Who knew that the media was responsible for the growing acceptance of gay marriage!!!  But that's what Bill O'Reilly says, so it must be true. Some might say that the growing acceptance of gay marriage is due to society's realization that gays are vital and vibrant members of the community and that their marriages don't have any effect on "traditional marriages." There is also the demographic reality that the socially liberal younger generation is far more accepting of gay marriage than their elders who still cling to what is seen as baseless bigotry rooted in archaic norms. There's also the issue of justice which, for many, factors into their view that gay marriage is a civil rights issue related to fairness. But for Bill O'Reilly, it's the media that's to blame for this increasing tolerance. Oh, the horror, the horror!

Monday night, Bill used his "Talking Points" to rebut Rush Limbaugh's belief that liberals have won. (Oh, nooooo) Once again, Bill lambasted those lazy moochers (minorities?) who "want money for nothing" rather than needing assistance because the recession has left them under/unemployed and, unlike Bill, they have problems paying for stuff like housing, food, and health care. (Funny, Bill hates abortion, but when poor women with babies need support, Bill would claim that they want "money for nothing." But he's a devout Catholic so it's all good...)

O'Reilly switched gears to talk about a "big shift in social matters." After citing stats that showed an increase in support for pot legalization and gay marriage, he pontificated that "we are in the struggle to define America" and channeled some Joe McCarthy with the comment that "the left has powerful agents in the media and pop culture." He opined that the right is disorganized but "if a charismatic conservative leader can emerge and can fight off the media jackals that person can turn the country to the right" because "America is a place of achievement." He concluded that the "left has not won."

During his follow-up discussion with Mary Katherine Ham and Juan William, Bill bloviated about why the public is more favorably disposed towards gay marriage: "Number one, a very well thought-out campaign by the media led by people like Ellen DeGeneres, who is right now the most popular personality in the country. And the media embraced it. And number two, the failure on the right to articulate a defense on why you shouldn’t have gay marriage. Their argument wasn’t strong enough to overwhelm the pop culture media, you should have it."

He said, to Juan, that "there is a shift in the way that people are seeing events, social issues in particular." Juan responded that the country is changing. When Juan mentioned that conservatives were behind the Prop 8 victory, Bill said "conservatives and black Americans." (Actually, Bill most of the money, in support of Prop.8 came from the Catholic and Mormon churches.)

So obviously Bill, whose audience blindly believes whatever he says, believes that the rest of America base their opinions on the liberal press which has somehow seduced Americans into being more tolerant. Bill doesn't and probably can't accept the reality that his rigid authoritarian, paranoid, and doctrinaire world view is being seen, by an increasing number of people, as irrelevant and just plain stupid. As more gay couples have come out, heterosexuals realize that much of the fear about gays is baseless and that gay marriage has no effect on anything except the happiness of the gays. But if the mainstream media has changed the social views of many Americans, it's pretty powerful! LOL, no wonder Bill hates it.