By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online<\/p>\n
E<\/span>arlier this month, premier Fox newsman Bill O\u2019Reilly became unhinged on live television. A red-faced O\u2019Reilly loudly and repeatedly called his invited guest, Washington Post<\/em> columnist and fellow conservative Fox News journalist George Will, a \u201chack\u201d and accused him of lying.<\/p>\n It was a surreal moment, with stunned viewers no doubt muttering to themselves, \u201cIs the jig finally up?\u201d<\/p>\n Will had written a negative review of the fifth of O\u2019Reilly\u2019s co-authored \u201cKilling\u201d books, Killing Reagan<\/em>. So O\u2019Reilly dared Will to appear on his \u201cNo Spin Zone\u201d hot seat.<\/p>\n Will did \u2014 and quietly punched some holes in O\u2019Reilly\u2019s strange thesis that President Ronald Reagan had been metaphorically \u201ckilled\u201d after a March 30, 1981, assassination attempt. According to Killing Reagan<\/em>, even years later the president may not have recovered enough to meet the demands of the office.<\/p>\n A number of outraged Reagan historians have questioned Killing Reagan<\/em>\u2019s methods, sources, and conclusions. So did Will. But Will added the stinger that the conservative O\u2019Reilly and his co-author had played right into the hands of left-wing Reagan detractors. That heresy made O\u2019Reilly go ballistic \u2014 shouting, interrupting, and accusing.<\/p>\n Of course, the embarrassing treatment of Will was not something new for the host of The O\u2019Reilly Factor<\/em>.\u00a0But this time, O\u2019Reilly bullied a fellow Fox News contributor who kept calm and professional. And the dispute was not just over history and politics \u2014 it also\u00a0raised questions about O\u2019Reilly\u2019s ethics and decorum.<\/p>\n As with Donald Trump, audiences never quite know where the ego of O\u2019Reilly will drift, much less what he will say or do. Perhaps that\u2019s why they tune in to watch the blood sport. There\u2019s a similar phenomenon behind Trump\u2019s soaring poll numbers and apparent exemption from criticism over what and how he speaks.<\/p>\n Yet the substance of Will\u2019s telling critique won\u2019t so easily disappear. Viewers wonder: How does O\u2019Reilly write a history book nearly every year, given his multitude of duties at Fox News?<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t. Co-author Martin Dugard researches the book, O\u2019Reilly apparently reviews and edits the text, and then transforms his prime-time cable news show into book promo and buzz.<\/p>\n After Dugard and O\u2019Reilly had already killed off Kennedy, Lincoln, Jesus, and Patton, the Killing Reagan<\/em> book finally prompted scrutiny, and not just from Reagan scholars outraged over its content. The \u201ckilling\u201d of somebody, however hyped, is not really why prime-time Fox News viewers tune in.<\/p>\n Roger Ailes, the genius behind the Fox News phenomenon, was quoted in a recent unauthorized biography as saying of his franchise\u2019s meal ticket, \u201cBill O\u2019Reilly is a book salesman with a TV show.\u201d Left unsaid is that O\u2019Reilly is a money machine for Fox News.<\/p>\n During the exchange with O\u2019Reilly, Will not only offered a contrast in temperament, he also wisely let O\u2019Reilly talk and talk and talk. At the point when O\u2019Reilly thundered that historians do not interview people who have \u201cskin in the game\u201d because they are firsthand participants in the making of history \u2014 in the case of Reagan, people such as former Cabinet members George Shultz and Ed Meese \u2014 Will seemingly did not know whether to laugh or cry.<\/p>\n Interviewing firsthand witnesses to history is precisely what historians seek to do. They can accept or reject all or part of these testimonies through time-honored methodologies. That sorting out of both bias and hero worship is precisely how a scholar seeks historical truth.<\/p>\n In other words, O\u2019Reilly bristled at Will\u2019s suggestion that Killing Reagan<\/em> was not really a work of history. And then he more or less confirmed Will\u2019s critical assessment on live television.<\/p>\n Many wonder whether O\u2019Reilly\u2019s meltdown was a sort of Joseph Welch moment. Welch was the exasperated U.S. Army counsel who was outraged by Senator Joseph McCarthy\u2019s bluster in a 1954 congressional hearing. Welch finally shot back, \u201cHave you no sense of decency, sir?\u201d<\/p>\n That rejoinder resonated, and it is often cited as the proverbial straw that broke the back of McCarthy\u2019s flamboyant career.<\/p>\n For some time, The O\u2019Reilly Factor<\/em>\u00a0has been something much more than an opinion-journalism show. Ever larger segments are devoted to O\u2019Reilly\u2019s hype of his books and work. News segments sometimes consist of videos of O\u2019Reilly\u2019s appearances on other TV shows.<\/p>\n Guests are sometimes invited to critique O\u2019Reilly\u2019s performances \u2014 in the manner that Roman emperors supposedly dared critics to state their objections. The net effect is a creeping narcissism that has conspired to swallow the show whole. It\u2019s a pity, given that at one time O\u2019Reilly\u2019s brass-knuckles inquisitions often forced slick politicians to admit what they otherwise might not have.<\/p>\n O\u2019Reilly will co-write more slapdash best-sellers. He surely will continue to use his top-ranked cable news shows to do self-promotion. And he may have more meltdowns to come, similar to the bizarre outburst directed at Will.