Tweet
Really.
This morning I was doing my usual "I'm awake but not moving from bed yet, so might as well check Facebook" routine when I started noticing a few people commenting in the Fox News thing with Key West. Since I live in Key West, and I love this quirky little island, and people were clearly upset, curiosity got the better of me, so I did a little Google Fu and found found what people were talking about.
What it was was a segment of the O'Reilly Factor called Watters' World, where one of O'Reilly's cohorts, Jesse Watters, apparently goes to different towns. Having rarely watched the Factor, and not recalling having seen this particular feature, I figured I might be in for something amusing, that perhaps people had gotten overly sensitive about. Perhaps it was funny, and a lot of people just didn't get the humor. So I watched it.
What I saw was this.
I am not overly sensitive. I like jokes. I like humor. I like funny stuff in general. This, however, was not a joke, it was not humorous, and it was not funny. It was a hatchet job.
In short, Watters had come to Key West and cherry picked the people to interview. Specifically the bums, the derelicts, and the homeless. And portrayed them as typical Key Weat residents. Making this entire lovely, amazing, magical, tropical island paradise that has meant so much to so many who have lived and visited here out to be populated by only derelicts, druggies, and dummies. Food stamp abusers and idiot sorority girls. Where no one worked, everyone was clueless about everything, and it was a bastion of all that was wrong with America. Which, if you went to any city in America and interviewed only the bums and the homeless, you'd probably get the same result. And afterwards, O'Reilly very smugly warns people about bringing their children to Key West. Because all these dirty, hippy, welfare-cheating and drug-abusing residents of the island town are going to.....what? Eat the little buggers? Sure, there are parts of Key West that are not really for kids, but there is plenty here that is great for them.
It was, in short, a character assassination of an entire town.
I was not amused. My boss was not amused. My friends were not amused. Key West as a whole was not amused. Every single person I know who saw the video, no matter what their political affiliation, no matter whether they liked the show, no matter whether they liked Bill O'Reilly, was aghast, shocked, and horrified.
I hold grudges more than most. I am not overly sensitive, but when I get pissed, I get PISSED. And I erupted on Facebook, very impolitely, and sent a politer version of my comments to O'Reilly, both on the Fox News site where they posted the video, and on the corresponding Facebook page.
The sad thing is, his show is, according to O'Reilly himself, a "news program." And these maggots were presenting this smear job as news. This was not like Jay Leno going out in the streets and asking random people questions so the audience could laugh at the dumber ones. This was basically warning people to stay away from Key West, because these were the kind of people you'd deal with here. And millions watch this show.
I'm sure a lot of you are thinking that people wouldn't take this crap seriously. But they do. They have. Check out the comments on the Fox News site or Facebook page. Many, many people took this steaming pile of horseshit as gospel truth. Key West's economy is based on tourism. Do. The. Math.
It is now over 14 hours since I first saw this video, and I am still seething. Livid. Fuming. ANGRY.
O'Reilly claims that he comes to Key West often. I'm sure he stays at the nicer resorts. I'm sure Watters did too while he was here. They certainly know that there are hardworking people here. Or do they think that the people tending to their needs at the resorts, restaurants, bars, and businesses are bussed in from Miami? Flown in from New York? Elves from Atlantis?
To prove that he was a completely hypocritical ass, O'Reilly had the gumption tonight to rail against a tv personality on a competiting network that had selectively edited footage of O'Reilly, to take something O'Reilly had said out of context, and that if O'Reilly or anyone at Fox News did something like that, they'd be fired. Oh, REALLY? Then how is it that O'Reilly and Watters still had jobs after their very selective editing of interviews and very selective selecting of interviewees on the previous night's segment on Key West?
They'd probably call that "fair and balanced." Although in every one of my journalism and broadcasting classes in college, they would have gotten an F. Especially the ethics class, which they clearly missed. Journalistic integrity my ass.
Late in my shift today, this exchange took place....
GM: "Jester, is there anything I can get you?"
ME: "Yeah. Bill O'Reilly's head on a stick."
GM:
BAR PATRONS:
Congratulations, Bill O'Reilly and Jesse Watters. You win the Go Fuck Yourself Award.
And good luck getting a drink in this town.
