Isn't it time to turn the tables on Bill O’Reilly’s comparison of #BlackLivesMatter to the KKK?
Last week, Bill O’Reilly attacked #BlackLivesMatter for not repudiating some outlier protesters caught chanting, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like blanket” as well as another group chanting “What do we want? Dead cops? When do want them? Now!” And even though #BlackLivesMatters is a non-violent group, O’Reilly also compared them to the KKK.
Media Matters caught the following exchange between O’Reilly and Fox News contributor Eboni K. Williams:
WILLIAMS: That’s an outlier segment, though Bill. To assign that—no I’ve talked to leadership as well.
O’REILLY: And let me tell you why you’re desperately wrong here, Eboni. Because they could have, the leadership of Black Lives Matter could have repudiated those things, and they did not, alright? So that’s where you’re wrong.
[...]
O’REILLY: If the movement doesn’t repudiate, it’s like the Ku Klux Klan, alright? You know, are all Klansman going to hang blacks? No. But they’re all in the same soup bowl, alright? Because they don’t divorce themselves from the group who did do those things.
Sadly, Williams, an African American whose blindness to the racism on Fox got her hired as a contributor, did not object to this over-the-top comparison. In fact, she helped validate it by saying, “What you’ve just showed, there, Bill, that is hate speech. Those people should have been arrested, it could incite violence.”
Let me say this: I wholeheartedly support #BlackLivesMatter but I also wholeheartedly support police. I, personally, think it would have been a good move for #BlackLivesMatter leaders to condemn any kind of violent rhetoric, even if the “Fry ‘em like bacon” chant was meant as playful, as the leader of that particular group has claimed. I’d also love to see #BlackLivesMatter reach out to police to see if they can find ways to work together to reduce the incidents of police shootings. I’d love to see President Obama take the lead in making that happen.
That said, it’s particularly nauseating to watch O’Reilly and his other guest, the ever-smug Monica Crowley, scolding African Americans about what they should or should not be doing to improve their communities.
It’s even more disgusting when you consider that O’Reilly’s own producer, Jesse Watters, refuses to police the even stronger murder talk that goes on at Fox Nation, which he manages.
What would O’Reilly say if a #BlackLivesMatter protester offered money to assassinate a police officer or some other white person they thought was opposing them? Yet, a certain commenter has repeatedly offered money for someone to assassinate various public figures Fox regularly demonizes. That includes a threat to the sheriff of San Francisco. The threats were deemed serious enough that I got a call from the FBI about one that I reported. I do not want to publicize this person’s threats further but I will say that not only has anyone at Fox failed to condemn these threats but the guy (or gal) is still allowed to comment there and is continuing to make death threats.
Recently, The Young Turks discussed O'Reilly's comparison of #BlackLivesMatter to the KKK. TYT's Cenk Uygur highlighted the ridiculousness of O'Reilly's demands by asking why white people have not repudiated him for attacking black culture so viciously – as well as others like “Dr. Tiller, the baby killer,” who was later assassinated.
But when you consider that death threats are routine over at Fox Nation, that Fox News, itself, promoted outlaw rancher Cliven Bundy – whose group actually threatened and intimidated law enforcers – well, you have to also ask, why hasn’t Bill O’Reilly condemned Fox News?
Watch O’Reilly compare #BlackLivesMatter to the KKK, above, and The Young Turks’ commentary below.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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