Political views of Bill O'Reilly
In the same article he writes that Gary Condit, a moderate Democratic congressman from California who had an extramarital affair with Chandra Levy prior to her disappearance and death, should be held to the same standard.He later praised former Attorney General John Ashcroft for going after the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, as well as Enron, WorldCom, Sam Waksal of Imclone and Martha Stewart.When speaking to Ed Schulz in 2007, O'Reilly said that then-presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani had "terrible character judgement" with Bernard Kerik and felt that "disqualified him from being president."[22] O'Reilly has taken to using the abbreviation "S-P", for "Secular Progressive", as a shorthand way of referring to a political category of people who want "drastic change" in the country.Speaking on ABC's Good Morning America on March 18, 2003, O'Reilly promised that "If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean [of weapons of mass destruction]...I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.But General Petraeus, backed by a brave and professional U.S. military, has restored much order, largely defeated the Iraqi Al Qaeda thugs, and at least given the good people of that country a chance to prosper.[34] He has been critical of politicians such as Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and private citizens such as financier George Soros for wanting to try terror suspects in civilian courts.[42] O'Reilly responded to the politico report by labeling Soros, Brock and Paul Begala an "American axis of evil" and saying This, ladies and gentlemen, is ultra dangerous.[43] O'Reilly alleged that PBS personality Bill Moyers oversaw $500,000 worth of money transferred from the Shoeman Center Foundation (a group Soros donated to) to Media Matters.He has called them a "fascist" organization in response to their threatened lawsuit against Los Angeles County for failing to remove a cross from its official seal.[54] O'Reilly criticized the ACLU for suing San Diego County for renting property to the Boy Scouts of America in Balboa Park.It'll find a way to inflict financial damage on any concern that opposes its secular agenda and its growing in power.He later went on to criticize the Boy Scout leadership for not standing up to the ACLU.[68] O'Reilly opposed the nationalized health care plan that filmmaker Michael Moore argues for in his film Sicko, saying it would create huge backlogs.[83]O'Reilly severely chastized billionaire businessman and investor Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, for his support of Brian De Palma's film Redacted that portrayed the rape of an Iraqi girl by American soldiers.He has gone after several rappers and singers such as 50 Cent, Beyoncé, Common, Eminem, Jay-Z, Jadakiss, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Ludacris, Lupe Fiasco, Nas, Nelly, Snoop Dogg, and Young Jeezy: Every educator that I've talked to, and I've talked to hundreds, say that the kind of gangsta rap that Ludacris traffics in has debased the culture, made it more difficult for them to teach children and indeed, led children into anti-social behavior."Having a rapper who trades in violence perform at Virginia Tech insults the victims, the university and the entire commonwealth," declared Bill O'Reilly."[87] American rapper Killer Mike subsequently criticized him for his remarks calling O'Reilly "full of more shit than an outhouse" and then mocked him while he was a guest Real Time with Bill Maher.O'Reilly inquired of Manson if he thought his artistic endeavors encouraged kids to have sex, homosexual relationships, substance abuse, and the use of profanity.In June 2007, Adweek Magazine sponsored a survey that asked participants who they trusted more as a source of political information between ABC News and O'Reilly.[94] O'Reilly has asked his viewers and listeners to not patronize the following media outfits, saying those organizations "have regularly helped distribute defamatory, false or non-newsworthy information supplied by far-left websites":[95] In an interview with commentator Bill Maher, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather accused Fox News Channel of receiving "talking points" from the Republican controlled White House.[98] O'Reilly scolded MSNBC and CNN for not providing coverage of the ceremony that awarded Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy the Medal of Honor during their primetime shows.[111] O'Reilly criticized MSNBC host Rachel Maddow showed a tape of Senator John McCain portraying him as insensitive to the plight of a person who lost a family member to gun violence.[117] On March 15, 2007, The New York Times ran an editorial titled "Immigration Misery" that had claimed a "screaming baby girl has been forcibly weaned from breast milk and taken dehydrated to an emergency room so that the nation's borders will be secure."Upon further investigation, the only two babies admitted to the hospital in the area of Bedford, Massachusetts (where the raid took place) were due to dehydration because of pneumonia and not as a result of being "forcibly weaned."Authorities have alleged that the suspects were trying to blow up an oil pipeline in the Howard Beach section of New York City that carries jet fuel to JFK Airport.O'Reilly accused the newspaper of burying the story not to highlight a successful foiled terror plot because it contradicts the paper's editorial point of view.In addition, The Times ombudsman stated that Moncrief had not given sworn testimony to Congress as claimed by O'Reilly, and that she had credibility problems, having been fired from Acorn for employee theft.O'Reilly has also alleged that Daily Kos bloggers have called the Pope a primate and evangelicals "nut cases", that they wish for the success of any subsequent attempts at the assassination of Vice President Dick Cheney after he avoided an attempt on his life in Afghanistan during a 2007 visit, and have said that the world is "better off" without White House Press Secretary Tony Snow when Snow publicly said he had cancer.[131] O'Reilly alleged that Huffington had no standards of conduct and did not remove comments about wishing Nancy Reagan had died after she fell that were written on her site.A Harvard study says that the employment of illegal foreign workers has driven down wages among American high school dropouts, the lowest labor pool rung, by 7 percent.