O'Leilly promises Habitat for Humanity $25,000 if Springsteen comes on his show to defend himself

Ed Kociela's blog
O'Reilly challenges The Boss
by Ed Kociela | Oct 10 2007 - 9:24am
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/10379

Bruce Springsteen is a big boy. He doesn't need me to cover his back.

Except, this time it feels so good because the guy trying to knife him is Bill O'Reilly.

Having just come home from work and getting ready to start on some home-based work, I turned to Pox News just in time to watch O'Reilly rip into The Boss while his guest, Kinky Friedman, looked on somewhat bewildered.

O'Reilly raked Springsteen over the coals, starting with Springsteen's stance against the Bush War and ending with a promise to donate $25,000 to Habitat for Humanity if The Boss would come onto his show and defend himself.

"That would build a lot of homes," O'Reilly said.

A lot of homes? What planet are you talking about, O'Reilly? Twenty-five large might build a garage. Might.

Besides his bad math, O'Reilly took his usual drive-by shots at Springsteen, lumping him in with the other "pinheads" on the left, that entertainers like Springsteen should think long and hard about the positions they put forth because they have such influence on the 18- to 30-year-old demographic, you know, the voters in this country.

First off, if O'Reilly wants to take a shot at an entertainer misleading the public regarding this war, he need look no further than stablemate Sean Hannity's pretty boy Darryl Worley and his song, "Have You Forgotten?" which links Osama bin Laden with not only the Taliban and al Qaida, but Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

"Have you forgotten about bin Laden?" he asks before launching into how our soldiers need to kick some Iraqi ass.

What about stalwart patriots like Toby Keith who, on one hand, talks about putting a boot up Iraq's ass and on the other talks about smoking dope with Willie Nelson? A nice, wholesome boy, that Toby Keith. At least he's half right.

Secondly, Springsteen's audience lies in a much older, and dangerous, demographic than the 18- to 30-year-olds. He's more of a Babyboomer crooner. I only wish Springsteen had as much influence over the younger set. Maybe then there would be a respectable number of younger voters come election day.

What O'Reilly was trying to do was bait Springsteen into coming onto his show. Maybe to resuscitate his rating numbers? Maybe to fawn all over him like the has-beens he airs every Friday night on his icon of the week or whatever that segment he fills with gas is called? Maybe because he's a closeted celeb groupie who just likes to have stars on his show?

I suspect the latter and, for that reason, hope Springsteen declines.

Now, in a moment of self-disclosure, I must admit that I came within the Springsteen orbit many years ago during the "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tour. I had interviewed him and bumped into him a number of times over the course of a week or so. I earned the moniker, "L.A. Ed with glasses." A slight brush with fame. We didn't, however, exchange phone numbers and go to Sunday dinner.

But, that was nearly 30 years ago and I'm sure Springsteen has no recollection, which is fine because I was doing my job as a newspaper guy and Springsteen was doing his as a rock 'n' roller.

Since then he's done a little better than me and our paths have not intersected. I mean, he writes a letter and it gets printed in The New York Times. I can't even put together a syndication gig. I guess I'd need a tabloid TV show like O'Reilly to manage that. If that's the case, I'd rather not.

And, because of his persona and station in life, he carries a lot more weight than I do.

Nonetheless, Bruce, I've got your back on this one.

Don't do O'Reilly's show.

All it would do is give this guy more credibility than he deserves.

Bill-O is such a jerk...make it a big JERK

Raygun wanted to use "Born in the USA" as his campaign theme song and Bruce said NO? Springsteen said raygun had no clue what the song was even about.

let o'liely the little fucker defend himself..where are those wmd oliely..and oliely why didn't you quit like you said you would if no wmd were foung by june 2003...the only one who needs to defend himself is that little weasle o'liely!

fuck you oliley!

fly

Back in the late 1970s, the producer of Saturday Night Live came on the show and announced that he was ready to offer $3,000 if the Beatles would have a reunion on their show. He made a big deal about how much money this was, and had a giant check. He said "you can split it up any way you want - I don't know what you want to do with Ringo."

He then told security in the RCA/NBC building to be ready just in case they showed up. He was fearful they would be turned away.

The funny thing is that John Lennon was watching the show. He called up another beatle (I think it was George Harrison) and asked him if he wanted to go with him to SNL. Unfortunately, they were too lazy to go.

Just another asinine, boorish move from a sad, pathetic human being.

Not criticizing the president is patriotic. Is that a conservative value?

Hey bill what's wrong with making a donation to Habitat for Humanity for no apparent reason?

And how many times do worley and keith chat about their military exploits while hannity sucks their cocks? Oh that's right, the badasses never served, never been involved in military exploits. Now that's a true display of conservative values.

who made o'leilly relevant . . .

than people know. I read an article long ago about how he helps poor people in Jersey buy homes. He needs no publicity and he doesn't want any.

Easy enough solution

I was just about to post that he should double it before I saw your post.

Quadrupling it would have far more panache.

no corporate reimbursements or expense accounts for this one.

100 k is nothing to Bruce. I think that would kick ass, he needs the deduction because thisis a high income year for him, and it would put O Liely in his place, which is to be ignored.

and hand Habitat $50k.

Yeah, here's the quote:

"I will bet you the best dinner in the gaslight district of San Diego that military action will not last more than a week. Are you willing to take that wager?"
(Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, 1/29/03)


http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2842

I'd bet Bill doesn't pay off on his promises!

Bruce comes off as a quiet man who uses his voice for song and cause.

And had nothing to do with Iraq.

about his answer?

...

After singing the chorus of Born in the USA (which he claims Bruce wrote FOR Reagan as an anti-illegal immigration song), he played a little of the Sixty Minutes clip and said Bruce should come on the show and apologize for his anti-American-ness. Then he dropped the pretense and said, "Well, you really wouldn't have to apologize--just come on the show."

:evilgrin:
rocknation

And O'Reilly is a kindergarten kid. That's the level we are comparing.

I've got this song of Springsteen's from Magic running through my head-no it's not the one "Last to die" no no no-the album is almost much too subtle for that one-but the one "your own worst enemy has come to town". Yeah, that's us. Take the mirrors down. Your flag-it flew so high-it flew away. Anyway I can't get that song out of my head-it's a subtle masterpiece. It IS America. And all the blame isn't on one man-Bush-it's all of us-and what we are allowing America to become.

And one of the main reasons for the horror is bigtime in the pockets of those like O'Reilly-propagandists that support and enlist fear to turn this nation into a parody of itself.

Our own worst enemy.

Thanks.

He's now willing to spend his own money in an attempt to boost his ratings.

The only thing he will get from Bruce is a smackdown, I look forward to reading it.

and theres no way Bruce could schedule it if he wanted to go. Man I wish someone like Henry Rollins would offer to go in the place of Bruce.

Keep ignoring Bill-o, Bruce. Maybe he'll become
so apoplectic that he'll just keel over and go
away forever.