Bill O’Reilly made a rather bold declaration during a recent interview with Newsweek.
The Fox News host was promoting his new book (a historical thriller about the Lincoln assassination), and he clearly had the presidency on his mind, because he told interviewer Peter Boyer that he was almost as powerful as the holder of that office.
“I have more power than anybody other than the president, in the sense that I can get things changed, quickly,” he said. “I don’t have to go through the legislative process; I don’t have to do any of that. I can just bring it to the people, and say, look, this has gotta be dealt with.”
Bill O’Reilly has made all sorts of outlandish proclamations. Some of the are actually pretty true. Is he a supreme egomaniac or is he right? He gets a great deal of coverage and he doesn’t have to ask permission.
So the question becomes, is O’Reilly right? Is he more powerful than everyone except the president?
Well, I don’t think O’Reilly can prove his claim, and I don’t buy it…..but with no possible proof….who knows?
What is power? Is it influence? or is it brute force? Is it money? I know this….the people of this nation have joyfully handed over their power to the central authority, and now we’re seeing how that works out.
I keep thinking…one slip of the tongue, one time he lets how he really feels slip through, and his “power” could disappear just like that.
He’s on air. As soon as he’s off air, he’s just like the rest of us. Charlie Sheen professed omnipotence also, but as soon as they pulled the plug on him he lost his power. There’s something about being on air that gives people hubris.
I came back from NC last week with the book, “The Tarheel Lincoln,” by Jerry A. Goodnight and Richard Eller (www.tarheelpress.com/CivilWar) claiming Honest Abe was born in NC not Kentucky to Nancy Hanks when she was single and about 14, and that Tom Lincoln is his stepdad — his real dad is Abraham Enloe. I’ve been to all the Lincoln sites from birth to practicing law to tomb and never heard that one. It was an interesting book.
I’d rather read a book by an historian on the subject of Lincoln, not by a TV host.
@Cindy
There was much more of that going on back then than I ever realized. I always think of those earlier generations as very puritainical. I simply don’t think it was true now, from my readings. People just weren’t as honest about sexuality as they are now. Were the taboos there? Maybe only in conversation. Inability to control pregnancy was the big issue. I recently read that women put off marriage in hopes of avoiding being baby machines. It sure made me thankful to have been born when I was.
That is one reason I will always fight to make sure women (and men too) have access to safe, reliable contraception.
Sex and the Civil War is also a real eye opener.
Does Bill have influence? With his ratings, and the ratings-demographic he dominates I’d say yes. Is this power? Yes, after a fashion. But real power is the ability to make your own events, not inluence events as they unfold. Real power is proactive. Influence is reactive. Therefore, I would say Bill is guilty of “bloviating”.
@Steve, those are some very good points. He sure was bloviating.
So do we now have real power vs quasi power?
Remember Walter Cronkite? With regard to Vietnam, LBJ once said something like: “If I’ve lost Walter, I’ve lost the country.”
And then there was William Randolph Hearst. As I recall, he and his newspapers just about started the Spanish-American War all by themselves.