Billo's Lunacy

So, Bill O'Reilly made a fool of himself the other day, dumpster-diving for random comments and attributing the ideas of the entire progressive left to something some guy said on the Internet somewhere.



This is a common tactic, to take unmoderated comments and turn them into the "voice" of the Left. Hearing Billo describe Daily Kos as akin to the KKK and a David Duke rally is seriously nuts, and is best dismissed without comment. But Hillary Clinton did strike back, although the equivalence they strike is suspect:

"Blogs are the 21st Century version of the public square. Sen. Clinton does not agree with everything said on Daily Kos, but isolating a few comments as a way to smear a blog frequented by hundreds of thousands of people a day is wrong. Certainly you would understand this when you look at some of the extreme views guests on your show have advocated over the years. Here are just a few examples:

"You've hosted Michael Savage, who has called MLK Jr. Day a "racket" designed to steal ‘white males' birthright.’

"You've hosted David Horowitz, who has called Democrats ‘apologists for terrorists.’

"You've hosted, Ann Coulter who said of the 9/11 widows: ‘I have never seen people enjoying their husbands’ death so much.’

"It wouldn't be reasonable to attribute these views to you and it's not reasonable for you to attribute every comment on Daily Kos to everyone who attends the YearlyKos convention. Sen. Clinton is looking forward to attending YearlyKos."

I think it WOULD be reasonable to attribute the well-known views of someone booked to appear on the O'Reilly Factor to Bill O'Reilly himself, certainly more so than attributing random trollish comments to Markos. What would be more equivalent are the raft of hateful comments Markos himself received the night of the O'Reilly broadcast. Or Billo's own comment that he'd like to go into the blogosphere "with a hand grenade.”

But let's go a bit further, because recent events on Billo's show are instructive.

A week or so ago, Billo aired a report about pistol-packing lesbians who are terrorizing Americans all over the country and indoctrinating heterosexuals into their sexy sexy ways. The facts in the report were horribly sourced and almost entirely untrue. After it became clear that there was simply no truth whatsoever to the idea of pistol-packing lesibians, Billo gave a half-hearted half-apology on the air, claiming that there was "never any intent" to demonize gays and lesbians.

At the very least, a significant correction acknowledging every facet of the false reportage would be both broadcast and posted on the Fox News website and given prominent display. This is especially important, ethically speaking, in cases in which a minority group is exposed to demonization and ridicule as a result of the bad reportage.

Instead, what we get are scenes like this: the godlike media pundit, rather than concede that nearly every facet of a report he broadcast as credible was in fact a grotesque fantasy built out of whole cloth, conceding minor points but claiming general accuracy in spite of these "flaws." O'Reilly also claimed that Fox posted a correction on its website, but if it did so, it is difficult or impossible to locate. (I've searched the site thoroughly as well as Googled for the "correction" and have come up dry; if any readers can find it, I'd appreciate it.)

Bill succeeded in creating the mistaken impression that lesbian gangs were roaming our streets, and then when called on the shoddy reporting, kind of feinted toward an apology but didn't criticize the overall tone of the report.

This is the kind of thing that would get you laughed off the blogosphere. Billo wouldn't last two minutes. Because somebody would wonder why he was so intent on pushing this bogus story about lesbian gangs when hate crimes AGAINST gays and lesbians occur every single day in this country:

A Cypress man charged in the death of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant said Saturday that he was doing God's work when he went to a Montrose-area bar last month, hunting for a gay man to kill.

"I believe I'm Elijah, called by God to be a prophet," said 26-year-old Terry Mark Mangum, charged with murder June 11. " ... I believe with all my heart that I was doing the right thing."

Interviewed in the Brazoria County Jail Saturday morning, Mangum said he feels no remorse for killing 46-year-old Kenneth Cummings Jr., whom relatives described as a "loving" son who never forgot a holiday and a devoted uncle who had set up college funds for his niece and nephew. He worked at Southwest for 24 years.

Mangum, who described himself as "definitely not a homosexual," said God called on him to "carry out a code of retribution" by killing a gay man because "sexual perversion" is the "worst sin."

Mangum believed Cummings to be gay.

"I planned on sending him to hell," he said.

Cummings disappeared June 4. His charred remains were found June 16, buried on a 50-acre ranch near San Antonio owned by Mangum's 90-year-old grandfather.

It wouldn't occur to Billo to cite this report. It shocks the conscience, but it's not as sensational for his largely white, older viewers as the "lesbian gang" fantasy. But in fact, hate crimes like these are depressingly normal:

Elizabeth Edwards told a prominent gay rights group Saturday night that her husband, presidential candidate John Edwards, would help repeal more than a thousand laws that discriminate against same-sex couples [...]

Citing the story of a Sacramento man who died after witnesses said he was beaten to death by men who thought he was gay, Edwards slammed President Bush for not doing anything to help protect gays and lesbians against violence.

"This president talks a lot about good and evil and the need to seek out evil doers," she told a packed auditorium. "But he doesn't seem to recognize the evil in hate crimes. The right to live without the fear of being murdered for whom we love is not a special right."

The death of Satendar Singh, 26, galvanized Sacramento's gay community and others who saw it as an outgrowth of anti-gay rhetoric coming from local evangelical Christian Slavic churches.

According to Singh's friends, the group that attacked him earlier this month as he was leaving a picnic at Lake Natomas were speaking Russian. Singh was punched once in the face and fell backward, hitting his head. He died July 5 after four days on life support.

Edwards said Singh's story reminded her of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who died after he was beaten and tied to a fence in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998.

"We were in fact reminded again while we share the lingering memory of a fence post in Laramie, the sorrow of that image is now joined by a park at Lake Natoma in Sacramento," she said. "And Matthew Shepard is joined by Satendar Singh as a martyr in that fight for justice."

There are dozens where that came from, like Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena and Eddie Garzon and Gwen Araujo and so many more. 41 percent of all gays and lesbians have reported being a victim of a hate crime at some point in their lives. And Bill O'Reilly has the temerity to report on nonexistent "lesbian gangs," indirectly JUSTIFYING some hate-crime behavior, while simultaneously condeming a WEBSITE for hateful rhetoric?

There's hate speech and then there's a worldview that allows hate to flourish. I'm quite certain which is worse. If Billo would like to discuss who hates who and who said what and other minutiae, he can do whatever he wants. Even though he doesn't believe it, it's a free country. But to dare to castigate anybody for breeding an ideology of hatred after essentially calling on his viewers to fight back against gays and lesbians should be to his eternal shame. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any.