Via Jim Gilliam, here's a full transcript of last weekend's Paul Krugman-Bill O'Reilly debate, moderated by Tim Russert. I don't know if the video is available online yet, but it's worth looking for. It's a masterpiece.
There are a few highlights, such as O'Reilly attempting to do battle with Krugman on matters economic and Krugman batting him away with a yawn, or O'Reilly attributing various claims to Krugman which Krugman then disputes and which O'Reilly then drops and moves on to his next bit of nonsense, or O'Reilly equating Media Matters to the Ku Klux Klan. You read that right.
The best bit has to be when O'Reilly calls Krugman a pseudo-socialist. Yes, one of the most plain-spoken and reasoned public defenders of neo-liberal economics of the past 50 years, a pseudo-socialist. Right. I've been reading Krugman since before his NYT column, and while he may be a partisan liberal bomb-thrower at times, it takes a special brand of ignoramus to call the man a socialist.
As it happens, Bill O'Reilly is just that brand of ignoramus. Though I have to admit that I find his red-faced cabdriver schtick mildly entertaining from time to time, I never really realized until seeing this debate how thin-skinned the man is, or how completely out of touch he seems to be with the place that he actually occupies in the media landscape. The way he presumes to demonstrate the diversity of Fox News, or the way he boastfully refers to his own analysis of the news suggests that the man is either completely unhinged or a great damn actor. I'm gonna go with both.
The debate was a good representation in miniature of politics in America right now as I see it: the liberals act squirrely even while they have the better arguments; conservatives get in people's faces, shout very loud, and are mostly full of shit; and the press sits in the middle and tries to pretend both sides are equally reasonable, which they clearly are not.
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