Hillary Clinton will be appearing on The O’Reilly Factor show tomorrow night. Just as Obama handled his appearance on Fox News Sunday as a regular interview, Clinton does not intend to “take on” Bill O’Reilly. Of course if she did, O’Reilly wouldn’t stand a chance. Remember what Terry Gross did to him when O’Reilly was a guest on Fresh Air?
There was a lot of criticism of Barack Obama for appearing on Fox News Sunday and Move On, which also criticized Obama, has already issued a statement criticizing Clinton:
With no plan to call out Fox’s Republican agenda, Senator Clinton’s appearance on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ does nothing more than legitimize a network that will then use that credibility to smear Democrats and progressive ideas in 2008. She’s pandering to a small audience that is not persuadable.
Right now the major priority for each candidate is attracting votes and, as much as we might like them to, neither candidate is currently concerned with taking on Fox. As long as they have a sizable audience the candidates will appear. I am happy that the Democrats refused to hold a debate on Fox but I never had any illusions that they would continue to remain off of Fox for the entire campaign.
It might have made more sense for Obama to appear with Chris Wallace, who has criticized some of the excesses at his own network, as opposed to Clinton appearing on O’Reilly’s show. Despite his usual conduct on his show O’Reilly actually did conduct some good interviews with John Kerry in the past, so it is understandable that Clinton would go. Besides, viewers with limited education who have no qualms about compromising liberal positions on social issues and civil liberties sure sound a lot like Hillary Clinton’s base.
The interview might be interesting. I’ll watch, but will also make a latte to drink while watching as an act of protest.
