Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
I don't know why this comparison never occurred to me before. I don't know why it took Rush Limbaugh, of all people, to make it. But I've never read a more perfect description of Bill O'Reilly than this one:
At dinner the night before, Bill O'Reilly's name came up, and Limbaugh expressed his opinion of the Fox cable king. He hadn't been sure at the time that he wanted it on the record. But on second thought, "somebody's got to say it," he told me. "The man is Ted Baxter."
Talk about nails and heads. Bill O'Reilly IS Ted Baxter - vacuous, ignorant and blessed with a supernatural arrogance that makes him utterly oblivious to just how ridiculous he is. Absolutely spot on comparison.
Politics
Comments
Rush Limbaugh bad mouthing Bill O'Reilly? The kettle calling the pot black.
Posted by: SLC | July 6, 2008 9:59 AM
My brother said to me yesterday that he listens to both MSNBC and Fox and sort of takes it out of the "middle". He compared Bill O'Reilly with Keith Olberman, saying, in essence, that while Bill O'Reilly certainly had a right slant, Olberman is a fucking leftie kook. I was looking in his kitchen cupboard for some Bushkoolaid but he must keep it under his bed.
Billy O'Really and Rash Limpbow? Tweedlescum and Tweedlescummier.
Posted by: democommie | July 6, 2008 10:08 AM
My first awareness of BOR was a book foisted on me by a close relative who was a fan. I was amused at his constant claims of being all about the facts and his "fair and balanced" approach where "no spin" was the rule of each interview. At the time I finished it, around 2001, I found the best word was the one Ed just used, vacuous, and believed this guy was so inept he was harmless.
It was only when I watched him on TV after having read the book that I came to understand his attractiveness to social conservatives and the danger he posed to society. His arguments of outrage were particularly effective given his ability to always interrupt an intelligent guest when they started to actually communicate meaningful facts. A perfect example is his "Jessica's Law" campaign; not once has he allowed any falsification data be presented on his TV show that would provide a more compelling solution that would reduce the rate of sexual assaults on children (and in MI, we are much more effective at combating this problem than states with that law); any attempts to do so are met with interruptions by him and screaming in order to run out the time on the segment.
I also found the Ted Baxter comparison provocative and had a "why didn't I think of that" moment. Regarding the NYTs article itself, what a puff piece; not one example of thousands of Rush mischaracterizing reality that influences millions to defend their false sense of reality and their opinions based on the mountain of false assertions Rush and people like him have created and nurture.
I continue to hope that Democrats, liberals, and all-other non-conservatives ignore Fox and the other people like Thomas Sowell and Ann Coulter who promote a false sense of reality whose impact is damage to our country and to the rest of the globe that will last for generations. I understand why a guy like Sen. Evan Bayh goes on Fox, he's hoping to sway the middle back to the rational side; but in the meantime he legitimizes Fox News as legitimate news channel rather than the propaganda outlet they are and in the long run perpetuates the damage they do to our country.
Posted by: Michael Heath | July 6, 2008 10:10 AM
That's a cruel comparison to Ted Baxter. Ted Baxter was portrayed as a pompous buffoon, but he was never nasty. O'Reilly is pompous and ignorant, but his nastiness is his principal characteristic.
Posted by: Jeffrey Shallit | July 6, 2008 10:21 AM
As dispatches was loading up I glanced at some of the headers and read 'porn industry nailing Bill O'Reilly'. Please don't do that again, my sleep is disturbed enough as it is :-)
Posted by: Matt | July 6, 2008 10:59 AM
Jeffrey-I think he is what Ted Baxter would be if he were an anchorman today. I absolutely loved that character as a kid and still love him today;-)
I guess even Rush can call something right on occasion...
Posted by: Rev. AJB | July 6, 2008 11:01 AM
Keith Olbermann has been calling Bill O'Reilly "Ted Baxter" for years. So someone has been saying it for a while. How about that, Rush and Keith can find common ground.
