Salon's Joan Walsh
Joan Walsh of Salon has a great meta blog post about why she decided to go on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News. She also updates following the broadcast, and does a good job exploring her mindset in making the choice.
Joan, I love you, but you shouldn’t have done it.
Well, it was so not fine. I think the high or low point was when he shrieked at me, “You have blood on your hands!” At one point he also either told me to “Shut up” or “Be quiet,” I can’t remember. (If I’m wrong about that, when I see the clip, I’ll correct it. UPDATE: Actually, he shouted “Stop talking!”) He called me “vile.” I think I said he was vile, too. There were a couple of “I know you are but what am I?” moments that I’m not totally proud of. It was a kaleidoscopic nightmare, a TV acid trip, and I don’t do acid. It almost seems like O’Reilly does, but I don’t think so. The man is driven by demons. God bless him and save him.
I have been on Fox News broadcasts several times during the initial Winter of Love in San Francisco, when Gavin Newsom started the marriage-go-round in the City by the Bay. Mostly, I appeared on their “news” segments, but I did also do Fox and Friends and a few other programs. I got on their index card and they would call from time to time. One of the times I went on I thought was one of the worst things I’d ever done professionally. A producer (an older, and I’m sure gay, man) told me I held my own well, but it was really said in that way a father tells his son that he took a really good swing on that final strike out.
One show that invited me on was the O’Reilly Factor. This was not related to the weddings at the time, but was some time later, and I can’t remember what. As Joan says, the producers couldn’t have been nicer. I told them I would call them back. I talked to my friends, especially those who don’t do any media, and they all smartly said, “are you crazy?!”
By the time I called back to decline, they had already moved on to someone else. I never regretted the decision. You can’t win in those situations. I’ve done conservative radio programs and some television where the odds are against you, but O’Reilly really is a set up. The only other person I turned down for similar reasons was Laura Ingraham, who’s producers kindly assured me that she was supportive, she had a gay brother. There was nothing to fear. Nope. There are a group of extremists out there that you just can’t talk to.
Joan, good try. I think you are great, and I love watching you on the shows you do. But this one, you should have sat out.
