Last night, Bill O’Reilly followed up his shockingly hostile tirade against African Americans of the night before with ill-tempered directives for how they should combat black crime. Papa Bear O’Reilly – without offering a single bit of evidence or evidence that he has done any research to back up his assumption – has concluded that single parenthood is the root of the problem and must be combatted, not with contraception or sex education, but with public service announcements by black leaders. The lack thereof, O’Reilly has further decided – also without offering any substance for it – proves black leaders have been derelict. Therefore, Papa Bear has concluded he has license to berate African American leaders for not doing as he thinks fit. All in the name of good will toward blacks, of course.
Still holding himself up as courageous, as opposed to mean-spirited and antagonistic, O’Reilly began last night’s show with another Talking Points commentary that repeated many of the themes from the night before. But this time, he added a dash of self-congratulations along with his venom: “So far, there’s been no credible challenge to what I said last night because facts are facts. Young black men commit murder at ten times, ten times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined. The country’s failure to deal with poverty and crime in the black precincts is a disgrace. That is true racism.”
Well, Bill, you can call it a true washing machine or a true anything else but that won’t make it so, any more than calling your blatant antipathy to African Americans concern about their welfare. And as for your facts? Not quite so, either.
Guest Marc Morial, head of the National Urban League, visited the show as balance to O’Reilly’s fulminations. Morial tried respectfully to let O’Reilly know he was doing nothing to help the situation with his approach. Morial said, “Bill, I think you’re missing the point and you’re missing an opportunity that you have with your considerable platform to help with the conversation about whether it’s the crime problem, the unemployment problem and the like. And the reason why is, you can’t start the conversation by simply name calling, castigating and attacks. And I believe you’ve talked with great force in the past about the need for there to be civility about this set of problems that this nation faces. So your platform could be a platform that could help us bridge this divide.”
But O’Reilly didn’t want to play nice. And he obviously didn’t care about bridging any divide. He impatiently interrupted Morial to reiterate his obsession from the night before about public service announcements, and demanded to know why the Urban League and other civil rights organizations hadn’t made any.
Why isnt’ there more emphasis on solving that problem (out-of-wedlock pregnancy)? Why are there no public service announcements from your organization or other civil rights organizations telling black girls, “Don’t become pregnant. That’s not going to lead to anything good.”
Then, as Morial began to invite O’Reilly (presumably to visit African American community gatherings), O’Reilly began jabbing his finger and revealing his utter lack of genuine interest in African Americans other than as props for his race-baiting theatrics. His voice rising, he said testily, “I don’t want the invitiation. I want to know why you guys haven’t put out a campaign to fight against these pregnancies that are leading to crime and poverty. Why haven’t you done that?”
As Morial tried to explain what is being done, O’Reilly cut him off so as to issue his marching orders for blacks:
We need to come together from the president on down. Stop the B.S. Stop the diversions. Stop accusing people of one way or another. And come to some solutions. And the first solution is, you’ve gotta stop young black women from having babies out of wedlock. You’ve got to discourage that actively. And the second thing is, you’ve got to demand discipline in your public schools in the inner cities particularly. Get the unions out of there, have the kids in school uniforms and demand standards and discipline. I don’t hear any of that from Jackson, or Sharpton or from you or from President Obama. I don’t hear any of it from you guys.
In my view, Morial should have confronted O’Reilly on his own agenda and highlighted his disingenuousness. If O’Reilly cares so much about the subject, what’s HE doing? Why isn’t he reaching out to black leaders to make those PSA’s? He’s got some African American conservatives right there on the Fox News payroll. Why isn’t he getting together with them to produce some? What’s he done lately to improve schools in the inner cities – other than to attack the black people whose kids attend them? Is this really what O'Reilly calls "coming together?"
Morial did say, “It’s not about an advertising campaign …or slogans or branding. What it’s about is the work that we need to do in our community.” Acknowledging that some of what’s being done is not working, Morial added, “My invitation is for you and to continue this conversation, for you to use your considerable platform. If we discuss it in a civil manner, I’m sure we can find common ground.”
As Morial spoke, a split screen revealed an expression of disgust on O’Reilly’s face that tells you everything you need to know about where his heart is – nowhere to be found. Insisting that he wants safety and prosperity for all Americans, O’Reilly sneered, “I’m telling you, that there is a hustle going on in the civil rights industry, there’s a grievance industry that makes a lot of money off the vision and it’s not being challenged by anybody but me! And I’m taking a lot of heat for doing it!”
And you deserve every degree of that heat and more, Bill. Because when you point a finger at anyone else making a lot of money off grievances and hustling, there’s at least three fingers pointing back at you for this transparent attempt at foisting your racial hostility off as concern while pandering to and ginning up the vilest hostilities in your white audience and then playing the victim while you're doing so. As you collect your multi-million dollar paycheck for doing it.
Please feel free to email O’Reilly with feedback at [email protected]
The claim that it was fear of black crime that caused the death of Trayvon is twisted. Trayvon was not committing a crime and Zimmerman was not afraid of Trayvon while he tracked him through the neighborhood, called 911, nor when he approached him, he only got fearful when he found himself on the ground. Zimmerman tried to play cop but had no authority to do so and screwed up miserably, now a kid is dead. And the right wing wants to make HIM a martyr.
They pretend that they are only trying to help by addressing problems in the black community. But many of us recognize the facade. What they are really doing is pandering to the racial fears and resentment in their mostly older white audience.
I hope that when they can’t put it out, that no innocent people are caught in the fury- Only the monster and it’s summoner. They want it, they can leave us out of that.