Clooney vs. O'Reilly

What do you guys think about the current feud? I have to say that I agree with O'Reilly that the charitable orgaizations have really dropped the ball in handing out the money they received. It is ridiculous that the self-righteous Red-Cross has decided they will keep a portion of the money to spend on their own interests. I do, however, think it was unfair for O'Reilly to specifically attack the celebrity telethon, which was the largest and most successful fundraiser ever. I really don't like most actors and celebs, but Clooney seems to be one of the more talented and intellegent of the bunch. His letter in response to O'Reilly's comments is scathing and funny. He is right when he says it seems that O'Reilly is trying to goad the celebs to come on his show by personally attacking them. If O'Reilly had presented his arguement as to say "it is the duty of the celebs who helped raise this money to make sure it is given to those in need" instead of calling them arrogant and attacking their character when most were probably just trying to do something to help, I would have agreed. It seems that he went too far. Interestingly, the United way fund seems to be one of the best as far as these incompetant charities go, so his attack on them specifically is suspect, IMO. I am curious about other people's take on this feud and the performance of the charities in general.


-g-

Glenn -


This is only my opinion so please don't take offense, but....


Why don't you go back and re-read the transcript and see who's being treated unfair? Looks like the victims of the WTC are the ones that are getting the shaft. If George Clooney and the other "celebs" REALLY care they should whip out their inflated checkbooks and start giving DIRECTLY instead of posing for a camera and making sure their PR rep has something to write about....


This is a disgrace that less-than-HALF of the proceeds are going to the families of 9/11. I work a block away from Ground Zero and can tell you first hand that this is an atrocity beyond words.


Just so the other 2plus2 readers are up to date attached is the letter from George Clooney and Bill O'Reilly's commentary

Here's my take on the Red Cross.


The Red Cross was the first organization on the scene with ambulances, paramedics, water, medicine, blankets, food and temporary shelter.


The expenses that the Red Cross incurred to aid the victims of the WTC were raised from contributions from previous disasters. The Red cross uses it's funds to send aid worldwide.


It's not surprising that they would have a problem distributing money to the victims considering they have never done that before.

I completely agree with you about the incompetance of the relief organizations. It is sad to see these self-righteous organizations withholding donations from those they were intended for. This, however should be the focus of the arguement, not people who used their popularity to try and help, IMO. I am sure that, as you stated, a few stars did this as a PR move, but if you were a celebrity wouldn't you have gone on the telethon if you thought it would help? Most were probably good-intentioned, and expected the United Way to be able to actually distribute the money. As far as giving their own money...who is saying they're not? Didn't Schwartzeneger (sp?)give a million dollars? I assume a fair number of the stars gave money in addition to doing PR, but how would we know? I think these organizations need to be grilled, and the stars should do what they can to see the money is fairly allocated, but I also think that O'Reilly's move to attack the stars was either a poorly designed way to get them to pressure these organizations or a PR ploy. I normally respect him but this time I don't see his methods as being constructive. The Red Cross is upgrading their telecommunications systems among other things, while victim's families still can't pay their bills. This is the problem that needs to be solved. The arrogance of Hollywood is irrelevant.


Note: I don't think this silly personal feud is important compared to the real problems at hand, but it brings up many interesting questions about the duties of celebs and the methods of journalists that people might have differing opinions on.


-g-

This is kind of unrelated, but say the Red Cross wrote a victim's family a $25000 check to help them after the disaster. Do they have to pay income tax or some other tax on that? In the case of losing your house to a hurricane or something I assume you could write off property losses to negate the income, but this is a little different.


Just curious,


-g-

It would most probably be treated like an inurance claim and since insurance is a reimbursement for value lost ther would be no income taxes on it.