Thursday, September 27, 2007

It Takes One to Know One

Earlier this week on "The O'Reilly Factor" on FOX News, Bill O'Reilly criticized Columbia University's decision to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at the institution's World Leaders Forum. In fact, O’Reilly described the event as "revolting" and categorized the university and its President, Lee Bollinger, as being "hypocritical beyond belief" for inviting Ahmadinejad.

However, later in the same episode, O’Reilly admitted he had also extended an invitation for Ahmadinejad to appear on the "The O'Reilly Factor". (How does the saying go, "What is good for the smug, idiotic and ignorant blowhard is not good for the gander"? Obviously the "blowhard" is O'Reilly and the "gander" is Columbia University.) Responding to a viewer e-mail, O’Reilly claimed: "We actually did invite him, sir, but he knows a no spin zone when he sees one. Ahmadinejad doesn’t answer questions; he bloviates." (By the way, Merriam-Webster defines the term "bloviate" as "to speak or write verbosely and windily". How ironic it is that O'Reilly would be familiar with this particular term.) Not surprisingly, O'Reilly is comfortable with the idea of Ahmadinejad being on his show because the appearance would benefit O'Reilly both in ratings and financially.

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