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The Spectacle Blog
Stand clear!
Giants rolling around in the media dust!!
It all began with a simple challenge to the actual results of a liberal program. On Sean Hannity’s show the other night, Americans for Prosperity’s Jennifer Stefano challenged Bob Beckel with what Ronald Reagan used to joke about: liberals who know so much – all of it wrong. This is a fun thing to do with Bob Beckel, as the nation has learned through liberal true-believer Beckel’s appearances on Hannity’s TV show and now with Beckel as a co-host of his own show, The Five.
Apparently during the commercial break Stefano had sufficiently exercised Beckel’s legendary impatience with conservatives, and as the show returned to the air, with Hannity noting “we’re back”….Beckel dropped, as they say, the “F-bomb.” Astonishing Hannity and doubtless America.
Once understanding he had said it on the air, Beckel apologized. Although not for the “intent.”
I’ve met Bob Beckel a couple times, the last time on this very segment of the Hannity show. Beckel, liberal politics notwithstanding, is a good soul with a hilarious sense of humor. While a moment like his slip on Hannity can be funny, in fact in the television or radio business, a slip like this can indeed get the perpetrator in hot water. Not funny. He made the best of it the next night on The Five by pouring change into “Bob’s Swear Jar.”
Thus it was something of a surprise to see fellow Fox host Bill O’Reilly take advantage of a colleague’s low moment to publicly twit him by re-running the episode and calling Beckel a “pinhead.” A viewer called O’Reilly out on this the following night, and the host joked that he has never had the problem, presumably a reference to this aging YouTube jewel catching O’Reilly on camera if blessedly off-air. Last night at the end of The Five Beckel took note of O’Reilly’s jab but resisted the doubtless considerable temptation to say, well, One More Thing.
We have no idea what’s going on over there behind the scenes with the Fox crew. One would think that O’Reilly and Beckel would hit it off. O’Reilly once noted that the “far right” hated him, and Beckel, as evidenced, can have problems with conservatives when…ahhhh…. prodded.
Beckel doubtless agrees with O’Reilly’s assessment of the Obama presidency made in that CBS 2008 interview. O’Reilly said of Obama that “I can read people pretty well… I think he’ll govern to the center like Clinton did” O’Reilly, like a lot of people, got taken in by the “hope and change” spin - while Beckel still looks at Obama and sees a liberal centrist.
All of that said, you would think they would get along swimmingly.
But I’m not so sure.
Into my e-mail last night popped this interesting YouTube feature that I was misleadingly told was O’Reilly in a staff meeting, doubtless in a bid to get me to open the attachment. “O’Reilly” had just been informed of the news that President Obama had been eating dogs and that the O’Reilly family dog had been… well…. Check it out for yourself. Maybe it was nothing more than that O’Reilly’s frustration at being spun by Obama just finally boiled over and the sender wanted to call it to our attention.
The sender’s address simply read “Bob@FoxNews.com.” There are presumably a lot of Bobs at Fox News, so I can’t say for sure this was from Beckel. But… but… hmmmmm.
Here it is.
We report. You decide.
View all comments (29) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Jeffrey Lord
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/04/19/beckel-versus-oreilly
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Bill| 4.19.12 @ 1:27PM
I like Bill O'Reilly as much as I love Lady Gaga. They both are loved and hated, at the same time.
Oldefarte| 4.19.12 @ 1:37PM
Beckel is a typical worthlessly hypocritical liberal. If people like that wish to financially save the world, I wish they would do so using funds from their own SWEAR JAR and not that of the rest of us taxpayers [ie the federal government]. Oh and Bob, HEAD START was/is/forever will be waste of taxpayers' money!!!!!!!
Strudwick Wickerwire| 4.19.12 @ 2:16PM
Beckel's maddening, irrational, albeit entertaining, but what's drawn my attention is Kirsten Powers and her penchant for biting the ankles of the wrong folks! She's gone after Sean, Megan, and last night O'Reilly, over the GSA scandal, with her argument there's only a few culprits and it isn't the [norm] for bureaucrats to be wasting tax payer dollars!!! Needless to say, O'Reilly didn't take kindly his taxes being wasted and let her have it!!! Powers gets my "Box-o-Rocks] award!!!
With that said, Beckel's like an entertaining exhibit in a [living history] museum... He's history!!!
Dan| 4.19.12 @ 2:18PM
Fox is but a shadow of its former self.
The women used to be hot, not anymore. They've a collection of aging women without the mental firepower to warrant watching them without their looks.
And once Brit Hume gave up overall command of the news section of the network, Fox News has taken a dramatic turn south.
Dana Perino {sp?}??????????