Posted by: Janine | July 6, 2008 11:24 AM
I think Olbermann has been using the "Ted Baxter" reference for a long time now.
Posted by: Phil | July 6, 2008 11:24 AM
Am I the only one who has noticed that Keith Olbermann's "imitation" of O'Reilly (when Keith reads off the latest idiocy that "Bill-O" has perpetrated during Countdown's "Worst Person in the World" segment) is in fact a Ted Baxter impression? I.e., when Olbermann "imitates O'Reilly," he's actually imitating Baxter?
Actually, I don't think I'm the only one who has noticed; I think Peter J. Boyer, of The New Yorker, pointed it out in his recent profile of Olbermann:
So it appears that Olbermann (and perhaps Boyer) noticed the parallels before Limbaugh did, Ed.Posted by: Rieux | July 6, 2008 11:30 AM
Hey, what happened to my link?
Anyway, Boyer's Olbermann profile in The New Yorker is at http://tinyurl.com/57v95r .
Posted by: Rieux | July 6, 2008 11:32 AM
And if it hadn't taken me so long to compose that comment, maybe I would have beaten Janine and Phil to the punch. D'oh.
Posted by: Rieux | July 6, 2008 11:34 AM
I like the Ted Baxter character. Though I think Knight was at his best as Judge Smails from Caddyshack. He totally stole the show with that one. You know, as planned, he was meant to be a foil to Rodney Dangerfield's character. But the opposite result was produced.
Posted by: Jon Rowe | July 6, 2008 11:42 AM
Actually Keith Olbermann has been referring to O'Reilly as Ted Baxter and/or "Ted Baxter's evil twin" for years now.
In the past he also used his Ted Baxter impersonation to mock O'Reilly
Posted by: RonTaylor | July 6, 2008 11:43 AM
Just noticed the title of this thread. Papa Bear's comedic doppelganger, Stephen Colbert, "nails" his guests all the time.
Posted by: Janine | July 6, 2008 11:48 AM
I saw Limbaugh's comparison of Bill-O to Ted Baxter as well.
I was shocked at how insightful it was considering Limbaugh generally lacks such insight on any conceivable subject.
As for KO, he also likes to refer to O'Reilly as the "Frank Burns of network news" as well, but I think the Baxter nickname is far more accurate.
Posted by: CHV | July 6, 2008 11:59 AM
If Limbaugh called O'Reilly "Ted Baxter", I suspect it's because Baxter is everything Limbaugh looks for in a newscaster.
Posted by: Michael Suttkus, II | July 6, 2008 12:07 PM
It's funny, but I never made the connection between Olbermann's impersonation of O'Reilly and Ted Baxter until someone mentioned it when I mentioned this post. But now that I know, it's so obvious that I can't believe I hadn't noticed it before.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | July 6, 2008 12:27 PM
Bill O'Reilly, just like Ann Coulter and Michael Moore, plays to an audience that is making him filthy rich. I think he's not as well informed as Coulter or Moore and thus not always as dishonest as the other two. He truly appears to have not read up on his topics sometimes, and seems to just be pulling key words out of context to get his audience excited.
Posted by: soboco | July 6, 2008 1:36 PM
Not exactly. Ted wasn't evil. And he was funny.
Posted by: Anon_Kitty | July 6, 2008 3:25 PM
Olbermann has been comparing O'Reilly to Ted Baxter for years, and Rush JUST NOW figured the same thing out? Any bets the Rush will now claim primacy, and the next time Olbermann does his TB Impersonation Rush will cry 'foul!'?
As far as BOR and RL's fan base, who was it that said, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public"?
Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | July 6, 2008 4:18 PM
Who is Ted Baxter?
Posted by: Rod | July 6, 2008 4:33 PM
Rod:
He, like Tim Russert, was a character, portrayed by an actor who posed as a journalist; the only difference being that he was aware of it.
Posted by: democommie | July 6, 2008 4:56 PM
Would it be worthwhile to have a new sitcom based on a conservative cable network? Or does that violate the rule of never parody a self-parody??
