Bill O'Reilly has decided he knows better than the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - as well as medical doctors who have appeared on Fox - about how to keep Americans safe from the Ebola virus. Hint: it has nothing to do with vaccines, treatments or protocols and everything to do with barring West Africans from the U.S. And ramping up distrust of the Obama administration.
Tonight's Talking Points Memo on this subject was called, “Why the federal government is not protecting America.” The main reason, according to O'Reilly, seems to be because the head of the CDC is afraid to go on The O'Reilly Factor and tell Americans the truth. Or something.
O'Reilly worked himself into a seething lather. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that ratcheting up fear of Ebola and distrust of the federal government three weeks in advance of the midterm elections might help the GOP. Because O'Reilly is only looking out for you. And that's why he knows you don't need a real doctor to tell you what you should know about preventing an Ebola epidemic in the U.S.:
Talking Points has said from the beginning there is no compelling reason why West Africans should be admitted to the U.S.A. when there is an Ebola epidemic raging in that region. Think about it! Think about it! This is a national security issue, is it not? What reason is there on this earth not to suspend visas from that area? The truth is, there is no reason, just a bunch of excuse making.
Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel and Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have explained to Fox News viewers the reasons why that's not a good idea. But what would they know, next to “Dr.” O'Reilly?
Then, on to the O'Reilly scapegoat of the day, Dr. Tom Frieden, the head of The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frieden – along with Siegel and Fauci - says that such a quarantine would make matters worse.
But O'Reilly knows better! He said about Frieden:
Total garbage! We have asked Dr. Frieden a number of times to appear on The Factor. He will not, because he is afraid. He knows that I know he's not being candid, that he's spinning the situation and not being forthcoming about how the disease is being spread.
Then why didn't O'Reilly have another infectious disease specialist on the show to make that case? Or was it more politically expedient to grandstand without the inconvenient possibility of an expert throwing a wrench in his tirade?
"Frieden should resign," “Dr.” O'Reilly continued. Perhaps he or "Dr." Donald Trump can replace him.
O'Reilly went on to offer his prescription for charter flights for medical personnel in and out of West Africa and to declare disease screening by civilians at airports “stupid and irresponsible and puts all Americans at risk.” O'Reilly continued, “It's a dumb and dangerous ruse and Frieden is the chief propagandist.”
By the way, with all that ranting and raving, he never got around to questioning what is going on at that Texas hospital that first released an Ebola patient and then somehow didn't follow protocols well enough to protect its staff. Think it might have something to do with the fact that investigating a hospital would do little or nothing for Republicans in the upcoming elections compared to fomenting more anger and fear about the Obama administration?
Watch it below.
They hold meetings with the mouthpieces about the day’s show. Deciding the so-called angle of the story. All of them are worthless amateurs. The interns are way smarter than these cafeteria Catholics.
Billy should be concerned on the number of people in and out of the News Corporation/21st Century Fox skyscraper on a daily basis. Who knows what they are carrying, right Billy? People fly in from other states and countries to visit the suits at their headquarters. Should Billy be scared? We suggest he quit Fox “News” and go hide inside his little mansion.
They’re playing partisan politics with a killer disease. How about that?
