Ford Spokesman Calls Bill O'Reilly a Moron (unofficially)

by Frank Williams

Published: March 29th, 2009

ford spokesman calls bill o reilly a moron unofficially

There’s a big brouhaha brewing between an organization called Think Progress (TP) and Fox News Analyst Bill O’Reilly. After Billy Boyz ambushed ThinkProgress.org Managing Editor Amanda Terkel, TP is urging advertisers to pull their ads from Billy’s show. Here’s a response from a Ford spokesman who wasn’t spoking on behalf of Ford, but felt free to use FoMoCo’s imprimatur:

Thanks for the heads up. And while I agree with you about the rantings of the hopelessly pig-headed Mr. O’Reilly, recognize that I am just an innocent bystander in this email letter silliness. I work at Ford and support Ford, but have no idea how the decisions are made on where we advertise. Frankly, as a mainstream company, we advertise everywhere there are good ratings. That is not an endorsement of the show — that is recognition that people are watching the show. Don’t know why they watch that mindless ranting. But they watch in droves. Welcome to America, I guess.

Anyhow, the email campaign is just goofy. The 500 or so notes I am getting an hour are automatically deleted thanks to a simple program in Microsoft Outlook. Form letters are just annoying and easy to get rid of. So no real harm.

I saw the tapes of O’Reilly ambushing Hertzberg of the New Yorker a few month back. It demonstrated how moronic O’Reilly really is. I still read Hertzberg weekly in the New Yorker. And I never, ever watch Bill O’Reilly. Don’t know when he is on. Don’t care. And that’s how you get rid of a show, stop watching. When the ratings dive, the advertisers will leave. The network will kill it off. If we pull our advertising, others will simply pick up the empty spots, and happily so. The show will go on. Sadly.

I might suggest you consider another tactic though. The silly form letters are just annoying and easy to delete. Best of luck. If I had more time, I’d visit ThinkProgress.org. Too busy trying to get Ford back on its feet though. That is important. What Bill O’Reilly does or says is not important.

– spokesman Mark Schirmer, 3/25/09, speaking for himself and not on behalf of the Ford Motor Company

UPDATE [from TP]: Mark Truby, Director of Corporate Communications at Ford Motor Company, tells ThinkProgress over the phone on 3/25/09, Shirmer’s  “comments don’t represent the view of Ford Motor Company.”

Frank Williams

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2 of 41 comments

Lokki on Mar 30, 2009
Yawn. Wake me up when someone says something about cars.

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JohnB on Mar 30, 2009

Let's see, Europe brought the world Totalitarianism, Communism, Marxism, Socialism, Collectivism, Feudalism, Anti-Semitism, and lots more... Plenty of reasons for real Americans not to care what the current Euro-Nannies think...

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