Despite Bill O'Reilly's laughable claim that he ignores "guttersnipes" and his legion of alleged "enemies," the reality is that he is very much consumed with those who just can't accept his omniscience. And whenever these malefactors get under Bill's splotchy, blotchy skin, devout Catholic Bill launches all sorts of personal attacks on these individuals and in so doing, unleashes a torrent of nasty and threatening e-mails from righteous Bill's righteous minions whose love for Bill's invective provides nice ratings for Bill and Fox News. Such was the case, last week, when Bill accused a Philadelphia Daily News entertainment writer of being a "pinhead" because his snark about Bill's epic tome, "Killing Jesus" was, according to Bill, an attack on Bill's Christianity. And since Bill brought this egregious offensive to the attention of his viewers, the writer has received nasty e-mails, some of which are anti-Semitic. Call me a pinhead, Bill, but even though you write about Jesus, you're not exactly a paragon of Christianity!
Recently, Howard Gensler (the Philadelphia Daily News Tattle Columnist) joked that if "the Almighty had come to O'Reilly in a dream, telling him to write the book "Killing Jesus," God might have come up with a more original title." He also "asked if God also gave O'Reilly the title for "Pinheads and Patriots" as well as some other amusing observations. Fairly innocuous stuff, but for O'Reilly, who is the arbiter of all that is good and holy, this was a mortal sin.
Last Friday, O'Reilly launched into his attack at the end of his "Pinheads and Patriots" segment by informing the audience that he was going to be interviewed, on "60 Minutes," during which time, he would discuss his book, "Killing Jesus." He played the CBS clip that featured Bill talking about how his ideas come to him (ahem) "in the middle of the night" and how he woke up, one night, with the Holy Spirit inspired idea for "Killing Jesus." He then said, with a straight face, that he's been "given gifts" which he's trying to "use in a positive way."
After he cut away from the video, the guttersnipe and enemy ignoring Bill brayed about how, after reading the transcript of the interview, the "secular press" began to "mock" Bill. (Oh, no you didn't!) He informed his viewers that Howard Gensler (Bill accentuated the name Gensler), of the Philadelphia Daily News, wrote a column that, OMG, satirized O'Reilly's comments about having been divinely inspired to write "Killing Jesus." He provided quotes from the *wrongly dated article in which Gensler says, accurately, that O'Reilly claims that "God told him" to write the book and asks if God gave Bill the title for "Pinheads and Patriots."
Sure to engender even more snark (Daily Show please take notice), O'Reilly looked at the camera and said "for sure, Howard and that's why I can designate you as a pinhead." He continued to bray that "this goes way beyond that, doesn't it Howard, you're mocking my Christianity and faith." He asked if Gensler's paper "sanctions that." Bill kept up the attack: "Would I mock your religious beliefs, if you have any, Howard, way out of line, Howard, you're a major pinhead."
After accusing Gensler of attacking his faith, Bernard McGuirk joked "What's the difference between Jesus Christ and Bill O'Reilly? Jesus Christ didn't walk around thinking he was Bill O'Reilly." Rather than becoming outraged that McGuirk was mocking Jesus, O'Reilly laughed uproariously.
Today, Gensler crafted a well-worded response to O'Reilly in which he notes that O'Reilly selectively cherry picked quotes in order to promote the meme that Gensler was attacking his faith rather than just snarking on O'Reilly's overinflated ego. Gensler also provides some examples of hate mail from O'Reilly's rabid cult members: "Now that you have made fun of a Christian man for writing a book about Jesus, please make fun of a Jewish man and a Muslim man when they write books about their faith. You are a legend in your own mind" and If O'Reilly wrote 'Killing Mohamed' you would have an orgasm. You liberals are so predictable." And then there's this: "Hey gentler [sic] you're just another reason why Jews have been hated for CENTURIES." Gensler notes that there were more comments on his Judaism. (O'Reilly should be so proud of his fan base!)
So much for O'Reilly using his "gifts" in "a positive way."
*The original piece was September 27th, not August 17th as indicated on O'Reilly's visual.
Come on, Billy boy, weren’t you just recently chiding Reich for taking your “communist” remark too seriously? Why don’t you take your own advice and get yourself a sense of humor? LOL, as usual, BOR can dish it out but he can’t take it.