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Others at Fox News allege an ACORN-Obama relation. AP Photo Alex Brandon
Bill O' Reilly is starting to gain more respect for giving "fair and balanced" coverage as opposed to simply reiterating Republican talking points. I was impressed with the tough yet fair interview O' Reilly gave then-candidate Barack Obama during the Presidential campaign. O' Reilly also called out the birthers at an appropriate time while many other conservatives were afraid to say anything. In the clip below Bill O' Reilly corrects Dick Morris on two occasions when Morris tries to connect President Obama and ACORN.
The story of ACORN has become like an infectious disease for elected Democrats. Everyone now seeks to run away from any association with the organization following the release of undercover videos by Big Government. However the reality is that ACORN was never directly supported by the Obama campaign despite the allegations of Dick Morris. The $800,000 Morris and others claim the Obama campaign paid to ACORN was in fact paid to a separate group who independently decided to subcontract about $80,000 of those funds to ACORN. The non-partisan group Politifact does a full analysis of the claim in the link above.
O' Reilly also correct the Dick Morris distortion regarding President Obama's attorney work for ACORN. Morris consistently mentions Obama's previous work for ACORN but does not mention the fact that the work was done 13 years ago and was considered legitimate work on civil right issues. Bill O' Reilly also justly points this out to Morris who drops the argument after being corrected. In conclusion O' Reilly correctly states that President Obama really does not have anything to do with ACORN.
Rather than joining in on the false accusation that President Obama has "close ties" with ACORN Bill O' Reilly instead relies on the facts. I suspect that O' Reilly realizes that he has already "made it" when it comes to establishing his ratings and loyal fan base. O' Reilly therefore probably feels free to give the facts on stories like this instead of simply going along with the misinformation that many others at Fox News such as Dick Morris seem intent on spreading. While I still disagree with O' Reilly on many issues such as health care and climate change he has won my respect for at least showing the integrity to not manipulate facts on stories such as ACORN.
Comments
Dude, O'Reilly always goes with the facts. This is not a new thing. Most people that hate him just don't actually watch him enough to know he shoots straight. He criticized Bush all the time over the Border issue, the war. You name it.
O Reilly is flat out wrong.
ok..let's see if I got this right, Ryan:
1. The first tape came out, the excuse is that they must have tried to hit dozens of ACORN offices, and only got the one. SHAME on Beck for trying to smear ACORN!! BECK won't let ACORN come on his show and defend themselves!!
2. The SECOND tape comes out and the excuse is that they're not showing all the evidence, and that the ~film makers~ commited a crime! Shame on BECK for Smearing the good name of ACORN!!
3. The THIRD tape comes out, and now the excuse is that the film makers edited and dubbed the tape to make ACORN look bad. SHAME ON BECK AND FOX for.. umm what?! The Census has broken ties with ACORN? err.. Shame on Beck and Fox!
4. The FOURTH tape comes out, and the excuse is that it's just some low level people, it's not indicative of overall ACORN practices. SHAME ON BECK AND FOx.. huh? Congress wants to defund ACORN?! Screw you, BECK!!
5. The FIFTH tape come out, and now you're all, "Well, there no connection to THE ONE".
Pathetic
Ryan, you're missing the big picture. Bill O is a propagandist pimping Wars of Aggression, torture, Israel's concentration camp of Gaza, another war with Iran when the NPT guarantees their right to regulated nuclear power and contrived lies of Ahmadinejad's Oct. 2005 speech where he never threatened Israel, and failure to call-out both parties' for being front-men for the banksters getting trillions of our money. And that's the short list.
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