Can the Left Make a Comeback?

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Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly.  Thank you for watching us tonight.  Can the left make a comeback in the USA?  That is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

With President Bush's approval rating very high and the economy improving, at least for the moment, these are tough times for the American left.  The flagship media outlet for liberals, The New York Times, is in chaos, the victim of political correctness run wild and a fanatical editor, Howell Raines, who imposed an ideological reign of terror on his reporters.

Feeling beset upon, the far left continues to lash out, most notably at the FOX News Channel and your humble correspondent.  The radical left is furious that liberals no longer set the agenda in the national media, and you can see the sea change everywhere.  Today's "B.C." comic strip today, for example, features The Factor's No Spin Zone philosophy.  We would like to thank Johnny Hart for doing that.

The point is that FOX News has gained an incredible amount of influence, and the radicals don't like it at all.  At a recent three-day conference, NOW President, Kim Gandy, described her feelings when she saw me in Washington: "As I looked over at him holding court at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner, I thought of the fact that there are literally millions of people who get their news from Bill O'Reilly.  They actually think that he is telling them the truth about what is happening in the world."

Well, yes, Kim.  That's what's going on.  And do you know why?  Because we do tell the truth here.  And if you're going to imply that we don't, you better have some hard facts, as we always do.

According to the Pew Research Center, FOX News and The Factor are watched by all kinds of Americans, and they are smart enough to know if they are being hoodwinked.  Forty-six percent of our audience identified themselves as conservatives, 50 percent as moderates or liberals.  I guess the other four percent are in a coma.

Contrast that to your CNN, where Pew says 40 percent of the viewers are conservative, 54 percent moderates or liberals.  And are you ready for this?  FOX News has more committed liberal viewers than CNN, 18 percent to 16 percent. -- So, chew on that, Ms. Gandy.

But she doesn't want to be concerned with facts.  She just wants to push an agenda that includes opposing criminal penalties for violently killing a fetus.  Ms. Gandy does not want Scott Peterson, for example, charged for kidding his unborn son, as required by California law.

So, who's kidding whom here?  The Kim Gandys, Michael Moores, and Al Frankens of the world would have you believe that FOX News is a threat and that you are not smart enough to see it.  The truth is that most Americans know who the charlatans and fanatics really are.  The folks know just who provides the real threat to this country.

And that's The Memo.

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