Conservative TV host Bill O’Reilly headlined the Friday night session of the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, ensuring a good turnout for Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s stump speech. I confess to having burned out after nine hours of Christian political speeches yesterday, and I skipped the evening events in favor of a much-needed cocktail in the hotel bar and dinner with my husband. Apparently I made the right choice. As it turned out, O’Reilly banned the media, without advance notice, from his speech. I would have been stuck in the bar either way. Bob Ellis, a conservative writer from Dakota Voice, confirmed that one of the conditions of O’Reilly’s appearance at the summit was a media blackout. Ellis was deeply annoyed at being shut out. He writes:
I’m sorry, but that seems more than a little hypocritical of Bill O’Reilly to say the least.
After all, the man (who I like very much to watch and agree with on most things) gives no quarter to anyone on his show. That’s essentially how a good reporter should be: not put up with the spin.
Yet he’s afraid to have the media report on his speech?
Say it ain’t so, Bill!
So while I now have a transcript of Pawlenty’s bland speech, I couldn’t tell you what O’Reilly had to say. Which is too bad, because there was some action last night. Adele Stan over at AlterNet reports that hotel security forceably ejected blogger Mark Stark from the room during O’Reilly’s speech.
