“Civility itself took a dive with the rise of Fox, and has never recovered. The shouters, the boasters, the haters who show up at town hall meetings or pollute the Web with dark fantasies get their behavioral cues from Fox. O’Reilly is famous for telling guests to 'shut up,' for cutting off people he disagrees with, for smugly praising his own performances and bringing on sycophants to do the same. By comparison, Ron Burgundy is a model of humility.”

-- Timothy Egan, “Bill O'Reilly's Gift for the Ages,” The New York Times, Feb. 13, 2014

Cf. How Fox News and its viewers see themselves as the last bastions of the polite values of small-town America.

Shut ... up?

Tags: Bill OReilly, FOX-News, Timothy Egan