This morning I was doing my usual "I'm awake but not moving from bed yet, so might as well check Facebook" routine when I started noticing a few people commenting in the Fox News thing with Key West. Since I live in Key West, and I love this quirky little island, and people were clearly upset, curiosity got the better of me, so I did a little Google Fu and found found what people were talking about.
What it was was a segment of the O'Reilly Factor called Watters' World, where one of O'Reilly's cohorts, Jesse Watters, apparently goes to different towns. Having rarely watched the Factor, and not recalling having seen this particular feature, I figured I might be in for something amusing, that perhaps people had gotten overly sensitive about. Perhaps it was funny, and a lot of people just didn't get the humor. So I watched it.
What I saw was this.
I am not overly sensitive. I like jokes. I like humor. I like funny stuff in general. This, however, was not a joke, it was not humorous, and it was not funny. It was a hatchet job.
In short, Watters had come to Key West and cherry picked the people to interview. Specifically the bums, the derelicts, and the homeless. And portrayed them as typical Key Weat residents. Making this entire lovely, amazing, magical, tropical island paradise that has meant so much to so many who have lived and visited here out to be populated by only derelicts, druggies, and dummies. Food stamp abusers and idiot sorority girls. Where no one worked, everyone was clueless about everything, and it was a bastion of all that was wrong with America. Which, if you went to any city in America and interviewed only the bums and the homeless, you'd probably get the same result. And afterwards, O'Reilly very smugly warns people about bringing their children to Key West. Because all these dirty, hippy, welfare-cheating and drug-abusing residents of the island town are going to.....what? Eat the little buggers? Sure, there are parts of Key West that are not really for kids, but there is plenty here that is great for them.
It was, in short, a character assassination of an entire town.
I was not amused. My boss was not amused. My friends were not amused. Key West as a whole was not amused. Every single person I know who saw the video, no matter what their political affiliation, no matter whether they liked the show, no matter whether they liked Bill O'Reilly, was aghast, shocked, and horrified.
I hold grudges more than most. I am not overly sensitive, but when I get pissed, I get PISSED. And I erupted on Facebook, very impolitely, and sent a politer version of my comments to O'Reilly, both on the Fox News site where they posted the video, and on the corresponding Facebook page.
The sad thing is, his show is, according to O'Reilly himself, a "news program." And these maggots were presenting this smear job as news. This was not like Jay Leno going out in the streets and asking random people questions so the audience could laugh at the dumber ones. This was basically warning people to stay away from Key West, because these were the kind of people you'd deal with here. And millions watch this show.
I'm sure a lot of you are thinking that people wouldn't take this crap seriously. But they do. They have. Check out the comments on the Fox News site or Facebook page. Many, many people took this steaming pile of horseshit as gospel truth. Key West's economy is based on tourism. Do. The. Math.
It is now over 14 hours since I first saw this video, and I am still seething. Livid. Fuming. ANGRY.
O'Reilly claims that he comes to Key West often. I'm sure he stays at the nicer resorts. I'm sure Watters did too while he was here. They certainly know that there are hardworking people here. Or do they think that the people tending to their needs at the resorts, restaurants, bars, and businesses are bussed in from Miami? Flown in from New York? Elves from Atlantis?
To prove that he was a completely hypocritical ass, O'Reilly had the gumption tonight to rail against a tv personality on a competiting network that had selectively edited footage of O'Reilly, to take something O'Reilly had said out of context, and that if O'Reilly or anyone at Fox News did something like that, they'd be fired. Oh, REALLY? Then how is it that O'Reilly and Watters still had jobs after their very selective editing of interviews and very selective selecting of interviewees on the previous night's segment on Key West?
They'd probably call that "fair and balanced." Although in every one of my journalism and broadcasting classes in college, they would have gotten an F. Especially the ethics class, which they clearly missed. Journalistic integrity my ass.
Late in my shift today, this exchange took place....
GM: "Jester, is there anything I can get you?"
ME: "Yeah. Bill O'Reilly's head on a stick."
GM:
BAR PATRONS:
Congratulations, Bill O'Reilly and Jesse Watters. You win the Go Fuck Yourself Award.
And good luck getting a drink in this town.
I AM the evil bastard!
Comment