The cognitive dissonance of Bill O'Reilly is nowhere more evident than his attitude towards gays. While he claims that he is down with gay marriage, because he "wants gays to be happy," he also claims that gay marriage is part of a mythical "secular-progressive" agenda bent on destroying "traditional" values which, one assumes, include nice, happy heterosexual marriage like Bill's (just kidding!). But not content with promoting this meme alone, O'Reilly is now attempting to present those who support gay marriage as violent anarchists. The trouble is that his example is a chaotic Parisian protest, between a small group of Ukrainian "Femen" protesters and a larger group of French Catholics. While Bill claims that it's wrong to say that those who oppose gay marriage are homophobic, the intent of this bizarre segment was clearly to paint gays as violent thugs and that's really wrong - actually, it's homophobic.
On November 20th, Bill told his audience that as he's been reporting (ad-nauseam!), "one part of the secular-progressive movement is to destroy tradition like drug laws, marital laws, things of that nature." He reported that "in France, the s-p's are on the march attacking those who want to keep marriage between a man and a woman." He then showed footage of Parisian skirmish betweena small group of pro-gay marriage protesters, dressed as topless nuns, and French traditional Catholics. Bill explained that the topless women weren't really nuns. He asked if those things "could happen here" and added "I think they already have with the Occupy Wall Street movement."
He introduced his guests Alan Colmes and Monica Crowley. Crowley, whose long time boo, the wealthy venture capitalist and board member of the conservative Hudson Institutute, Bill Siegel hasn't put a ring on it (and if he can afford a $50,000 donation to Freedom Works he can afford some nice bling for Monica!), said that "this stuff has been happening for decades." She cited a litany of right wing betes noires: Bill Ayers, Occupy, Van Jones, and Code Pink.. She said that "these are the radicals on the left" and "this is happening all across western society" because all they want is "disruption" so they can "tear it down and rebuild Marxist utopias." (Meanwhile, for Bill's viewing pleasure, the topless nuns were shown on a video loop.)
Bill said that those who want traditional marriage are "peaceful" and "these are the people who disagree." (Uh, no they're not) He asked Alan Colmes why those who support gay marriage can't be peaceful. Colmes said the pro-gay group was attacked by the traditionalists. O'Reilly didn't think it was true and mocked Colmes when he quoted the Washington Post. Bill said "that's not the reports that we have." (The Guardian UK says that the Femen protesters were hit and pushed to the ground.)
Crowley, obviously ignoring the violent anti-abortion Operation Rescue tactics and disruptive teabaggers at town hall meetings, said that these are tactics that "the left has been doing for decades." She repeated her mantra about how "far left" groups go all Alinksy in order to get "a breakdown of traditional values." (Hey girlfriend, shouldn't you and Bill have tied the knot so you can have traditional babies?) She continued to bray about how "great powers start their decline" when "shared values start to deteriorate" and "this republic will crumble" yadda, yadda, yadda.
Bill wanted to know if "topless nuns" are the correct "technique." (Ah-hem). He then preened as he "scolded" Colmes who had cited the states that voted for gay marriage. Bill informed his audience that other states have voted it down and that Colmes "comes off as a propagandist." Crowley said that the "left does not wait for the democratic process" because they are "accelerating the global socialistic agenda."
So Bill O'Reilly and sworn enemy of world socialism, Monica Crowley use a Parisian demonstration, involving a marginal group of Ukrainian women who are not representatve of the American gay community and who go topless for whatever cause they are protesting, as a way to say that gays and those who support gay marriage might be violent thugs who are trying to destroy America. Really? Apart from some heated protests after the passage of Prop 8, there have been no violent protests involving those who support gay marriage. Bill's presentation was a deceptive and manipulative piece to make the gay community look bad.
Bill O'Reilly says that accusing opponents of gay marriage of homophobia is bad. So color me bad, Bill, cause after seeing this atrocity, yeah, you're a homophobe!