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| All content taken from The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel. Each weeknight by 6 PM EST a preview of that evening's show will be posted and then updated with additional information the following weekday by noon EST.
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Guest: Brit Hume
The Factor began Monday's show with the impending debt ceiling deadline, the government shutdown, and analysis from FNC's Brit Hume. "None of us knows what's really going on," Hume said, "but we do know that Senators Reid and McConnell have reached a tentative agreement. The two principle points are that government would be reopened until sometime in January and the debt limit would be temporarily raised until sometime in mid-February. In the meantime, there would be a standard negotiation to try to come up with a full budget." |
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Guest: Bernie Goldberg
"Over the weekend I was in the Ozarks and everywhere I went there was outrage over how the federal government treated the families of those killed in Afghanistan. The denial of benefits didn't have to happen - all President Obama had to do was sign an executive order that paid the families a $100,000 benefit. But he chose not to do it and the whole deal devolved into chaos last week. As the outrage grew, the House and Senate passed a separate spending bill that the President finally signed. The military benefits chaos shows just how poor our leadership is in Washington. On the press front, the coverage was mostly fair, and that's good news. But it's bad news that MSNBC continued its policy of blaming Republicans for just about everything. And over at CNN the military family story was pretty much ignored, which is very strange. Obviously, CNN wanted no part of this story. As for Fox News, we had far and away the most coverage, and also the highest ratings. As usual."
The Factor asked media analyst Bernard Goldberg to evaluate the news coverage of the death benefits story. "The hard news people accurately conveyed the disgust of the American people," Goldberg said, "but the so-called 'mainstream media' went easy on President Obama and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. If George Bush were President and Donald Rumsfeld were Secretary of Defense, they would have been hammered. Bush would have been portrayed as a hopeless dunce and Rumsfeld as a bloodless technocrat. But now the blame hasn't been placed on the President or Chuck Hagel, it's being blamed on the shutdown." The Factor gave one reason why network news coverage has become softer and less substantial: "Good Morning America made the decision to cover tabloid news in the morning and that decision put them in the number one spot. Everybody in the news industry saw what Good Morning America did." |
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Guest: Karl Rove
Texas Senator Ted Cruz has become a darling to Tea Party conservatives, a bane to mainstream Republicans, and a demon to left-wingers. The Factor invited former Bush advisor Karl Rove to assess Cruz's influence. "Republicans and conservatives, angry over the victory of President Obama, wanted someone to stand up and fight," Rove said. "Ted Cruz and Mike Lee stood up and said, 'We're going to fight by defunding Obamacare.' A lot of Republicans rallied to them, but that strategy was never going to work because not a single Democrat would vote for it in the Senate. That strategy is over and the Republicans are trying to find a way out of the hole into which they were pushed." Rove added that Republicans should have focused on more attainable goals. "They should have emphasized getting rid of the individual mandate by saying the administration gave a break to the big corporations and should give a break to the little guy. And they should have said that we'll make Congress live under the same law as everybody else." |
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Guests: Juan Williams & Mary Katharine Ham
While speaking at a conservative gathering in Washington this weekend, Senator Ted Cruz was heckled by members of a group called 'United We Dream,' a pro-immigration group that wants citizenship for just about everyone. Mary Katharine Ham and Juan Williams entered the No Spin Zone with their take on the incident. "I don't like being heckled like that," Williams said, "but I disagree with you that these hecklers are pro-illegal immigration. These are dreamers, these are people who think kids who have been in this country should be given the opportunity to be fully American." Ham pointed out that Cruz has become a lighting rod for protesters. "I'm not surprised that Ted Cruz had hecklers. It's rude but it's not the end of the world, and I think he responded pretty well." |
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| President Obama's hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune, investigated Obamacare in Illinois and concluded that annual deductibles are exorbitantly high and coverage is unaffordable for many families. As a follow-up, The Factor put forth this exposition: "It's becoming quite clear that working Americans are going to be hurt financially from Obamacare, at least in the short run. That's not going to play well in the mid-term elections next November. As we've been reporting, median incomes for working Americans are down under President Obama's watch. So let's do the math: Workers have less take-home pay, higher taxes, and much higher health insurance costs. That's a good way into bankruptcy. The important thing in analyzing Obamacare is to use facts, not emotion, and the Chicago Tribune did a good job." |
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Guest: Jesse Watters
Jesse Watters took a road trip to upscale suburbia, visiting Chappaqua, New York, the home town of prospective Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. When asked about their most famous neighbor, residents had these responses: "I think she's a brilliant women" ... "50% of the people love her, 50% don't" ... "The only thing I think of is the scandal with Lewinsky" ... "What has she accomplished? Nothing!" Back in the studio, Watters summed up the local sentiment. "They struggled to think of one major accomplishment of hers in the Senate, as Secretary of State, and as First Lady. It's a thin resume, I also had trouble when I looked into it. But they mentioned the 'touchy-feely' stuff - they say she empowered women, she advanced trans-gender rights, she reached out to minorities. She would win in Chappaqua, maybe by 65 - 35, but there is no electricity like there was with President Obama." |
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| Try your best to limit your own Internet use and definitely set restrictions on your kids. |
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Cheryl Farney, Hinsdale, IL: "Thank you, Bill, for pointing out the conduct of Defense Secretary Hagel and White House spokesman Jay Carney. Chuck is nowhere to be found and Carney is stonewalling!"
William Welts, Milner, GA: "Mr. Know-It-All, Laura Ingraham is much more in touch with conservatives than you. I believe Senator Cruz is making gains."
Todd Spartin, Chevy Chase, MD: "Laura is wearing rose-colored glasses regarding the GOP. Ted Cruz has done something the president could not do in four years - increase the popularity of Democrats."
Bill Stacey, Manassas, VA: "Bill, thanks for covering the Fisher House's generosity towards the grieving military families. I have sent a donation." |
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