<\/p>\n The question is whether they will always be excused as passing fits, or at some point will they become lasting embarrassments that cannot be allowed to go on?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Earlier this month, premier Fox newsman Bill O\u2019Reilly became unhinged on live television. A red-faced O\u2019Reilly loudly and repeatedly called his invited guest, Washington Post columnist and fellow conservative Fox News journalist George Will, a \u201chack\u201d and accused him of lying. It was a surreal moment, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2i6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11191,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-miraculous-image-rehabilitation-of-former-republican-presidents\/","url_meta":{"origin":8810,"position":0},"title":"The Miraculous Image Rehabilitation of Former Republican Presidents","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review It\u2019s an evergreen media strategy for disparaging the sitting GOP executive. When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, many in the media considered him a dangerous extremist. Some reporters warned that Reagan courted nuclear war and would tank the economy. He certainly was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ronald Reagan"","block_context":{"text":"Ronald Reagan","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/ronald-reagan\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":420,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/election-could-mirror-1980-race\/","url_meta":{"origin":8810,"position":1},"title":"Election Could Mirror 1980 Race","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services There was only one presidential debate in 1980 between challenger\u00a0Ronald Reagan\u00a0and President\u00a0Jimmy Carter. Just two days before the\u00a0Oct. 28\u00a0debate, Carter was eight points ahead in the Gallup poll. A week after the debate, he lost to Reagan by nearly ten percentage points. Reagan's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election 2012"","block_context":{"text":"Election 2012","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/election-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":312,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/learning-from-the-election\/","url_meta":{"origin":8810,"position":2},"title":"Learning from the Election","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media 1.\u00a0Populism The Republicans have only won the popular vote since Ronald Reagan\u2019s presidency on two occasions: 1988 and 2004. In both instances, even the patrician Bushes were able to paint their liberal opponents as out-of-touch Massachusetts magnificoes. Lee Atwater turned Michael Dukakis, the helmeted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election 2012"","block_context":{"text":"Election 2012","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/election-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3834,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/goodbye-to-all-that-2004-2007\/","url_meta":{"origin":8810,"position":3},"title":"Goodbye to All That: 2004-2007","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Days of Rage In times to come, the period between the failed campaign of John Kerry and the Democratic control of the Congress, coupled with the beginning of the successful surge, should be known as \u201cThe Insane Years.\u201d This was the era in which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Retrospective"","block_context":{"text":"Retrospective","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/retrospective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4652,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-reagan-for-everybody\/","url_meta":{"origin":8810,"position":4},"title":"A Reagan for Everybody","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 25, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Who exactly was Ronald Reagan? by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers One of the strangest developments following the recent funeral of Ronald Reagan was the emergence of all sorts of \"authentic\" \u2014 and irreconcilable\u2014Reagans. Die-hard conservatives assured us that the California governor who signed the most liberal abortion legislation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2004"","block_context":{"text":"June 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/june-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6174,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-bluster-pulpit\/","url_meta":{"origin":8810,"position":5},"title":"Obama’s Bluster Pulpit","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The president's saber-rattling in the Middle East makes America look weak and puts the world in danger by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas At the turn of the century, Teddy Roosevelt famously advised statesmen to \u201cspeak softly and carry a big stick.\u201d Roosevelt assumed that the antithesis of his advice\u2014loud\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/commentary-obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8810"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8812,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8810\/revisions\/8812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}