kurt vonnegut

During a panel discussion on 'The O'Reilly Factor" (weekdays, 8PM ET on Fox News), correspondent James Rosen quoted the late novelist Kurt Vonnegut, who, according to Rosen, once said "Americans vote for president based on which of the competing TV shows they could possibly stand to watch for the next four years."

Hearing the name Vonnegut jogged O'Reilly's memory, and he quickly produced a Vonnegut quote of his very own.

"This is absolutely true what I'm going to tell you, Rosen," O'Reilly bragged.

"Kurt Vonnegut once said to me ... quote 'I don't agree with anything you've ever said' unquote," O'Reilly recollected, sounding rather proud of himself for having once elicited such a strong response from the famed author

And if you were ever wondering what Kurt Vonnegut thought about Bill O'Reilly, that should pretty much clear it up.

Why can't certain news networks do an obituary of someone without adding on some political, personal dig?

Case in point, this Kurt Vonnegut obituary that FOX News ran recently. Sure, Vonnegut was no doubt a lefty (his last book of essays would tell anyone that), but the entire tone of the obit is pretty shitty.

"By the late 70s, Vonnegut was rich and irrelevent." Really? I think a lot of people, including me, got to know Vonnegut's writing in the 70s and 80s, and that a lot of his work rings true to present times. And why the comment about "being rich?" Oh, yeah, those damn liberal elitists and their money! The reporter also says that Vonnegut "failed at suicide" (that's a clever dig, not only mention a suicide attempt but that he FAILED at it), had writings filled with "mumbo-jumbo," and had "scatalogical humor." Using Vonnegut's own words (the part about male writers being past their prime at 55 and then the reporter saying "but Vonnegut kept at it," as if he should just quit his work) against him.