DangerousTalk

There are lots of different stories that I want to tell about my experience at the Reason Rally. Today’s story is about Bill O’Reilly’s reporter. Yeah, Papa Bear himself sent a reporter to our rally to interview atheists.

My brother and I were wondering around the Rally much of the time and I remember as we were coming out of the Organization Tent and heading up the side toward the stage, we saw a television crew. I’m a bit of a media gigolo, so I had to go over there.

The “reporter” was talking to a young couple about various topics. There were two cameras on the couple both of which were facing away from the crowd. I actually didn’t notice this until someone pointed it out to me. But then there it was the obvious spin in the “No Spin Zone.”

The couple on camera seemed to be pretty intelligent people who were obviously knowledgeable about atheism. The interviewer on the other hand asked leading questions clearly from a fundamentalist perspective and his smug grin was extremely unprofessional.

I know my way around the media and I don’t recall reporters spending 15 minutes or more on a single interview like this guy did. Usually reporters want a sampling, so they have a few questions that they ask as many people as they can find. This “reporter” wanted to argue with the couple about philosophy and theology.

As I watched what was going on, it became clear to me that he was trying to get the couple to say something he could edit and turn into his story. He was basically giving them space to talk with the intent of taking their positions out of context to fit his narrative. It is no surprise that I later learned he was from Bill O’Reilly’s show.

I don’t know if it aired on “The Factor” yet because I don’t watch the show. But I am sure the spin will be misleading and that the editors did their job to make smart people sound stupid. That is new for them though since they usually spend a lot of time making a stupid person sound smart… and usually failing to success.

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Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Reason Rally