It would be like "Sports Night," but with an ersatz O'Reilly, Hannity, Doocy, brown haired guy who's not Doocy, and some chick. They would all be pricks, of course, but they would each be different flavors of pricks. They might even be a token non-prick who, like Gilligan, is always fouling things up for the rest.
Posted by: Grumpy | July 6, 2008 6:14 PM
From an infrequent TV viewer:
Sorry for the inane question, 'Who is Ted Baxter?'I should have checked with Google before asking.
About Rush:
My first view of Rush came by surfing TV channels years ago. I had thought that he was a Saturday Night Live parody of some pompous ass's book selling infomercial; the background was comprised entirely of his book (what an ego) and he was saying nothing of substance. Because of that impression I had suspect for a long time that he is a mole, planted to make the far right look utterly ridiculous. But alas he is one of them. That's how they really think. And to think, they're in power. How sad.
Maybe his statement about Bill O signifies an unraveling at the edges. Will Ted, er, Bill, retaliate? Let's hope!
Posted by: Rod | July 6, 2008 7:24 PM
As others have said, the comparison to Baxter, while apt, is wholly unoriginal to Rush. Furthermore, I am not the least surprised that Rush doesn't like Billo (it's something I heard years ago). Their radio shows directly compete for the same audience. For all his many faults, Limbaugh built his radio empire from scratch. O'Reilly had several hundred stations handed to him on Day One by his sugar daddy, Rupert Murdoch.
Posted by: Mr. Upright | July 6, 2008 7:47 PM
Faux caught doctoring photos of NYTs employees: http://mediamatters.org/items/200807020002?f=h_top
Here's the backstory from a legitimate news source on why Faux News did this along with the context legitimate journalists exist given the way Faux News operates:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/business/media/07carr.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1215392525-xje1gFcZxQwvOHDu07HltQ
Posted by: Michael Heath | July 6, 2008 9:05 PM
I perfect illustration of O'Reilly's "Baxterness" occurs during his interview of Kirk Cameron. Kirk's on one of his anti-evolution screeds, explaining why evolution can't be true because there are no "croco-ducks" (he even had a picture). O'Reilly then said "sure, you can poke holes in evolution, just like I have in the Big Bang theory". And the idiot actually believes it.
Posted by: Taz | July 6, 2008 11:14 PM
Posted by: tincture | July 7, 2008 2:57 AM
This sums up Bill O'Reilly...
"Coming up on the O' Reilly Factor tonight...George W. Bush caught on tape, shoving senior citizens into a woodchipper as part of his plan to reform Social Security...you won't believe what the far left is saying."
Posted by: Frank | July 7, 2008 2:43 PM
In the interest of accuracy, the O'Reilly quote I mentioned above is actually "OK, you can poke holes in the evolutionary process, and you can poke holes, as I did, in the Big Bang Theory, or whatever crazy thing they're trotting out here." You can see it about a minute into this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXUtHtZTXnI
I would love to tell O'Reilly "so you've poked holes in the Big Bang Theory - show me your math". But he wouldn't understand that. It's all just a matter of opinion to him, and his is as good as anyone's.
Posted by: Taz | July 7, 2008 3:16 PM
Taz:
"It's all just a matter of opinion to him, and his is as good as anyone's."
Would that it were so. Bile O'liarly has in his mind, the only opinion that matters.
Posted by: democommie | July 8, 2008 11:48 AM
I like what he said about Hitchens:
And he is especially impressed by the essays of Christopher Hitchens. "He's misguided sometimes, but when you read him, you finish the whole article."
Yep, sounds like an intolerant shitbag to me.
As far as copying Olbermann goes, Rush is probably not watching him, but reading a transcript. If he is watching, I'm sure it's with CC on. The man is deaf, after all. If Olbermann is doing an impression, it might not be clear to a man that can't hear it.
Posted by: bullet | July 11, 2008 6:11 PM