When has that woman from the Bush tenure, {isn't she EXACTLY the kind that the Bush team would hire?} ever told us anything that didn't already long ago occur to all of us?
What is she on the air for!
The network now consists of show hosts taking daily turns as guests on other shows on the same network? Kim Guillfoyle {sp?} hosts the Five, and guests with O'Reilly. Likewise Beckel.
And there are others.
I really don't watch Fox News much anymore.
Whatever happened to Heather Nauert!
Rudy| 4.19.12 @ 10:12PM
I could have written Dan's post myself, it expresses exactly how I feel about Fox. And Dana Perino. And Kimberly Guilfoyle, etc. I stopped watching "Fox and Friends" when uber-babe E.D. Hill left--I can't abide watching Gretchen Carlson frown into the camera. Megan Kelly demonstrates nothing but overreaching ambition, and O'Reilly's Hitchcockian blonde obsession has gotten really old. Funny thing, when I want a taste of how Fox used to be I can go to their web site, which is pretty well-done and broadly informative.
Drek| 4.20.12 @ 8:37PM
After watching Megyn Kelly question Gingrich during one of the debates, -- that's it for her.
I can't take her.
When she was quoting unnamed prosecutors and attorneys denouncing Gingrich's suggestion, and almost bouncing out of her seat tearing into Gingrich, who had to school her about her own profession, ---- I've written her off.
TarponGman| 4.20.12 @ 6:13AM
Really Dan? Fox women are not hot anymore? You are forgetting about Gretta..... That raspy voice and shipworm assistant librarian look makes the alien green chick from Star Trek look tame by comparison.
Drek| 4.20.12 @ 8:34PM
That is cold!
Stan Redmond| 4.19.12 @ 2:53PM
I don't watch fox. I don't even have a TV. But I did watch the f-bomb clip posted on youtube. The hilarious part is Beckel blaming Hannity for his problems and not taking responsibility. Typical liberal. Just like Obama "I'm not hear to make excuses but it's somebody else's fault."
Ryan| 4.19.12 @ 3:12PM
Funny thing is, to the hard left, Obama is a centrist/corporate sellout (they consider Obamacare a giveaway to insurance companies).
All American American| 4.19.12 @ 3:51PM
Am I the only one who hates it when "conservatives" invoke the "he's a liberal, but a really great/funny/righteous guy" crap? Stop it. To me, its like saying the Nazi guard at Aushwitz told some really good jokes as he was leading us to the gas chambers.
Liberals, EVERY liberal, is an enemy of the Constitution and America as it was founded. No matter how funny or cool or whatever else they are.
Kitty | 4.19.12 @ 5:48PM
I'm with you.
RJ| 4.20.12 @ 3:32AM
I haven't witnessed anything likeable about Obama. He is a condescending, hypocritical narcissist, with the manners of a spoiled brat. I think "conservatives" throw him a bone in hopes of pleasing moderates, but all they accomplish is to build the adversary up with qualities he does not have.
You are right. Today's American liberal opposes the Constitution and America's historical commitment to individual freedom and choice.
Bob S| 4.19.12 @ 4:23PM
You may think he's "funny" and "hilarious", but I just think he's annoying, and I thought it couldn't get worse than Alan Colmes.
TarponGman| 4.20.12 @ 6:05AM
I honestly never imagined myself defending Bob Beckel for anything, but at least the guy is mildly entertaining. Alan Colmes is an effeminate bore.
Clint| 4.19.12 @ 4:50PM
Jennifer Stefano & Dave Christian Spoke At Our Valley Forge Patriots Tea Party Last Friday Night.
She's Funny & Clever, He's Impressive & A Living Legend.
Oldefarte| 4.19.12 @ 5:30PM
'.....Breitbart.com Media Matters' Oliver Willis Wants Pro-Israel Liberals 'Marginalized' by Ben Shapiro 3 hours ago As we revealed yesterday, MJ Rosenberg wasn’t the only anti-Israel extremist working at Media Matters for America: Senior Fellow Eric Boehlert once downplayed genocidal anti-Semitism, routinely suggests that media coverage is too pro-Israel thanks to the intimidation by nefarious forces (hint hint), and defended terrorist professor Sami Al-Arian.Today, we examine Oliver Willis, a research fellow at Media Matters. Just like MJ and Eric, Willis is an anti-Israel extremist with a soft spot for anti-Semitism.Willis once referred to Paul Wolfowitz as “filthy” and Joe Lieberman as “fascistic.” He accused Israel of “Playing Games With American Lives” for building settlements, and wrote that he “can’t wait for the day when we can tell both sides [of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict] to go to hell.” He has stated that “The Democratic Party will be at its best” only once pro-Israel AIPAC-associated liberals like Josh Block are “marginalized.” He has defended via retweet MJ Rosenberg’s use of the white supremacist term “Israel firsters.” He accuses conservatives of attacking “everyone who doesnt march in lockstep with Israel.” And while anti-Israel fanatic Glenn Greenwald accuses me of watering down the term anti-Semitism by pointing out Media Matters’ relentless pattern of providing cover to anti-Semites, he has nothing to say about Willis, who likened one mosque being burned in Tennessee to full-blown Nazi treatment of Jews.Willis isn’t literate on the Israel-Palestinian issue (as with most other issues); his anti-Israel feeling seems to come from groupthink more than from the informed anti-Israel radicalism of MJ Rosenberg or Boehlert. And yet Willis is one of Media Matters’ key in-house policers of right-wing anti-Semitism. Ah, the irony.More to come......'
