The brand new Republican Majority Whip, Steve Scalise, is still sweating out the controversy over his having spoken to a white supremacist organization as a candidate for office in Louisiana. The tale has taken some twists and turns with criticism coming from both Democrats and Republicans. Sean Hannity of Fox News even went so far as to call for the resignation of GOP Speaker John Boehner for defending Scalise.
The worst thing that can come of this melodrama is for it to lead to an increased media presence for David Duke, the overtly racist leader of the group to which Scalise spoke. But that is precisely what is happening. Duke first appeared on CNN with Michael Smerconish in a debate that provided little to no news value. And now, Bill O’Reilly added to Duke’s PR campaign by inviting him on to participate in a typical O’Reilly shouting match aimed more at producing ratings rather than knowledge. (Video below)
However, what really made the O’Reilly segment disturbing is that O’Reilly spent most of it agreeing with Duke and took great pains to avoid calling him a white supremacist. Each time that the conversation provided an opportunity for O’Reilly to properly label Duke, O’Reilly seemed to chicken out in mid-sentence. For instance, there was this cowardly utterance by O’Reilly:
“Don’t sit there and tell me you’re not a white … your organization isn’t looking out for the white European race.”
What made O’Reilly stop short just as he was about to say “white supremacist,” and instead use the very words that Duke uses to describe himself? Duke’s entire phony persona is one of an advocate for the rights of European Americans who is not opposed to anyone else’s rights. Of course, the historical record, rampant with bigotry against blacks and Jews, shows that he is lying. So why did O’Reilly help to advance that facade? It gave Duke the opportunity to respond saying…
“I’m looking out for the rights of all Americans. I also believe that European-Americans shouldn’t be discriminated against in jobs or scholarships or any other way.”
To which O’Reilly responded “Yeah, alright,” in effect agreeing with Duke. That shouldn’t surprise anyone because it is a position that O’Reilly has taken himself as a long-standing opponent of affirmative action.
And that wasn’t the only time in the interview that O’Reilly agreed with Duke. Later Duke tried to make a derogatory association between the late Nelson Mandela and President Obama, implying that the President had affiliated himself with communists. There also, O’Reilly agreed and even bragged that he had reported that. Then Duke complained that the media had not reported Mandela’s alleged communist ties (which is false), which O’Reilly also agreed with saying “That’s because there’s sympathetic (sic) in the mainstream media for the left.” Duke replied “Exactly.”
If it isn’t bad enough that O’Reilly continually agreed with Duke, he made things worse by demonstrating a profound ignorance of culture and history. Duke asserted that he loved his (white) people and wanted to preserve his heritage. This confused O’Reilly and led to this idiotic exchange:
O’Reilly: Preserve your heritage? What does that mean?
Duke: You don’t know what European heritage is? You don’t know what Mozart is, and Bach, and Beethoven?
O’Reilly: They’re people. They come from different countries.
Indeed, they are people. O’Reilly nailed that one. However, they are all European people, and Mozart and Beethoven are both from the same country, Germany. Bach was from neighboring Austria (as was Hitler), but spent most of his professional life in Germany (as did Hitler). Duke did not raise these particular people accidentally, and O’Reilly managed to embarrass himself by his ignorance. Furthermore, O’Reilly didn’t bother to repudiate Duke’s closing comments that illustrated his antisemitism. However, he did take another opportunity to weasel out of calling Duke what he is:
“The one thing you said – I wanna get everybody on board with this – is that Congressman Scalise was scheduled – I’m not gonna say white supremacist – but he was scheduled to speak to your group.”
What is that O’Reilly finds so difficult about calling Duke a white supremacist? Why even bother to have him on the program if you’re going to let him off the hook? And how could O’Reilly find so many areas of agreement with him? The real question that all of this raises is: What does this say about Bill O’Reilly?
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This is such a pathetic post. Bill O’Reilly ripped into David Duke, and just because he didn’t say “white supremacist”, you call it a “a shameful suck-up”? Are you on drugs?
O’Reilly’s response of “yeah, alright” was the equivalent of saying, “Yeah – whatever, dude.”
As for O’Reilly pointing out that Nelson Mandela was a Communist: Yes. Mandela was at one time a member of the Communist Party, but he didn’t rule like a communist. And this is was O’Reilly’s quote about this fact: “Nelson Mandela was a communist. But he was a great man.” He then spelled out the huge accomplishments of Mandela. Think along the same lines of this sentence: Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner. But he was still a great man. I learned long ago that the great leaders of this world are not without blemishes.
Why does he avoid calling duke a white supremacist when the man himself admits he is one? He clearly is trying to avoid doing so but yeah you give him a straight pass.
As for the part about O’ Rielly saying “yeah” to Duke, how the fuck do you know he meant it sarcastically instead of the affirmitive? Do explain. Take note even if O’ Rielly wanted to be sarcastic, he could have easily done so far more overtly instead of sounding like he agrees. He hasn’t been shy about doing so in the past towards issues he doesn’t agree with. Heck he hasn’t been shy about being an outright belligerant douchebag towards people and/or issues he didn’t agree with!
But yeah you give him a pass and defend his reluctance to really oppose Duke, not to mention there was little reason for him to invite Duke on his show where they mainly spoke about Duke’s bigoted viewpoints rather than the issue about Scalise.
O’ Rielly helped promote Duke and his bigoted views like a meek lamb.
“…helped promote Duke and his bigoted views…”
Lie.
“…how the f%%% do you know he meant it sarcastically…”
Because I actually watched the show.
What do you expect from a channel that tells kids – Jesus was white. Santa is white.
Both figures that are the basis for both “white” guy’s are in fact not white. This is historical fact. But then again, as pointed out so many times. They dismiss actual fact and figures in opt for their “versions”. Just keeps reminding me of that family guy ep with the cut scene about the stubborn mule (Season 5-Episode15), where the mule say’s “No sorry, Kevin Bacon wasn’t in Footloose” and the other guy keeps trying to tell yes he was. Then they go back and forth. Mule kind of even reminds me of Billy Boy by the end of the scene.
This article needs to be taken down. Bill O’Reilly says plenty of stupid things. You don’t have to make stuff up. Which you have done in this article.
And what was made up? You didn’t bother to say. Perhaps because it’s all true. And the video is there for proof.