Bill O'Reilly may be in trouble.

On a recent edition of his radio show on Fox News Talk and Westwood One, The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, The Frank Burns of News managed to go against the wishes of the man he cheerleads on both his radio and TV shows, US President George W Bush, aka "The Dubya", by using the word lynching in relation to the wife of presidential candidate Barack Obama. The piece relates to a supposed quote from Michelle Obama, about how proud she is about America now because the nation has hope.

On last night's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Keith talked about the story as his number 1 story on the countdown. If my html skills are up to scratch, the video of the segment should appear below.

UK Government sponsors football club!

In all the furore that has taken place over the "nationalisation" of Northern Rock, one small fact seems to been overlooked by the rest of the media.

According to Northern Rock's own web site, the bank are the main sponsor of Newcastle United, and since they are currently owned by the UK government, that means that Newcastle United are the first ever UK football club to be sponsored by the UK government.

Weird or what?

A Viewpoint Original Report: A Jinxed Shop???

Most of the pieces you read here on Viewpoint are commentaries on items in the news or on the net. And most of the time, I'm happy to do just that. Just occasionally though, I like to do some original reporting of my own. The recent posts on CNBC Life have been posts that were not originated from a web piece but from something I spotted on screen whilst watching TV myself. A post asking if it was time the Home Internationals returned to the football schedules was another piece not inspired by something I could link to on the web. So you see, I do follow other things besides what goes on on the web.

Just recently though, I have been noticing in my own town, a growing trend of shops closing down. A sports goods shop closed last month, after a long time of trying to sell off the remaining stock they had. Focus DIY's store out of town is in process of selling off all their remaining stock and closing down, apparently to be replaced by an ASDA supermarket, according to my local sources. And now, a toy shop that opened in town just months ago is closing down as well. They had been based in a store that in recent years has housed everything from a newsagent/card store, to a CD/DVD store and now this, only for them to be closing too.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is not the first time a shop has closed in our town. Hell, many years ago, it was thought that the heart would get ripped out when a popular local department store closed. But it didn't get ripped out, it just adapted. But for one particular shop location in the centre of town, to be so unstable, in other words, to not have a store stay there for a length of time beyond a couple of years in the last 5 years, is quite unusual for Truro. In fact, this is the first time that I can think of in my lifetime that any shop location in town has seen any rapid turnover of shops. Twice, Calendar Club have been there, then Foop, who went to the wall, and now, Hawkin's Bazaar has decided to sell up. And all this has happened since McColl's sold up some years ago, on account of it being too close to WHSmith, who are about two doors down the road from this site.

I can't say that the economic situation looks bad, because it doesn't, but is it the case that that particular shop location is jinxed in some way? I hope somebody moves in there and proves me wrong.

Classic FM's Simon Bates on US television!

If I were to say to you, Simon Bates, what does he do, you'd probably say, he presents Classic FM's breakfast show and he used to be a BBC Radio 1 DJ, and occasional host of Top Of The Pops back in the day. But what if I told you, he also is a commentator for CBS News in the US?

It can be amazing what you can find on the internet sometimes.



There he is, sat somewhere in London, reporting on a story for CBS News's overnight news programme, Up To The Minute. And, by the way, the story itself is an interesting one. A cautionary tale in it's own way, about how details in a story can make all the difference. Fascinating story, told in the inimitable Simon Bates, Our Tune style, only without the background music!

I think if I'd said that Simon Bates was a commentator for CBS News, you'd have thought it was a different person to the Classic FM presenter. Just goes to show, that on the internet, you can find the unexpected, without even looking for it.

Changes at Fox News Watch

Fox News Watch is the Fox News equivalent of CNN's Reliable Sources. I haven't been able to watch it recently because of the fact it changed timeslots. But I respect the programme for the fact it is completely unlike the rest of Fox News output. It truly is fair, balanced and unafraid, especially of criticising their own employers. Still, that is their job, or in some cases, was.

Inside Cable News is reporting that Eric Burns will not be returning to the show when it has a relaunch in the spring. That is a shame, as I like Eric Burns, he was a good moderator on this media discussion show. Trying to control the likes of Neal Gabler, Cal Thomas, Jim Pinkerton and Jane Hall was a tough job for anyone. I hope that Fox doesn't change it for the worse and makes it just like the rest of the network, as that would be disastrous. But I can't help feeling that Fox News Watch's weeks may be numbered.

America Votes 2008: Super Tuesday

They're still voting in 23 states right now, but in West Virignia, the Republican Caucus is over and NBC News/MSNBC are calling it a win for Mike Huckabee, giving him another 18 delegates. Huckabee polled 567 votes, against Romney's 521 votes and McCain's 12 votes. This is a winner take all state, so all 18 delegates go to Mike Huckabee. But the Romney camp is crying foul.

A McCain vs Obama contest would be very interesting as both would look to take the "moderate" vote as it is termed over in the US. To me that would mean a very interesting contest for the politcial centre, and perhaps a more interesting fight than a Romney vs Clinton one where both have strong bases in their side of the political spectrum but do not stretch very far into the political centre.