FOX's O'Reilly on AMTRAK

[Ryan]

What is so bad about that?

He's a damned liar that runs a "news" service that values profits over accurate reporting of the facts.

 

[nferr]

You're exactly right, thanks for proving my point for me.

Facts don't matter, ratings and money do, and the fact that this kind of right wing horsepuckery sells says nothing about its accuracy or validity.

Thats **** and you know it. Its not because its right wing. Its because controversy sells. Liberals, conservatives both watch Fox. Liberals just cant stop. It outrages them in a way that it captivates them.

Fox plays loose with facts? Really? And MSNBC doesnt? I make MSNBC comparisons because no one bitches and whines about MSNBC ANYWHERE. Only people who seems to have problems with Fox News are the Liberals. Sure its biased, and turns the facts and stats in to what they like, but isnt that what anyone would do that justify their own belief?

Not when you present yourself as a legitimate news channel. FOX news is just a Republican propaganda channel, which is fine, but let's not pretend it's anything else. And who cares about MSNBC as it relates to Amtrak. They haven't said anything about it while O'Reilly (he of the sexual harassment suit) went on his usual tirade about it.

 

[dlagrua]

You can't argue about any cable news opinion type show. If it is O'Reilly or Rachel Maddow, they are voicing their opinions and you have the choice to listen or not to listen.

The majority of viewers must like O'Reilly as his show is the #1 rated cable news style show. I agree with some of his positions and disagree with others but the bottom line is that its all entertainment designed to make as much money as the station can.

 

[Big Iron]

When you guys say "privatize," do you mean the government handing over Amtrak to a private firm and saying "here, have fun?" Or do you mean them contracting with someone like Keolis to "manage" Amtrak?

Boy, I'd pay a huge sum to see the neogtiations between Keolis and Amtrak given the spirited fight they had over the Virginia Railway Express contract. It was fun to watch that one play out.

 

[RailFanLNK]

I guess I have a real hard time watching/believing a network whose slogan is "Fox News, We Report...You Decide!" Sounds kinda like, "we BS...we BS alot....well.....we BS all the time, you decide!" :giggle:

 

[Shawn Ryu]

What is so bad about that?

He's a damned liar that runs a "news" service that values profits over accurate reporting of the facts.

Then dont watch! No ones making anyone do anything.

Shame how people cant value hard work and intelligence.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

And if you cant understand that then you need to stop watching TV altogether.

I don't watch television. On the rare occasion that I am forced to listen to the general nonsense from either of the networks we have been discussing ad infinitum, not to mention ad nauseam, I tend to get very irritable.

Bill Oriley and his counterparts at MSNBC don't have opinions. Anyone who thinks so misunderstands what it means to be a TV announcer. To WANT to be a newscaster in todays world, you have to be so bloody stupid, the concept of holding an opinion MUST be beyond your level of intellect. These newscasters say what they are told to say, nothing more. They read off of prompts.

Mr. Ryu, it is telling that you can't understand why Mr. Murdoch's goals wouldn't automatically be money. Many people in this country have become so focused on money that they assume it is the driving force behind everything. It isn't. Money doesn't interest me in particular, I just want to come up with an amount such that I don't have to work anymore. Get me enough that I can live a basic life on the interest, I'd stop working forever.

Mr. Murdoch has so much money that he could live like a Shah for the rest of his life, spending millions of dollars each month, and not run out of money. Money is not the object of his purpose, just like it is not the object of mine. The object of mine is being lazy- money is just the means to that end. The object of his is power, and money is an important means towards that end.

You know how you like stirring up this pointless argument on AU? That is a thirst for power over the members of this board. You are enjoying it. You are not making money doing this- if you are, I'd love to know how, because I would love to put my amazing trolling skills to work for my financial benefit, too. Then maybe I can find a source of income I truly enjoyed.

Mr. Murdoch has a similar thirst for power, but not over something so trivial as this internet forum. His thirst for power is over this country, and probably eventually over the world at large. He is wielding it with frightening efficiency.

The idea that this all has to be about opinions and people who don't like it shouldn't watch it and so on leaves out an important fact. People are bloody stupid. Most people can not, will never, and have never thought for themselves. I have found more rodents that think well for themselves than people I have met. People, such that they are, can not process things for themselves. They can't extrapolate, interpolate, deduce, or induce anything.

