The O'Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life - Hardcover

O'Reilly, Bill

 
9780767905282: The O'Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0767905288 ISBN 13: 9780767905282
Verlag: Import, 2000

Inhaltsangabe

A hard-hitting and no-holds-barred broadside from the anchorman of the Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor--what's good about America (plenty), what's bad(plenty still), and what's completely ridiculous (most everything else).

Every night on the Fox News Channel, Bill O'Reilly tells it like it is. The O'Reilly Factor is the fastest-growing cable news program--and that's because O'Reilly leaves no stone unturned in his quest to reveal the truth about the state of America. It doesn't matter if you're a Hollywood movie star, or a Washington insider, or Joe Blow from Massapequa--when you come up against O'Reilly, you better get your story straight.

Here, for the first time on paper, is O'Reilly's take on our country, our politicians, our celebrities, our class system, our love lives, our money. In fact, O'Reilly's got an opinion on just about everything, and he's holding nothing back:

O'Reilly on class: "A mind is a terrible thing to waste if you're held back by race, or gender. It is just as great a waste when you're held back by class. Right, Reverend Jackson?"

O'Reilly on Martha Stewart: "While she masquerades as a paragon of good taste, she has turned herself into a snooty, condescending mogul
. . . She's a first-rate con artist."

O'Reilly on money: "The true heroes of America are not the new Internet billionaires or the overpaid sports stars. The true heroes are the men, women, and teenagers who go to work for a modest wage, fulfill their responsibilities, and are kind and generous to others."

O'Reilly on Al Sharpton and David Duke: "These two are the most ridiculous racial demagogues in the entire U.S.A. If God has a sense of humor, they will be sharing a sauna in the netherworld. With one thermostat."

O'Reilly on sex: "It's time that we all lighten up about sex and keep our sexual activities where they belong: in the privacy of the bedroom or the hot tub, or in the case of Pamela Anderson, on the Internet."

Mixing fascinating stories from his life both on- and off-screen with his explosive views on what's up with America, and how we can fix it, The O'Reilly Factor will ruffle your feathers, make you laugh, and make you think.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Bill O'Reilly rose from humble beginnings to become a nationally known broadcast journalist. In his twenty-five years of reporting, the two-time Emmy winner has worked for CBS News, ABC News, Inside Edition, and currently the Fox News Channel, where his top-rated cable news program, The O'Reilly Factor, is seen worldwide.

O'Reilly graduated from Marist College and holds advanced degrees from Boston University and Harvard. He is the author of a novel,Those Who Trespass, and he lives on Long Island with his wife, Maureen, and baby daughter, Madeline.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

NOTE TO REV. JESSE JACKSON: Sorry, Jessie. You're wrong. Racism gets all the ink, but the heart of America's somewhat unfair social setup is class, not race. This fact might cut into your power base, but it's true.

The question for this age in America is: What class are you? Never thought about it? You should. Each one of us is born into a very specific economic and social class, regardless of color. Most of us remain in that class, for better or worse, until the day we die. The more observant among us can usually sum up a complete stranger's class background within minutes.

Politicians don't usually talk about class. It might open a dangerous door. Advertisers want us to believe we're all one class: the consuming class, equal as long as we keep spending. The rich want us to believe that anyone can make the quantum leap from bowling league to country club by just working a little harder. That's supposed to keep us motivated and quiet.

But does class really matter? Would every blue-collar family be happier and more productive if a long-lost relative died and a trust fund flew in the window overnight?

No, but class is not just about money. It is about opportunity for your kids or dashed hopes, about education or minds that close down for good, about enduring values or materialism that comes out as greed or self-indulgence or complete disregard for others. It is the bottom line, in a way, for every problem I talk about in this book. Class attitudes can be involved in unfair tax laws, or government indifference about our terrible drug problem, or what kind of entertainment is available at the local movie house. Class plays a role in gun control laws that restrict personal freedom for the little guy and in casual enforcement of drunk driving laws.

As someone once said, "Class in America is like sex in Victorian times: People believe that if no one talks about it, it will just go away."

Whatever I have done or will do in this life, I'm working-class Irish American Bill O'Reilly. No one ever told me or my sister that we were pretty far down the social totem pole while we were growing up in 1960s America. We took for granted that it was normal to buy cars only when they were secondhand, that every family clipped coupons to save money, and that luncheon meats were the special of the day. The municipal pool in our town on Long Island, New York, was pretty seedy, and we took the Greyhound bus to Miami for our annual vacation, but since air travel and private pools simply did not exist in our world, we never thought we were missing anything.

RIDICULOUS NOTE: Deprivation works both ways, it seems. I'll never forget my astonishment reading that First Lady Jackie Kennedy learned about Green Stamps from a White House employee. This elegant, cultured upper-class young woman was delighted to find that these stamps, which were given out by retailers like supermarkets as a reward for shopping, could be redeemed for "free" electric blankets and the like. For a time, wealthy Mrs. Kennedy collected the stamps like mad.

My parents, who loved us both and wanted the best for us, believed that "the best" was playing it safe in life and not straying too far from the neighborhood. One of my grandfathers walked a police beat in Brooklyn, the other was a train conductor, my mother's mother was a telephone operator, and my uncle was a fireman. My sister became a nurse. I was expected to become a teacher or, if I got very lucky, a lawyer. My mother, not wanting me to become a nonconformist in the 1970s, would not rest until I wore a "leisure suit."

My father, who never made more than $35,000 a year while exhausting himself commuting daily from Levittown to New York City to work as currency accountant for an oil company, took for granted that college for his son meant one thing above all: employment security. He and my mother graduated from college, but they did not remember the experience as a

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Verlag
Import
Erscheinungsdatum
2000
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0767905288
ISBN 13 
9780767905282
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
224
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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