Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

mal paper, in part because "they never mentioned Juanita Broaddrick's name, ever. This
whole [Los Angeles] area out here has no idea what's going on unless you watch my show."
LA Times editor Melissa Payton corrected O'Reilly by pointing out that her paper's archives
contained twenty-one articles mentioning Broaddrick and that, contrary to O'Reilly's
further claim, virtually her entire newspaper is devoted to information about "what's going
on," including not only news, but movie times, and also free community events for the whole
family, such as weekend puppet shows and please-touch nature walks at local parks.
I'm sorry. I got off the question of "Who set the tone?" and back onto the question of
"Why does Bill O'Reilly lie so goddamn much?"
So let's follow the tone. It begins with Richard "fucking" Mellon "Communist cunt"
Scaife, moves through the shadowy world of sleazy right-wing operatives, into the radicalright
fringe press (American Spectator), over to the thinly disguised radical rightwing media
(Washington Times and Fox News Channel), and onto the quasi-respectable right-wing press
(Wall Street journal editorial page). Gathering strength, the tone finally vaults into the mainstream
media (LA Times, Newsweek, ABC, CNN, et cetera), where it is disseminated into the
homes of millions of unsuspecting Americans.
But even as the right was spreading filth, sleaze, and bile through its media apparatus,
a parallel effort was proceeding in the political arena. Ever hear of someone named Newt
Gingrich? I know, it sounds like I made the name up. But he was once one of the most powerful
men in America.
He was so powerful that he said, "People like me are what stand between us and
Auschwitz." (Some believe Gingrich fell from power because of his grandiosity.)
One way Gingrich stood between us and Auschwitz was by being extremely mean
and nasty. Sharing his secrets for success with Republican candidates, he sent out a letter advising
them to characterize their Democratic opponents with words like "corrupt," "sick,"
"pathetic," "greedy," and "traitor."
Gingrich's recipe for success—"go negative early" and "never back off"—proved so
successful that, in 1994, the Republicans captured the House and Senate by soundly defeating
such pathetic traitors as Tennessee senator Jim Sasser.
Now in the majority, the Republicans were free to elevate the tone by shutting down
the government and engaging in dozens of separate investigations of the Clinton administration.