{"id":12435,"date":"2014-04-15T21:11:21","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T04:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=12435"},"modified":"2014-04-15T21:11:21","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T04:11:21","slug":"bill-oreilly-is-scare-mongering-over-millions-of-imaginary-illegal-aliens-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=12435","title":{"rendered":"Bill O’Reilly Is Scare Mongering Over Millions Of Imaginary Illegal Aliens Voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Bill O’Reilly’s favorite new attack themes is something that he calls the “Grievance Industry.”<\/em> Apparently it is any person or group who registers a complaint against something that O’Reilly likes. For instance, racial discrimination or tax policies that favor the rich. It’s curious, though, that he would invent a disparaging way of looking at something that is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution: “…to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”<\/em> And the larger irony is that no one is more of a complainer than O’Reilly himself.<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/p>\n

Take his latest Talking Points Memo segment wherein he makes a case for voter suppression via voter ID laws that do not address any actual problem. He begins with his boilerplate whining about how “the grievance industry believes that requiring an ID to vote is a right-wing plot to deny some Americans their voting rights.”<\/em> He asserts that the push for voter ID is because of voter fraud, but like everyone else on the right who has beaten this path, he provides no evidence of the fraud that he alleges.<\/p>\n

In an effort to belittle his opponents, O’Reilly says that the left denies that there is any voter fraud. That’s a lie. In fact the left acknowledges that there is voter fraud, but that it is on such a small scale as to be insignificant. And it doesn’t come close to justifying the imposition of obstacles to voting for millions of legitimate citizens.<\/p>\n

Attempting to introduce some substance, O’Reilly cites an “investigation”<\/em> into voter fraud in the state of North Carolina. The only problem with that is that it has produced precisely zero examples of any unlawful activity. The project was so flawed that when Dick Morris made the same reference to it as O’Reilly, PolitiFact slapped him down<\/a> with a rating of “False.”<\/em> They further pointed out that the data used was previously shown to be utterly unreliable. In Kansas they bragged that they had uncovered 185,000 potential cases of voter fraud. But all that came of it was fourteen referrals for prosecution and zero convictions.<\/p>\n

O’Reilly then specifically made an allegation, which he portrayed as a fact, that “at least 81 North Carolinians voted in 2013 after they died.”<\/em> But there is no evidence to support that claim either. In previous similar incidents there was always a simple explanation such as that the voters had cast absentee ballots and then died prior to election day.<\/p>\n

O’Reilly then endorses a plan to put photos on Social Security cards and use those as voter identification. Critics of this proposal note that it would introduce serious privacy risks, a complaint that O’Reilly casually dismisses. However, Social Security cards have a unique purpose in our society and the prospect of making them a universal form of identification does expose people to a greater risk of identity fraud. Your Social Security number was never intended to a form of identification.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most outlandish assertion in O’Reilly’s rant was that “There are about 12 million illegal aliens in the U.S. who could vote without proper ID in place.”<\/em> Oh my. That’s twice the margin by which President Obama beat Mitt Romney in 2012. So where all of these illegal aliens plotting to corrupt the American electoral system? There certainly isn’t any evidence of them having voted. And they’ve been around for many election cycles. It doesn’t even make any sense that people who are here without documentation would risk jail and deportation in order to cast a ballot for candidates who will not represent them.<\/p>\n

The only reason that O’Reilly would even raise this phony issue is to fan the flames of bigotry that are already burning in the souls of his audience and much of the extremist right-wing that he represents. It is a reprehensible and irresponsible appeal to people who are predisposed to hate anyone different from themselves. And sadly, it is an appeal that will find agreement by viewers of Fox News despite the irrationality of the argument.<\/p>\n

O’Reilly invented the “grievance industry”<\/em> concept so that he could dismissively waive off any allegation of prejudice as something unwarranted, trivial, and\/or fabricated. It’s his way of belittling those who make observations about the racism that still infects our society. But he is the best example that bigotry, in all its hateful glory, continues to be a problem that the goodhearted American people need to redouble their efforts to eradicate. And we could start with Bill O’Reilly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of Bill O’Reilly’s favorite new attack themes is something that he calls the “Grievance Industry.” Apparently it is any person or group who registers a complaint against something that O’Reilly likes. For instance, racial discrimination or tax policies that favor the rich. It’s curious, though, that he would invent a disparaging way of looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Bill O'Reilly Is Scare Mongering Over Millions Of Imaginary Illegal Aliens Voters","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,417,16],"tags":[26,254,33,1143],"class_list":["post-12435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-racism","category-wankery","tag-bill-oreilly","tag-dick-morris","tag-fox-news","tag-racism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-illegal-voters.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-3ez","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20200,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20200","url_meta":{"origin":12435,"position":0},"title":"Bill O’Reilly Wants To Know: Will Black America Speak Out Against Looting?","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/13\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Fox News resident curmudgeon, Bill O'Reilly, has demonstrated his racial insensitivity too often to catalog here. Suffice to say that the man who was surprised that African-American patrons of a Harlem restaurant aren't constantly screaming, \"M-Fer, I want more iced tea,\" is not the best example of racial tolerance. So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News Bill O'Reilly","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-black-looting.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-black-looting.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-black-looting.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24047,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=24047","url_meta":{"origin":12435,"position":1},"title":"Bill O’Reilly Thinks America Has Millions Of Cop Killers Running Around","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/23\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The sad story of two New York police offices ambushed by a nut case as they sat in their patrol car has had the effect of driving many self-serving politicians and pundits nuts as well. The incidents of these brazenly exploitative hacks dishonoring the fallen officers is astonishing, even in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bill O'Reilly","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-millions-brinsley.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-millions-brinsley.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-millions-brinsley.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":33795,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=33795","url_meta":{"origin":12435,"position":2},"title":"Bill O’Reilly (!?!) SHREDS Trump On Factless Voter Fraud Claim – Trump Whines ‘We’re Babies’","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/5\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill O\u2019Reilly's Super Bowl interview of Donald Trump will be broadcast in part on Sunday. The remaining segments will be aired on consecutive episodes of the The O\u2019Reilly Factor next week. Saturday night an excerpt was released that featured Trump defending Vladimir Putin and his habit of murdering his political\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-dead-vote.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-dead-vote.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-dead-vote.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":28970,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=28970","url_meta":{"origin":12435,"position":3},"title":"Off His Meds: Bill O’Reilly’s Lunatic Rant That Only “Lunatic Fringe” Are Racist","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/24\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bill O'Reilly","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-no-idea1-e1452118927184.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20434,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20434","url_meta":{"origin":12435,"position":4},"title":"OOPS: Bill O’Reilly Advises People Not To Believe His Partisan Distortions","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/4\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Jon Stewart has been doing exceptional work ridiculing the systemic racism that was demonstrated so tragically by the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Last week, for instance, Stewart laid into Bill O'Reilly (video below) for returning to his program early from a vacation because he was \"furious\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bill O'Reilly","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-distortions.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-distortions.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/oreilly-distortions.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5317,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5317","url_meta":{"origin":12435,"position":5},"title":"Culture Warrior Bill O’Reilly Takes One In The Gut","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/30\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I posted a screen grab from Fox Nation that revealed that the Fox News crew had trouble counting in single digits. The image that appeared on Fox Nation and FoxNews.com with the headline, \"Gawker and 7 Other Formerly Popular Sites That Are Dead or Dying,\" actually had eight\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12435"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12442,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12435\/revisions\/12442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}