Mingle Until Departure

"The O'Reilly Factor" this evening focused on Jadakiss, both for his getting arrested and for his latest song, "Why?", which, well...I'll leave it to ABC News to describe in the out-of touch way only a major news network could:

NEW YORK July 16, 2004 — Over the years, the rapper Jadakiss has depicted a world of drug dealing, murder and other assorted mayhem without raising many eyebrows. But seven words in his new song "Why" "Why did Bush knock down the towers?" has gotten Jadakiss the most mainstream attention, and criticism, of his career.

"It caught the ear of white America," he said proudly during a phone interview with The Associated Press. "It's a good thing. No matter what you do, somebody's not going to like it, but for the most part, most people love the song."

Ha-ha! That proud rapper! He should really get back to rapping about things he knows about, like the street life!

On the show to discuss a rapper's political statement and legal troubles was...well, duh, Victoria Murphy, a reporter who covers technology for Forbes. Her credentials appear to be...well, I'm not sure, but she has a couple articles on Forbes.com, and is apparently, according to Newsbios.com, one of the 30 Rising Stars Under 30. At any rate, she's cute, and that appears to be enough to get her guest spots pretty regularly on various Fox News shows. Hunh.

So, needless to say, between her and O'Reilly the dialogue was working at a really high level. A sample:

Victoria Murphy: That's what rappers do, they get arrested.

Then O'Reilly, as he loves to do - well, apart from calling rappers and black people thugs, lunatics and criminals - started talking about how since Jadakiss is somehow involved with Xbox - it's not entirely clear how, and a quick internet search only turns up opportunities to play Xbox against Jadakiss, in some weird cross-marketing scheme - Microsoft is complicit in killing babies in the ghetto and selling crack. Or something.

So they started talking about video games, O'Reilly talking about how this was setting such a terrible example for the poor, helpless children who play Xbox, and Murphy decides it's time to play Expert:

VM: It's not just kids, it's 20 and 30 year old...guys.

BO: And do you think they're gonna be outraged that they're abetting this kind of defamation? I don't think so.

Bill...Bill...then what are you getting at? Who are you trying to insult with this one? Are you making some bizarre uber-paternalistic argument about how the good Daddies at Microsoft need to be responsible so that the Children (i.e., anyone under 40) don't have to worry about thinking about anything, 'cause they can't be trusted? This is kind of mystifying.

Wait, though. It gets better:

...Ludacris is a thug. He's just a hop-head, and by that I mean someone who glorifies the street life.

Yes! He manages to bring it around - despite there being no linkage at all, whatsoever - to taking another cheap shot at that great Enemy of Western Civilization, Ludacris.

Finally, O'Reilly gets around to actually addressing the topic at hand:

We called Microsoft four days ago, and they haven't responded. They're hiding under their desks, and this is not a good thing for the country.

And that, my friends, was the end of the segment. But why Microsoft wouldn't want to get mixed up with O'Reilly...you got me.