By Bill O'Reilly
What I am about to tell you is very hard to believe, but every word of it's true. Yesterday Mitt Romney was campaigning in Virginia when he saw a group of children waving at him from the side of the road. The Governor ordered his caravan to stop so he could greet the kids and talk with them, a nice thing to do.
But here is the photo the Associated Press took at the meet and greet, a foolish shot that makes Romney the butt of stupid jokes. Pardon the pun. The picture was taken by photographer Evan Vucci and never should have been published. The Governor doesn't know there is a child behind him. And the child is looking at something else. This is a cheap shot, literally.
Now, accompanying the photograph was an article by AP reporter Lynn Elber that chided Romney for not participating in a Nickelodeon special called "Kids Pick the President." That program will be hosted by Linda Ellerbee a committed leftist and President Obama has agreed to appear on it.
The governor says he passed because of scheduling, but he well knows that Miss Ellerbee and her crew are devoted Obama supporters, so that's the real reason Romney isn't showing up.
The AP reporter Elber not exactly Miss Objectivity. She called Clint Eastwood's Republican convention performance quote, "odd ball", unquote. She also wrote a very pro-PBS piece, but failed to cite government subsidies to that network. The former chairman of the board of the Associated Press, William Dean Singleton, last April introduced President Obama at the Annual A.P. Luncheon by saying, quote, "The President inherited the head winds of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. He pushed through Congress the biggest economic recovery plan in history", and on and on and on. A glowing introduction.
Now, the AP is one of the largest news wire services in the world. And it's biased against Mitt Romney. I think that's true, beyond a reasonable doubt. Local newspapers all over the USA carry AP photos and articles every day. That's a huge advantage for President Obama. And perhaps the best example of what the national media has become in America.
The Obama campaign believes Governor Romney made a big mistake by saying he would stop federal money to PBS and NPR. This morning, this ad was released.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski, criminals, gluttons of greed and the evil genius who towered over them. One man has the guts to speak his name.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Big Bird, Big Bird. Big Bird.
BIG BIRD: It's me Big Bird.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big, yellow, a menace to our economy. Mitt Romney knows it's not Wall Street you have to worry about. It's Sesame Street.
ROMNEY: I'm going to stop this subsidy to PBS.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mitt Romney, taking on our enemies no matter where they nest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Now, the Sesame Workshop, which controls the image of Big Bird has asked the Democrats to pull the ad saying it's nonpartisan and doesn't want to get involved in that. This year the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will receive $444 million; $444 million in taxpayer funding. That's money the nation does not have to spend especially facing a trillion dollars budget deficit and a $16 trillion national debt.
Jon Stewart and I debated the issue on Saturday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, TALK SHOW HOST: The reason that we invest in things like public television --
O'REILLY: Yes.
STEWART: -- is that it brings educational programs to communities that would not have them. It's one of the best investments we ever made in the country.
O'REILLY: Well, wait, wait $16 trillion and we got to pay for Bill Moyers. Let him compete on his own. You want educational programs, watch your program. Spring for the cable, all right, let him compete on his own. All right, come on.
STEWART: Let me ask you this then. If NPR -- all right, so Bill O'Reilly has identified $130 million from NPR because NPR should be able to compete on its own.
O'REILLY: Correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: All right, to be clear, National Public Radio, NPR, is part, just part of the Public Broadcasting umbrella in which again, it's receiving close to $450 million this year alone.
In assessing Governor Romney's weak points, President Obama apparently thinks he has an opportunity with this controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Finally, somebody is cracking down on Big Bird. Elmo has been seen in a white in a white Suburban, he's driving for the border. And Governor Romney's plan is to let Wall Street run wild again, but he's going to bring the hammer down on "Sesame Street."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Now two things. The white Suburban reference of course is to O.J. Simpson and a Wall Street running wild line is very interesting, isn't it? The President is seen in conservative precincts as being anti-capitalism. A few years ago, that would have been dangerous territory for any politician. But now things have changed.
The recession was brought on largely by greedy Wall Street corporations trafficking in bogus mortgage paper and the folks know they're suffering because of Wall Street excess. That's all true.
But what we are seeing now is the baby out with the bath water syndrome. Instead of reforming Wall Street with effective oversight, Mr. Obama and the left continue to attack it. Corporate America is seen in some liberal quarters as the enemy. The left wants the government to largely control the entire economy as it wants the feds to control health care.
That has led the private sector, the job creators, to be overly cautious and has prevented a robust economic recovery. John Stossel will have proof of that coming up.
What the Associated Press and other national media should be concentrating on is the battle between capitalism and quasi socialism that's taking place between the two presidential candidates. That's the real story in this election.
But the AP and others are now so invested, so invested in re-electing President Obama that fair, responsible and insightful reporting has nearly vanished. And of course, Mr. Obama is benefiting from that.
And that's "The Memo."
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