Is Obama Administration Ready to Intrude on Media?

By Bill O'Reilly

If you listen to talk radio, there are folks who say that the Obama administration is getting ready to tamp down conservative voices in the media. They point to the White House not being happy with Fox News, among other things.

Now there is more evidence: a disturbing development at the FCC.

Speaking on the BBC, Commissioner Michael Copps said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL COPPS, FCC COMMISSIONER: I think American media has a bad case of substance abuse right now. We are not producing the body of news and information that democracy needs to conduct a civic dialogue. We are not producing as much news as we did five years, 10 years, 15 years ago. We have to -- we have to reverse that trend or I think we are going to be pretty close to denying our citizens the essential news and information that they need to have in order to make intelligent decisions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

The key words from Copps are: "We have to reverse that trend."

Who's "we," Mr. Copps? The federal government? Are you going to begin calling shots here on "The Factor"?

Now, we called Commissioner Copps, and we hope he'll come on the broadcast next week to explain himself.

But in the meantime, let's take a look at the disenchantment. By the way, Glenn Beck was the first one to flag me on the situation.

There is no question the Obama administration believes it is not getting a fair shake from Fox News and talk radio. In some cases, that might be true.

But President Bush didn't get a fair shake from the media either. Neither did Bill Clinton. Neither did Bush the elder. Just ask them.

In this age of 24/7 news, very few people in power are happy with the spotlight. Just Friday, the unemployment rate ticked up .20 of a point, so anti-Obama commentators are going to town.

But that's what the American media is. You have people who like President Obama; you have people who dissent.

As far as information is concerned, Mr. Copps is crazy. There is so much information available you can't possibly digest it all. The problem is credibility.

If you spend most of your time on the Net, you will read a lot of unsubstantiated stuff. If you read The New York Times, you'll get the left-wing point of view. The same thing with watching the network news. If you read The Wall Street Journal and watch some commentators on Fox News, you'll get a more conservative approach.

So it's all out there, Mr. Copps. And with all due respect, we don't need you to get involved.

In fact, the Obama administration should relax about the media and try to fix the economy. If unemployment drops two percentage points, even the Obama haters in the media would have to acknowledge that.

Finally, this broadcast will fight any intrusion on the media by the federal government, unless, of course, they want to put Bill Moyers in jail.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

Julia Roberts is still a big star despite having a few flops at the box office recently. And in Italy, all Julia has to do is stand there in order to make $1.5 million.

Now, you guys in Italy: I'm available. A lot less. A lot less than Ms. Roberts.

So is she a patriot for taking the million and a half or a pinhead? I hope she's giving it to charity. You can vote on Julia on BillOReilly.com.

Thursday night we showed you Jimmy Kimmel inserting my voice into the Grinch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THE GRINCH WITH O'REILLY VOICE-OVER: I am Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight. There are traitors in America. As you may know, classified information is now floating around the globe, courtesy of the traitors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Fifty-seven percent of you said Kimmel is a pinhead for doing that. Forty-three percent believe he's a patriot. I thought the thing was very funny, so I voted patriot on that one.