This news source isn't about providing people with an entertaining joke of an opinion they can laugh at. It is about showing them the opinion that their mind should posses. Most of the oxygen wasting humans I know agree with this opinion or that opinion or the other opinion. They don't have a list of facts, a deductive conclusion, and a resulting opinion deriving from all that they know forming in their head from their own reasoning. They don't reason.

And the opinion they agree with is the one they heard sitting in front of a television or computer, lapping it up like some dog with water on a hot day.

Turn off that television. Stop reading that newspaper. Find out what happened by looking only at the bare facts. Then you come up with what you think about it. Anybody who strongly agrees with Maddows or Riley or their ilk over a wide range is, inherently, either a moron or a lunatic. Any of these talking heads are too far to the side of center to ever be close enough to correct (or even reasonable) to broadly agree with.

Maybe you think I have a low opinion of "people" in general? Ding ding, you have a winner. I'd be a fool not to. To believe that most "people" are, in fact, people with souls and functioning conscious minds is an exercise in cockeyed optimism. **** Sapiens are herd animals, or perhaps more accurately, pack animals. We have a few lone wolves, rare individuals that actually think on the level most people pretend to.

But they are the rare exception, not the rule.

And naturally, my post will be deleted. People just don't like thinking about the reality of it all.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

No, I agree with that. People are stupid. they cant think for themselves, and their opinions are dictated by the media, I agree.

But just how does Rupert Murdoch gain power by putting on two very contradicting product with different messages?

In the end, i stick by the belief that Murdoch wants money. Money=Power. Greed is the driving force. You want to have more than what you need. Thats a common instinct in many people. And quite frankly its a necessary instinct.

You are right, this is a pointless argument.

 

[Guest]

Please don't be vague and "fast and loose with the facts" and pleasae state these "studies" you mention.

I'm not really interested in doing your research for you. Try using google, and there's plenty of reading that you can go and do.

Will do.

Sorry I asked, but I incorrectly assumed that you could offer me some substantiation of this "fact," having actually researched its validity yourself before posting.

 

[Eric S]

The facts presented by Bill O'Reilly about Amtrak are indesputable. It's not Bill O'Reillys opinion, Amtrak DID lose $13 billion in the last 10 years. I didn't take this soley as an anti-Amtrak remark but one that illustates that the government is incapable of running anything without losing money. Just look at the Post Office, Medicare, Social Security and all the rest.

It does not demonstrate that the government is "incapable" of running anything without losing money. If anything, it might demonstrate that the government doesn't operate anything that is capable of making money. And, ultimately, isn't that why it is operated by the government in the first place?

 

[dlagrua]

Just some food for thought that I brought up on another post.

We have been giving $1.3 billion per year in foreign aid to support the dictator that has run Egypt for the last 30 years. We fund useless wars to the trillions and O'Reilly has the nerve to pick on Amtrak; a service that serves the public interest?????? What do we get for the $1.3 billion that we send to the Egyptian dictator each year. Nothing!!! Then compare this $1.3 billion spent to the the $1.3 billion that its costs to run Amtrak.

Amtrak serves the American people and provides a valuable service. The aid to "president for life" Mubarek is money dumped down the toilet. We have a strange sense of priorities in the country.

 

[Nexis4Jersey]

why do you guys even watch fox or msnbc or even CNN.... Everybody knows the Onion News network or ONN is the only place for real news :lol:

 

[JayPea]

why do you guys even watch fox or msnbc or even CNN.... Everybody knows the Onion News network or ONN is the only place for real news :lol:

There are times when I think that's actually about right! :lol:

 

[George Harris]

Just some food for thought that I brought up on another post.

We have been giving $1.3 billion per year in foreign aid to support the dictator that has run Egypt for the last 30 years.

. . . .

What do we get for the $1.3 billion that we send to the Egyptian dictator each year. Nothing!!!

It comes from the boneheaded view held by many in government, and apparently most in the State Department, that loyalty and friends can be bought.

There should be no need to explain how rediculous and stupid this concept is.

The State Department is also fairly well useless in two other areas which should be primary objectives:

1. Aid and assistance to American citizens abroad.

2. Promoting the United States, including tourism to it.

One of the most laughably misnamed offices in any US Embassy or Consulate is US Citizen Services.

We have known educated people with good jobs in their own country or another country outside the US that were turned down for a US visitors visa because "their English was too good" and they could not satisfactorily prove then did not intend to become and illegal immigrant. Oh, by the way, the cost of the visa application is non-refundable and must be paid again if you reapply. US$100 the last time I had any involvewment.