Whirligig in the No Spin Zone
We were thrilled to hear about professional liberal Eric Alterman's nascent suit against professional blowhard Bill O'Reilly: It's like the battle of the annoying ideologues cagematch! Think we can get it on pay-per-view? We're as surprised as anyone to find ourselves pulling for O'Reilly in this matter; Alterman's people have presented the phrase "a confidant of Fidel Castro" as the "lie" for which O'Reilly should atone. But as we read the exchange in question, O'Reilly isn't asserting Castro and Alterman sit down over coffee and compare Springsteen bootlegs, he's using Castro as a marker on the ideological spectrum from left to right. . . You know, "10" is Castro and "1" is, I dunno. . . Hitler? Of course, the left is completely unfamiliar with this kind of metaphor, so you can understand their upset.
Seriously, does the left really want to be seen as being as thin-skinned and jumpy as the right? After all, you don't see Eric Alterman's good friend Fidel Castro rushing to his lawyer every time someone makes an exploding cigar joke.
O'Reilly does it again [MediaMatters.org]