O'Reilly Faces Off Against Moore

An Interesting Dialog

Published on July 28, 2004 By CS Guy In Politics

Bill O’Reilly has been asking Michael Moore to appear on “The O’Reilly Factor” for some time now. Moore as declined to appear until O’Reilly viewed “Fahrenheit 9/11” in its entirety. Apparently everyone’s requirements have been met, because Moore sat down with O’Reilly at the Democratic National Convention to exchange questions.

O’Reilly opened with the following query.

Now, one of the issues is you because you’ve been calling Bush a liar on weapons of mass destruction, the Senate Intelligence Committee, Lord Butler’s investigation in Britain and now the 9/11 Commission have all come out and said there was no lying on the part of President Bush. Plus, Vladimir Putin has said his intelligence told Bush there were weapons of mass destruction. Wanna apologize to the president now or later?

Moore sticks to his guns about Bush being a liar. Moore seems to think that a false statement is a lie despite the statement being made in good confidence but based on bad data. I happen to disagree on that issue.

Moore response with, “…many criminals believe what they say is true; they could pass a lie detector test.”

The difference is that criminals that believe their own delusions were not given millions of dollars worth of intelligence from the top sources in the world.

Moore comes back with the question, “…would you sacrifice your child to remove one of the other 30 brutal dictators on this planet?” And later with, “So, you would sacrifice your child to secure Fallujah?”

These are, of course, silly questions. No one would want to sacrifice their children. If you knew 100% that your child would die by volunteering for the military then you would not want them to do so. Of course, that also brings up the point that military service is voluntary, and that no parent has the right to “sacrifice” their child for any cause.

John Derbyshire offers a fine response to Moore’s question.

"Would you sacrifice your child for Fallujah?" All right, it's a stupid question as phrased. O'Reilly should have said that. Then he should have said this: "If a child of mine wished to pursue a career in the U.S. military, I should be proud. If he was then sent off to fight in a hot war, in which the USA had engaged under the proper conventional and constitutional procedures of this republic -- under the command of the President, with the approval of the Congress -- I would make no attempt to stop him. If he died in combat, I should grieve as a loving parent; but I would blame nobody. And if anyone tried to make political capital out of my child's death, I would loathe that person."

Comments (Page 2)

on Jul 30, 2004

Well. I'm anti-bush but I can see how Moore is screwed up.

Moore's whole "would you sacrifice your child" nonsense was just that -- nonsense. NO ONE is sacrificing THEIR child.

Exactly. If I had a adult child, suppose that child joined army and went to war at place I didn't agree with, I can do nothing, because my own child made his or her own decisions. That sentence implies that I would sacrifice a non-adult child to a cause! Sheer idiocy from Moore is appalling to me.

I hope Moore will be exposed soon.

dubz

on Jul 30, 2004

o reilly is a dumbass. he did not listen to moore, especially when he asked him if he would send his kid to secure fallujah. He just said he'd sacrifice himself. Moore is a patriotic guy who obviously cares about his country and the first amendment. he speaking his mind where bush has no mind. And o'reilly kicked ludacris out of pepsi for his stupid remarks. Oreilly does not care about what is going on. he only cares about a dictatorship.

bobvila93

on Aug 01, 2004

I'm completely amazed that we don't have a flood of Moore supporters on this thread. Goes to show that there isn't much to defend, I think...

I've lost pretty much all of my respect for Moore, especially since that interview. Also since I saw a new article on Yahoo News (I think ) about Moore doctoring a small-town newspaper headline for a Fahrenheit 9/11 clip. Hehe, and to watch Moore sit there and pretend not to understand the definition of the word "lie" was just embarrassing...

bakerstreet

on Aug 01, 2004

I think most people, even those that enjoy him, see him as a political P.T. Barnum. As long as there is a "dubz" born every minute, he'll do well.

Don Bemont

on Aug 02, 2004

Bill O'Reilly loves distorting things in ways that appeal to a certain brand of conservatives. Michael Moore loves distorting things in ways that appeal to a certain brand of liberals.

They share the goal, and the hope among their respective followers, of converting the uncoverted using a mix of entertainment, fact, distortion, and convenient excisements from the record. I don't know if they convince people or not, but they both turn a nice profit in the meantime.

I can't say that I trust either to give me the whole story, but they probably both contribute more to the political dialogue of the country than President Bush and John Kerry, who distort things in such polished ways that most viewers are receiving image almost entirely devoid of ideas. O'Reilly and Moore at least sometimes prod people to think about why they are right and wrong. It's still slanted more towards entertainment for profit, than information for understanding, true, but I think we are better off with these people than without. Of course, partisan liberals and conservatives agree with me exactly one half of the way on that point.

If nothing else, I can always use the likes of Moore and O'Reilly as barometers. I know that a person is worth listening to if they talk about particular, signficant points on which they disagree with one of these guys. And I know that I can safely tune out those who just call one of these guys names. It'sa great way to sort the foolish partisans from those who interested in figuring things out..

I don't know -- is that a defense of Moore?

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