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Donahue vs. O'Reilly

Submitted by annemariem on September 22, 2005 - 7:52am.

Ah, if only this man was on TV every day... oh wait, he used to be! D'oh!

Phil Donahue was on the O’Reilly Factor yesterday, and he did an amazing job of defending the anti-war stance, reframing the issues, and generally not letting O’Reilly walk all over him. Check out Alternet's post about it.

I'm a little young to remember when Phil Donahue had his own show. So I used Wikipedia to learn a little more. He had a daytime talk show from 1969 to 1996 - that's some amazing longetivity, although he was eventually eclipsed by Oprah. (Ok, I guess I was old enough in '96 to have seen the show, but as a teenager I wasn't particularly interested in daytime talk shows...) Anyway, in that time he won several Emmys, a Peabody award, AND the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood in 1987... because he usually addressed liberal issues such as, according to Wikipedia, women's reproductive rights and consumer protections.

More recently, and perhaps more interestingly, he had a show on MSN. (Sometimes I think I should actually follow what's current on TV... while I am happy to miss all the bad ones, sometimes I miss a really great one!) He was cancelled by MSNBC in 2003 for "low viewership" even though his show was, at the time, MSNBC's top-rated show. Hmm, maybe because he was outspokenly anti-war? What was that about a liberal media again?

Anyway, regardless, this is a great clip and it is oh so satisfying to watch O'Reilly go head-to-head with someone who won't be intimidated by his loud voice and interruptions - someone who in fact calls him on those tactics. Enjoy!

Posted in Iraq | Media | annemariem's blog
PHIL DONOHUE IS AWESOME!!!

Thanks so much for posting this annemariem!! I've never seen anyone-- much less a Democrat-- so strong against Billy (he calls O'Reilly "Billy"!!). Donohue had a point to make and he stayed on message, no matter how hard O'Reilly pushed him. Rock.

And you're totally right-- just one more piece of proof that "the liberal media" are, at best, moderate conservatives. :)

Submitted by amy on September 22, 2005 - 9:48am.
Drawing down the logical conclusion

So recently a man I know was having a discussion with an old friend about the need to lower taxes. This man, being the attorney that he is, asked his friend exactly what programs he'd cut so that the tax cuts wouldn't add to the defecit. His friends response was, "We should cut public housing. That's just a waste." This man responded "So it's ok with you to have families with children homeless on the streets. It's ok with you to further degrade these children's education because they don't have a stable home? It's ok with you that they grow up surrounded by more crime, with fewer allies?" His friend blustered a bit and then said, "Well then, let's cut Medicare!" This man replied, "So it's ok with you if your parents die from treatable diseases because they can't afford prescription drugs?" They never did find a program he was willing to admit to wanting to cut, and in the end wondered as to when this man became such a socialist. And to think this man's a Republican.

Phil Donohue reminded me of this conversation because of how defensive O'Reilly got when they took the policy he was advocating to his logical conclusion. By saying the war in Iraq was good policy, he's saying that it's ok for 1,900 Americans to die and 10 times that many to be wounded to oust a dicatator who had no capability to produce Weapons of Mass Destruction and who was not in league with Al Queda. It's ok for these 1,900 families to suffer through that loss but it's not ok for those families to question and reject the policy that took their loved one's life. Well, with all due respect, that is not ok in my opinion and I hope that we will find a way to leave Iraq with as much dignity as possible, as quickly as possible.

Submitted by Adrienne on September 22, 2005 - 1:44pm.

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