Bill O’Reilly has a long history of refusing to acknowledge reality. He has adamantly denied that there are any homeless veterans in America. He has refused to accept that Christians are a privileged majority. And now he is staunchly insisting that racism is a nearly non-existent problem that is only represented by what he calls the “lunatic fringe.”
On last night’s episode of “The Factor” {video below) O’Reilly pressed that point until the veins on his forehead nearly burst. It was a vivid display of rancor, mostly aimed at his guest, Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers. Considering that Powers is generally a weak version of a Fox liberal, O’Reilly’s assault seemed grossly overplayed. He shouted, interrupted and barked orders at Powers as if she was his…slave? And all because Powers made the absurd claim that “racism is a serious issue in this country, and I don’t know why you are so unable to see that.”
Frustrated with Powers’ reasonableness, O’Reilly shifted to his other guest, wingnut pundit Monica Crowley. She was much more accommodating to O’Reilly’s forced perspective as she asserted that America’s enemies like ISIS and Russia are trying to take down the country from the outside, while the “left” is trying to take it down from the inside. This elicited some audible sighs from Powers which O’Reilly simply could not abide. He admonished her saying that “You’re snortin’ out there and I want you to knock it off.” That’s because only O’Reilly can interrupt people rudely, which he did repeatedly to Powers. Then he sought to brag about how magnanimous white folks have been over the years:
O’Reilly: O’Reilly: We are trying to overcome the legacy [of racism]. How? Laws, civil rights legislation, fast track, entitlements, affirmative action. I mean, how many more programs can we have?
O’Reilly didn’t specify what legislation he was referring to, and he also didn’t mention the recent dilution of landmark civil rights laws by the right-wing Supreme Court. However, he did include fast track in his list, which has nothing to do with civil rights. Nor does entitlements, which are available for, and mostly received by, white citizens. Then O’Reilly contends that any racism in America is just the “lunatic fringe.” To which Powers responds…
Powers: No, it’s not the lunatic fringe. There are actually a lot of people in this country who are racist. And you just refuse…I really have to wonder, how many black friends do you have?
O’Reilly: (ignoring the question) Most Americans are not racist. They’re not. If you think most Americans are racist I’m ashamed of you.
Powers: First of all, I didn’t say most Americans are racist.
O’Reilly: You just said it.
Actually, as the video shows, Powers did not say that most Americans are racist. But that didn’t stop O’Reilly from shouting her down with his false allegation. And he continued to repeat his characterization of America’s racists as a trivial minority, despite the fact that there are over a thousand hate groups in the country and race-based crimes are committed every day. Certainly O’Reilly doesn’t have any personal experience with racism. After all, he’s the guy that went to Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem and was surprised that “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.'”
This is just the most recent demonstration of the severe psychological defect that O’Reilly is suffering from. He is a bully and and liar and a purposeful distorter of reality. His sickness even extends to his supposed friends and colleagues, like Powers.
Despite how obviously wrong he was in this argument, he will neither acknowledge it nor apologize. That’s just the way tyrants and emotional terrorists operate. It may get him ratings, because there are enough meatheads in the Fox demographic who enjoy this sort of manufactured melodrama, but it doesn’t give him any credibility or dignity as a TV pundit or a person.
News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
Update: O’Reilly defended his lunatic rant the following night with claims that the far left is advancing a narrative that all of America is awash in white supremacy. Of course, that is not what anyone on the left (far or otherwise) is saying. They are simply acknowledging the reality that there are some white supremacists in America, along with other garden variety bigots. O’Reilly goes on to glorify Fox News and lament the lack of fairness in the rest of the media because brazenly racist, wingnut websites like Daily Caller, Breitbart, WorldNetDaily, and Newsmax, don’t get enough attention. He says “You want a war, you got a war. I’m not gonna sit here anymore and take this garbage.” Something tells me he is gonna sit there, like he always does. He’s just gonna bitch about it louder.
