Move over Miley Cyrus, Bill O'Reilly has a new obsession. It's been almost a week since Sandra Fluke spoke at the Democratic Convention and Bill O'Reilly just can't stop slut shaming and lying about her. As News Hounds Ellen pointed out, he couldn't stop talking about her on Monday night's "Factor." Last night he continued his obsessive fixation on how Fluke during his seemingly endless braying about how these "far left" sluttly slut feminists and Planned Parenthood want to open drive through abortion clinicsat the nearest mall. Snark aside, O'Reilly is a fan of the white, Christian, male power structure who long for the "halcyon" days, when women "knew their place" and "accepted that sex was a dirty thing they should go out of their way to avoid, lest the taint of it made them unmarriageable." For O'Reilly and his patriarichal pals, Fluke epitomizes a new kind of woman who isn't willing to conform to fifties fantasies of womanhood. For Bill O'Reilly, she's a bad girl who needs to be punished.
O'Reilly's newest meme is that those who spoke out for reproductive rights, at the Democratic Convention, are a bunch of "far left" zealots who will alienate more moderate Democrats. The reality is that 60% of Democrats are pro-choice. Meanwhile, he hasn't said bupkis about the truly far right GOP platform which calls for a constitutional amendment that will ban all abortions even in cases of rape and incest. Meanwhile O'Reilly, who has never and never will face a pregnancy that would be an economic hardship or a health risk, totally denies that abortion rights and access to abortion are being eroded at a record pace.
Last night, during his interview with George Stephanopoulos, O'Reilly obsessed. He said that although there are moderate Democrats in the party, "speaker after speaker" at the Democratic Convention were "very far left." He asked if that surprised Stephanopoulos. After Stephanopoulos said that it "energizes" Democrats in the same way that immigration issues do, O'Reilly said that there are a many positions on immigration and pivoted back to the obsession: "Unfettered abortion, we're talking partial birth" (it's so-called partial birth, Bill) "we're talking don't tell the parents if the girl is 12" (14 states already have no parental notification) "we're talking basically anything goes. That's what NARAL wants, Planned Parenthood, Sandra Fluke. They all want that."
Stephanopoulos agreed that it could hurt Democrats and asserted that Bill Clinton's position, that abortion be "safe, legal, and rare," is the position of most Americans. (Not O'Reilly who wants it illegal and unsafe!). When he said that support for abortion declines "when common sense restrictions are not allowed, Bill agreed and said "that's what Caroline Kennedy, Fluke and all these people were saying that 'hey listen don't you be limiting me, we want to choose anything." Stephanopoulos' comment that these women were talking more about contraception provided the perfect seque for Bill to commence the lying and slut shaming:
Nah, I think that's a straw man...a ghost issue that got Sandra Fluke a lot of publicity but the majority of Americans simply don't want to pay for it, OK, George. They don't want to pay for Sandra Fluke's lifestyle choices whatever they may be. I'm in that camp and if you're gonna tell me that I gotta pay for Sandra Fluke's birth control, I'm gonna tell you that's an extremist position."
When Stephanopoulos tried to say that Americans don't want Planned Parenthood defunded, Bill yelled about how he wants it de-funded because they do abortions. When Stephanopoulos said that most Americans support Planned Parenthood, Bill said he didn't believe it and if Americans were asked if they want their tax dollars to go to Planned Parenthood they would say no. He did admit that he could be wrong but "he's very rarely wrong."
As do all the right wing misogynists, O'Reilly misrepresents Fluke's advocacy which is for contraception with no co-payment for all women who have health insurance - something that is now available to Fox News employees and which O'Reilly is now paying for. Unless his insurer is the same as Georgetown's, he has no connection to birth control for Georgetown women. Fluke NEVER alluded to her own "lifestyle choices." Unmentioned by O'Reilly and others on Fox is how Fluke spoke of the unfairness of Georgetown employees having their birth control covered while the students, who PAY for their health insurance, don't. But who needs facts when you have a personal attack to launch.
In the war on women, O'Reilly is the commander-in-chief!
(2019 update: Video no longer available)
“…or viagra, for that matter.” My point exactly. What’s good for the gander should be good for the goose. (I know that’s not quite how the saying goes but a gander is male …).
“… trivialise the civil rights movement and other causes by the comparison.”: The right to be considered equal under law is not a trivial conquest by any standard.
“…plans that do not cover certain âlifestyleâ items …”: the insinuation, here, is that women who practice birth control are promiscuous (=sluts in the language of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly). That’s simply not true: the vast majority of women using birth control want to keep on loving their husbands physically without compromising their ability as parents to feed, clothe and educate the kids. Catholics throughout the world are ignoring the ban on contraception.
“… long-standing religious institutions and their beliefs be bent to the Will of the State.” So Mormons can go back to polygamy and marriage at puberty? Arranged marriages are OK if they’re common in the old country ? Christian men from countries where beating the wife and kids is accepted can continue to do so when they come to America?
And how long must a religion exist for it to be considered “long-standing”? 4000 years or more (Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism)? 1957 years (Christianity)? 600 years (Islam)? 200 years (LDS)? 60 years (Scientology)?
In a contrast between anything and the greater good (healthy kids, happy parents, a skilled workforce and consumers with money in their pockets), it’s the greater good that should prevail.
PS: You may not know that the administrators of the site can find out if you’re actually Henry Ritter. Using a sockpuppet is frowned upon in polite circles.
Sandra’s cause is the same one I fought for when I was young(er) during the Sixties. There are elements in the USA and elsewhere that are trying to roll back our rights and we’re having none of it, so there (boo!)
Are you aware that viagra is covered by many health plans? Do you consider that to be silly or illogical. Thought not.
Joseph West: Indeed, the submission of women is a fixation of practically all the fundamentalist sects, starting with the Taliban.
In Bill O’Reilly’s pinoli-sized brain, the Taliban are wrong only because he (Bill) doesn’t have a financial interest in the sale of burqa-making cloth. His fixation on Ms. Fluke is so pathological that it cannot fail to disgust most people, especially women.
Sorry, Bill, I didn’t quite get that … could you please repeat it?
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The irony, of course, is that the same men wouldn’t think twice about finding a hooker or take a mistress to have all that sex that the wives wouldn’t do because the husbands made them feel ashamed for enjoying sex. (And we mustn’t forget the men who would, in one breath, go persecuting the “queers” in the workplace while seeking them out for sex in parks and public bathrooms before heading home to the wife and kids.)
And these men would then teach their sons it was perfectly acceptable to seek out some “tramp” to sate his teenage lusts but to seek out a “good girl” to marry. (The daughters, of course, were warned about the nasty “perverts” who only wanted one thing from them and that, if they should let themselves be “used,” they’d better be ready to find somewhere else to live if they found themselves in the “family way.”)
(Just as a minor technicality, the power structure that O’Reilly really favors wasn’t limited to “white” or “Christian” when it came to women. That particular power structure applied to all men—except the “queers”—of all colors and faiths.)