It seems that as our Media Monitoring Project gets rolling, the enthusiasm of its participants will sometimes gallop away with them. That's the case of one of our watchers, who gamely submitted himself to watching Bill O'Reilly speak about his book, A Bold Fresh Piece Of Humanity at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, on C-SPAN's Book TV this weekend. Our dedicated monitor was excited to help, so much so that he must have missed the opening remarks, which indicated that the telecast was a rerun from last December.
But here's the thing: That's okay, because thanks to the monitor, I was able to examine some of O'Reilly's old comments with fresh eyes. For instance, in his opening remarks, O'Reilly indulges in some tired California bashing (whilst making sure to suck up hard to his pals in the O.C.), and he comes to remark:
"I never go to San Francisco for obvious reasons. I do not want a replay of Milk."
See, back when this had first aired, I hadn't yet seen the movie Milk. But now, having seen the film, I'm wondering what O'Reilly might have thought would have been "replayed" for "obvious reasons" had he gone to San Francisco! Would O'Reilly have opened a camera shop in the Castro? Would his presence had improved the quality of life for California's GLBT population? Would he have lost the love of James Franco, and come to regret it?
I think that, absent further explanation from the Factor host, we can just assume that if he ever alights in the Bay Area, O'Reilly won't be able to stop himself from eating a thousand Twinkies and shooting Gavin Newsom. And so, I'll echo the sentiment, that he never go to San Francisco, for obvious reasons.
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