Columnist proud member of Slimed by O\u2019Reilly Club<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nBy Mike Leonard H-T columnist
June 26, 2007
PHILADELPHIA \u2014 I didn\u2019t win the prestigious Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award last weekend at the 31st annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.<\/p>\n
That honor went to Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t win the next-most revered prize, the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award, which recognizes a columnist whose good works extend beyond the printed page.<\/p>\n
That went to Mike Harden of the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t win anything, actually. No prizes in the \u201cgeneral interest,\u201d \u201chumor\u201d or \u201citems\u201d categories. Not even the enigmatic \u201cJeff Kramer Mystic Memorial Tie,\u201d which is presented to the columnist who comes up with the most over-the-top example of intentionally bad writing in a competition staged during the conference.<\/p>\n
But I can brag that no one at the annual columnists\u2019 conference received more pats on the back, hearty handshakes and \u201cWay to go!\u201d congratulations.<\/p>\n
I got slimed by Fox News program host Bill O\u2019Reilly. It was a little like having a skunk tell you that you smell bad. Many of my colleagues expressed envy.<\/p>\n
Each year, columnists who attend the conference submit one column for inclusion in a booklet distributed to attendees. Knowing that the bombastic host of \u201cThe O\u2019Reilly Factor\u201d would be a speaker at the conference, I mischievously offered up a May column I\u2019d written concerning the Fox News host. Basically, the column was about the blowback from O\u2019Reilly and Fox after Indiana University researchers analyzed more than 100 episodes of \u201cThe O\u2019Reilly Factor\u201d and concluded that the program host is a propagandist whose techniques are \u201cheavier\u201d and \u201cless nuanced\u201d than the notorious 1930s radio commentator Father Charles Coughlin.<\/p>\n
Frankly, I didn\u2019t expect O\u2019Reilly to read the columnists\u2019 booklet. But I was thrilled to see that he\u2019d ripped my handiwork out of the bound volume and carried it up to the lectern with him. Roughly 13 minutes into his address and after repeated admonitions that people hate us, O\u2019Reilly asked if Mike Leonard of the Hoosier Times was in the audience. (Stories printed off our Web site indicate they are copyrighted by the Hoosier Times, the parent company of the Bloomington, Bedford and Martinsville papers).<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry, Mike, but you\u2019re a dishonest guy in this column,\u201d O\u2019Reilly charged.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight back at you, Bill,\u201d I shouted.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Reilly went on to deride the IU study, using the same rhetorical tools the study exposed: name-calling, distortion and inferences that lead his viewers to unfair and imbalanced conclusions.<\/p>\n
He claimed, for example, that Fox has a \u201cbrain room\u201d where researchers meticulously analyze information for and about Fox News. He said they studied the IU research and reported the following:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first few times they submitted the study, Mike, it was rejected. Rejected!\u201d O\u2019Reilly said. \u201cThe methodology was faulty, all right?\u201d<\/p>\n
…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had a similar experience once. I was the subject of a front page editorial of the Black student paper at U. Mass, Nummo News. I did not realize this until I got numerous high-5s at the student senate meeting that day. Columnist proud member of Slimed by O\u2019Reilly Club By Mike Leonard H-T columnistJune …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1100,974,1064],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funny","category-hack-journalism","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}