesn’t stick
By David Lindsay 5/6/2015 The New Haven Register
What Bill O’Reilly has discovered is that his publishers do not require of him real sources and data to back up his claims and calumny. Joe Nocera wrote in the NY Times last week that the economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a leader of the conservative American Action Forum, or A.A.F., complains that the right wing is too sloppy on data. Defending the Export-Import Bank which conservatives were attacking, Holz-Eakin said, “I think too many conservative arguments are made on the basis of ideology and faith. We are dedicated to the numbers at A.A.F. We can’t just assert that markets work; we have to show it.” It is time for the Register to hold its regular columnists to the Holz-Eakin standard of good journalism.
Bill O’Reilly diminishes the reputation of the New Haven Register with his unsupported partisan barbs and mudslinging. April 25, the target was again President Barack Obama. There is no question but that the world is a messy and dangerous place, but to read O’Reilly, the messes in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen and Russia are all Obama’s fault. Such grandiose assertions sound impressive, until you remember that the disastrous war with Iraq was the misguided adventure against non-existent weapons of mass destruction of George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. Each trillion dollar disaster seemed to contribute to the next. But don’t take my word for it, the disaster was well reported by several writers’ especially Bob Woodward, in his book, State of Denial.
O’Reilly’s list of disasters is a real list, but it is slimy to insist that Barack Obama is to blame for any of them without support or facts. For the rise of ISIS, to pick another example, the backbone of ISIS is reportedly remnants of the dismissed Sunni Iraq Army, which was fired by GWBush and Rumsfeld after they were promised that they could run the country if they surrendered quickly to the US invasion, which they did. Now they are getting back on their betrayers.
O’Reilly also mocks Obama for saying that “the greatest threat to our planet…. is climate change.” Again no facts, figures or sources, just, “the administration is chasing the chimera of global warming.” That bombast is his support. There are many facts and stories that he ignores. The problems in Syria and Egypt started because of pressures from over-population, and an extended draught which destroyed the livelihood of many farmers. The droughts were exacerbated by climate change, according to leading scientists, reported Tom Friedman and others in the New York Times. Visitors to the Caribbean report that the coral reefs are dying or are dead.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says on their website that they are the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment HYPERLINK “https://www.ipcc.ch/docs/UNEP_GC-14_decision_IPCC_1987.pdf”ProgrammeHYPERLINK “https://www.ipcc.ch/docs/UNEP_GC-14_decision_IPCC_1987.pdf” and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988 to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts.
From IPCCfacts.org: “More than 2,000 scientists from 154 countries typically participate in the IPCC process.” The story I keep reading from reputable journalists, is that 97% of real climate scientist agree that climate change is a huge threat. The other 3% are either not real scientist, or are on the payroll of the oil, gas and coal companies and their owners, like the Koch brothers. Some are the same scientists-for-hire who found that cigarette smoking was safe.
After Hurricane Sandy caused over $60 billion of damage in New York and New Jersey, Bloomberg Businessweek wrote a cover story in great detail, titled, It’s Global Warming Stupid. Monday, April 27, the New Haven Register ran a brilliant editorial from the Washington Post, titled, “Republicans are engaging in smog and mirrors on climate” The editorial concluded, “The nation’s climate debate has been impoverished by the absence of responsible conservative voices. A revenue-neutral carbon tax is a reform Republicans should love. It could end irrational federal subsidies, lower the GOP’s most-hated taxes and harness market efficiency to provide some insurance for the planet at a minimal cost. Instead, the party’s would-be leaders appear to be looking for any way to avoid engaging seriously.” Thank you, New Haven Register.
It is a pity that the Register supports the rants of such ideologues as Bill O’Reilly. The Register should be helping their readers discern fact from fiction and science from nonsense. It is confusing as to why they support the demagoguery displayed regularly in O’Reilly’s op-eds.
David Lindsay lives in Hamden CT, and blogs at, InconvenientNews.wordpress.com and LindsayOnVietnam.wordpress.com. He is the author of The Tay Son Rebellion, about to be published.