Bill O'Reilly's baseless and hateful invective against Sandra Fluke is troubling when one considers what happened when O'Reilly's baseless and hateful invective against Dr. Tiller contributed to a climate of hate in which the doctor was murdered. And Bill isn't the only right wing man who loathes Fluke. Rush Limbaugh set the pace in the slut shaming of Fluke that has now become part of the conservative narrative - a narrative that Bill's fellow Fox "pro-life"pundit, Greg Gutfeld, has also advanced. As Amanda Marcotte points out, in her incisive article about why Fluke drives conservatives "bananas," the misogynistic reaction to Fluke stems from her challenge to patriarchal fantasies about womanhood. As I reported, O'Reilly (a misogynist defender of patriarchal fantasies) used his show to promote what appears to be the lie that Fluke wants taxpayers to fund transgender surgery - a lie that was advanced, by, Fox in March. He's now taken the lie to his column. Words matter. While O'Reilly claims that liberals are divisive, his baseless and hateful words are truly toxic.
In his article "Left Behind If Obama Goes Down," O'Reilly, with obvious venom dripping from each key stroke, takes aim at "liberal strides" made during the Obama administration. Once again, Bill's "facts," are merely projections and baseless allegations.
"Gay marriage is now accepted by most folks. Medical marijuana is openly sold in many cities to people with no maladies whatsoever. Anyone who opposes abortion can be categorized as biased against women. Successful Americans and prosperous small business owners are not paying their "fair share" in taxes. And, you are racist if you oppose Barack Obama's liberal political viewpoint."
But then he repeats his televised lie about Fluke: "Sandra Fluke and her crew not only want you to pay for female birth control, they also want you to pay for "transgender medical needs." That means if Harry meets Sally and they want to switch genders through expensive surgical procedures, the American taxpayer gets the bill. And if you oppose that — you are a bigot."
The reality is that Sandra Fluke once co-wrote an article, in a Georgetown journal, about how the transgender community faces discrimination when their health insurers refuse to provide coverage for gender reassignment surgery. Fluke and her co-author expressed their view that this surgery should be covered. As I reported in my earlier thread, all available information, most of it from right wing sources, clearly states that Fluke's commentary dealt with insurers. It appears that she didn't, as Bill O'Reilly claims, advocate for American taxpayers to pay the bill. And she never said that those who disagree with her are bigots.
Bill does seem to have a real problem with Sandra Fluke. And he does seem unusually cranky. Wonder if it has something to do with divorce court...??? (For those who don't know, his wife has a separate residence and was dating a local cop much to O'Reilly's chagrin).But whatever, it's bad enough that O'Reilly made a bogus claim about Fluke on TV. And now he's doubling down by putting it in his column? And speaking of bogus claims, O'Reilly also lied when he once said that he doesn't do personal attacks!!!
O'Reilly has a list of all the news outlets that carry his paper. In your spare time, you might want to contact them about Bill's bogus personal attacks on those who pose no threat to him at all - or, in the case of strong, liberal women, maybe they do!
Heads up — BOR brought this up again tonight’s “Is It Legal” segment. However, this time, BOR tried to pull a fast one with regards to his previous lie that Fluke wants taxpayers to cover the cost of transgender surgery.
Instead of sticking with his previous statement in which he declared that Fluke wants the folks to pay for these surgeries, he acted as if he wasn’t sure whether Fluke had said that. He said, “Now, Sandra Fluke, our pal, alright, she – has she weighed in on on this or is it just a general thing that she wants?” and after the Guilfoyle and Wiehl straightened him out with regards to the facts by telling him that Fluke had said that employers should cover the surgery, BOR said, “So she hasn’t weighed in on the prison deal? She says that if you have a job…”.
This is the point where BOR should have admitted to his viewers that he got the story wrong in his previous reports – but he didn’t and he instead attempts a lame ass joke and jazzes Wiehl.
What a dishonest punk he is. He should have told his viewers right then and there that HE had misinformed (lied to) them about Fluke. He also owes a public apology to Fluke for telling this fib about her but it doesn’t look like he has any intention of doing that. As Ellen pointed out in a related post, it’s BOR who is “smug and immature”, not Fluke. A mature man with an ounce of integrity would admit that he got it wrong instead of trying to pull a fast one on his viewers. BOR’s honor and credibility isn’t worth sh!t.
