Couple of weeks ago, I pointed out Bill O'Reilly's sheer hypocrisy when he accused the Huffington Post of making "misleading" comments when he misleads (lies?) on a regular basis. Shortly thereafter, O'Reilly, once again, proved my point with a misleading comment about London's Muslim mayor
As the defender of white, Christian America, Bill O'Reilly has a problem with Muslims who, he suggests, belong to a religion which is "a destructive force in the world," unlike Christianity which, he believes, is squeaky clean. His us vs. them world view seemed to buttress his recent attempt to portray the Muslim mayor of London as not-one-of-us. But when the basis for his claim is examined, it appears that O'Reilly might be engaging in the same kind of "deceptive" reporting that he accuses others of.
On June 24th, Bill and his fellow Christian pal, Eric Bolling, reflected on the ramifications of the Brexit vote. In projecting his own xenophobia, O'Reilly said that it was all about immigration. (Hey, Bill, remember "no Irish need apply?") O'Reilly claimed that England's Muslims and West Indians (read, black people) haven't assimilated. Bill opined that the Brits equate Muslim immigration with terrorism. In order to, I guess, prove his point, O'Reilly interjected a total non-sequitor or, in the common parlance, pulled one out of his ass:
"They have a Muslim mayor of London, you know, recently banned subway ads that he didn't like, women in bathing suits. I think that the British people have had it, and they fear terrorism just as the American people fear terrorism."
So what does the Muslim mayor of London have to do with terrorism? Don't know. I also don't know why Bill mentioned bathing suits (hmmmm) but it could have been and attempt to show that the Muslim mayor doesn't have our level of western enlightenment. I do know that O'Reilly didn't provide any context to his claim which would show that Mayor Sadiq Khan seems to be far more enlightened than maybe even Bill O'Reilly.
According to the British Telegraph, the mayor banned bathing suit ads from the London subway because they "encouraged unhealthy or unrealistic body images" - a very contemporary problem that manifests itself in a whole range of dysfunctional behaviors on the part of women, especially teens - an issue that was discussed by the leggy ladies (who defended body shaming) on Fox's Outnumbered, The mayor said that "as the father of two teenage girls, I am extremely concerned about this kind of advertising which can demean people, particularly women, and make them ashamed of their bodies. It is high time it came to an end." No Islamic theology here.
The ads cause a huge controversy and elicited a petition, with 70,000 signatures, which asserted that the sponsor is "directly targeting individuals, aiming to make them feel physically inferior … in order to sell their product." Clearly, this wasn't a movement, as O'Reilly would have you believe, led by fundamentalist Muslim clergy.
So is Bill O'Reilly misleading his viewers? Wait, what....