Fox News contributor George Will wrote a scathing critique of Bill O’Reilly’s latest book – and O’Reilly reacted like a spoiled bully. But Will gave as good as he got. O’Reilly’s latest book contends that Ronald Reagan was more seriously compromised when he was shot in 1991 than has been previously known. Will didn’t just dispute O’Reilly’s contention but used the kind of demonizing tactics O’Reilly would have used against someone who offended him. For example, Will wrote:
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Styling himself an “investigative historian,” O’Reilly purports to have discovered amazing facts that have escaped the notice of real historians. The book’s intimated hypothesis is that the trauma of the March 1981 assassination attempt somehow triggered in Reagan a mental decline, perhaps accelerating the Alzheimer’s disease that would not be diagnosed until 13 years later. The book says Reagan was often addled to the point of incompetence, causing senior advisers to contemplate using the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove him from office. Well.
…The book’s perfunctory pieties about Reagan’s greatness are inundated by its flood of regurgitated slanders about his supposed lassitude and manipulability. This book is nonsensical history and execrable citizenship, and should come with a warning: “Caution — you are about to enter a no-facts zone.”
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On Thursday night, O’Reilly invited Will on the show, claiming, “We harbor no ill will, pun intended.”
But on Friday, when Will appeared, the animosity seemed bottomless.
Some excerpts:
WILL: You’re something of an expert on misleading.
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O’REILLY: You are lying.
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O’REILLY: It is a laudatory book or you can’t read!
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WILL: Your book does the work of the American left with its extreme recklessness.
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O’REILLY: You’re a hack. You’re in with the cabal of the Reagan loyalists who don’t want the truth to be told.
I think it's safe to conclude these two seriously dislike each other.
Grab the popcorn and watch it below, from the November 6 The O’Reilly Factor.
