Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly ran a hilariously nasty 5-minute segment about Key West on December 9th. Bill sent Jesse “Watters World” down to report on us, mainly that we’re drunken outlaws. Sixteen different scenes show homeless drunks at Higgs and Sloppy Joe’s. Even sober interviewees say, for example, “All there is to do here is hookers and blow,” and “We don’t give a damn about America.” Four people didn’t know who Joe Biden is.
But it is an amusing and captivating piece, interspersing 12 snippets from movies like Batman, Animal House, and the Sopranos, and 8 Chamber of Commerce-style pretty views of our city. You can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ASKdexgh_s.
On the one hand, Watters gets a homeless guy at Higgs Beach to proudly say he trades his food stamps for “vodka, beer, and cigarettes,” and another eye-rollingly drunken shirtless homeless man to say all he does is get drunk and chase women.
On the other hand, there are some nice scenes at the Bight, along with the CoC snips. O’Reilly cleverly avoids any defamation lawsuits by saying a few nice things about us: he’s been coming here “undercover” since 1971, Hemingway and Truman “liked to hang out there,” “No place is more colorful than Key West,” and that it is a “beautiful town, very pretty.”
But overwhelming the kisses are the punches in the gut. The show declares us to be a “notorious outlaw town,” with most of us “running from the law,” only wearing a suit to “go to court.” We’ve come here because “In Key West, they’ll let you do whatever you want. [Watters] didn’t see one police officer while [he] was there.” Families with kids should absolutely avoid us, “not even a day trip.”
The worst image is Watters’ analogy: “They say if you shake the U.S., the sediment goes to Florida. If you shake Florida, the rest of the mess goes to Key West.”
The O’Reilly Factor had almost three million viewers on Dec. 9th. Here we are all sensitive about our hordes of cruise ship passengers on Duval, and elder-nudity at Fantasy Fest, while the Watters piece makes those images seem laudatory by compare.
How many of our Tourist Development Council ads have that kind of viewership? Maybe we can use the insult to get some positive coverage out of O’Reilly—he loves controversy, and does not shy away from it. He may in fact admire our coming after him, and expects us to.
We could demand a “fair and balanced” counterpoint to Watters’ slam. It could show our beautiful Old Town homes, Zach Taylor beach, a meeting of the Literary Seminar, a performance at Tennessee Williams Theater, Richard Matson painting a house scene, poetry night at Blue Heaven, a mass at St. Mary’s (Bill is Catholic), one of our schooners on a sunset sail, the Studios at the Old Armory, the restaurant at Sunset Key, the garden at West Martello, the BOQ on Trumbo (Bill is big on the military), Bayview Park, and our Holiday Parade. Plus your own favorite. Easily done in 5 minutes by local video talent.
Fortunately, our city commissioners are right on top of this. Billy Wardlow has asked city manager Bob Vitas to draft a letter for the Commissioners and Mayor to sign. Teri Johnston said Bob “very eloquently addressed” the Fox segment on Bill Becker’s radio show.
She said she saw Watters at Blue Heaven, but “I guess the ambiance of Blue Heaven or the revitalization of Petronia Street by really good, quality people is not noteworthy.”
Tony Yaniz wants “(perhaps a bit tongue in cheek) a resolution barring O’Reilly, Watters, and the rest of the Fox Nazis from entering our city limits.” As I suggest above, he thinks we would get equal media time. He adds, “I will support any efforts from City Hall and/or our media.”
Alright! Go get ’em, Bob Vitas and our Commissioners!
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No such thing as bad press? I think it would be great if all the FOX watchers stayed away from us for fear of rubbing shoulders with homeless “pirates”.
Rick, I do not see Fox as nazis, but I do see the other libdem media as commies. Ha. I saw the Watters segment and knew that there are other elements of Key West that are noteworthy. They just don’t get viewer attention as that target segment of society does. Even when the media comes to Ann Arbor, MI, they film that segment also. It rather makes those of us that do not (yet) belong to that segment of society realize that it does exist everywhere, and that we are not (yet) apart of it and strive not to be. I say keep the local government out of this with O’Reilly. Government is too much in our face. Keep it out I say.
I think Key West Officials and the TDC should invite visits from many different perspectives. Invite other shows to jump on the band wagon and find different twists to the town: “where the weird go pro.” We should acknowledge our challenges, (like the homeless problem) and advertise the facts and how the challenges are being addressed. For example, I know KOTS is not a luxury hotel, but at least it is a shelter where people can go and get a shower and a mat for the night.
At the same time, each of the less than positive ad runs, the TDC should run a counter ad in the same audience. Any time the name Key West gets mentioned, it is an opportunity to bring curious tourists here and help sustain the tourist dependent economy.
well really….while it didn’t show the beauty, the big tourist catch is “come as you are, and you can getaway from the world in key west” Those mentalities are key west which they showed. we living here have to put up with the drunken idiocy, and it is embraced for tourist dollars. don’t seek out that revenue, but then lamblast it when it is shown to be what it is. do you think our tourists don’t see all this? that may not be the Key West we are proud of, but instead of skewering FOX news, for showing the truth, do something to clean it up. It is what it is…they didn’t hire actors.