Clint| 4.19.12 @ 10:03PM
Call Bibi.
Oldefarte| 4.20.12 @ 11:18AM
Call your boss @1600!!!!
RJ| 4.19.12 @ 7:39PM
I don't know much about Bob Beckel, but I did see the video clip. His behavior represents the coarsening of American society. In the not-to-distant past, his language was unacceptable in civil society. Now he only apologizes because he said it on air. Our society needs better manners and Mr. Beckel needs to improve his.
W| 4.19.12 @ 9:27PM
Beckel ran Mondale's 1984 campaign against RR. He worked very hard to get that one state for Mondale.
RJ| 4.20.12 @ 1:33AM
Thanks, I didn't remember that. Beckel is older than I thought. As I recall, Mondale won his home state by about 10,000 votes. The Reagan campaign had thought about having a Minnesota rally a day or so before the election but decided not to push it, perhaps because Reagan probably was exhausted, as all candidates are, at the end of the campaign. It would have been great to bag all 50 states.
Drek| 4.19.12 @ 7:59PM
Fox News now consists of the same old guests, saying the same old things, to the same old showhosts, at the same time of the day or the night.
Outside of Neil Cavuto, I've not time for them.
Hannity is now so bad, so tiresome and earnest, urging the same old talking points on the same old warhorses he trots out every night, ----- that it's pathetic.
WHY NOT HAVE STACY MCCAIN ON?
Why not some conservatives with some wit, some vantage point that hasn't originated from the GW Bush tenure?
We need new blood.
Fox, {especially with their women, who right now are the right up there with the worst of all the cable news networks!} desperately needs NEW blood, NEW talent, NEW perspectives, NEW story lines!
Pete| 4.21.12 @ 12:13PM
How can you stand Cavuto. He is so busy talking over his guest he is impossible to listen to.
Nick| 4.19.12 @ 8:10PM
Beckel is a dirtbag.
He claims to be a Born Again Christian.
What most people don't know is that he was extorted by the prostitute he repeatedly hired. He was even stupid enough to pay by check!
http://www.aim.org/media-monit.....ob-beckel/
Fox News should never have hired him. Somehow, he became friends with Cal Thomas, and the two of them tried to hock a book they wrote together. Cal tried to hype Beckel's supposed "born again" change on Human Events' website.
But, as this episode shows, Dirtbag Bob hasn't changed at all.
Crassus| 4.19.12 @ 9:13PM
I refer to it as the Curse of Laurie Due. Fox News hasn't been worth dog crap ever since they let Laurie go. The hosts have gotten more and more liberal and the women have gotten uglier.
Drek| 4.20.12 @ 8:40PM
She left from what I understand.
Dhue was an alcoholic.
She went out drinking every night. By her own admission, she showed up at Fox either drunk or hungover.
She had real personal problems, so it was wise for her to go, because her on-air profile was leading her deeper into a party life that was going to end up killing her.
Besides, Laurie Dhue was way too tall and big. She was slightly amazonish.......
Heather Nauert was the all-American knockout.
Pete| 4.21.12 @ 12:11PM
The surprise was O'Reilly mentioning Hannity. Notice he never has Hannity on his show and never previews the Hannity show, though Hannity will preview Greta, and Greta will preview O'Reilly's rerun. Obviously O'Reilly detests Hannity and its a cold day in hell when he even brings him up.
Occam's Tool| 5.15.12 @ 12:50AM
I read TAS, Schlussel, Weasel Zippers, Morning Jolt, Nat Review Online, American Thinker, Powerline, Atlas Shrugged. I get TAS and Nat Review in paper. I check headlines on the Fox and MSNBC webpages. I listen to Patriot on the way home, and occasionally Fox.
I don't do much TV watching.