This is one of our regular features at the Heartland Bar and Grill.
Let’s Take a Deep Breath – Howard Kurtz’s Media Notes/Washington Post
I heard the echoes last night, when O’Reilly said that “pro-abortion zealots and Fox News-haters” were trying “to blame us for the crime,” to “demonize” him, and in the process “exploiting the death of the doctor.” He defended his past attacks, saying, “No backpedaling here. . . . Every single thing we said about Tiller was true.” O’Reilly went on to note that Tiller had performed an estimated 60,000 abortions, and questioned why his critics in the media had said nothing “about the 60,000 fetuses who’ll never become American citizens.”
No one particularly likes abortion, especially late-term abortion, but those 60,000 procedures were legal. The doctor was providing a legal service.”
O’Reilly is entitled to defend himself, and he in no way condoned what happened. But the man was murdered in church. I was surprised that, along with his reminder that Tiller had been called a baby killer, O’Reilly didn’t issue a ringing denunciation of the shooting and anyone who thought it was justified. The occasion, in my view, called for it; he chose a different approach.
On MSNBC, Keith Olbermann did blame Fox News, showing clips of O’Reilly denouncing Tiller for having “blood on his hands” and saying there should be “a special place in hell for this guy.” Olbermann said consumers should walk out on businesses that show Fox, and said his goal is to get O’Reilly off the air. Would that mean no more right-wing violence?
———-
No matter what your feelings on abortion is, two wrongs don’t make a right, have never made a right, and will never make a right.
At a time where the media could show some maturity and discuss this highly charge event in a responsible way to bring us closer together, Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann predictably chose the other road.
Political television might benefit from both O’Reilly and Olbermann being sent to their rooms for a time out so the adults of this country, who are horribly not represented on prime time political screamfests, can discuss and debate this issue in a calm, rational way. Extremism on both sides feeds into the other. It’s high time someone had the guts to take a step back from the machine gun rhetoric and actually think about how we can find common ground on the abortion issue.
For needlessly fanning the flames…as usual, Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly get the Universe’s Biggest Douchebag of the Day.
