Free Republic

"Talking Points" understands the anger towards George Zimmerman. He initiated the fracas. But you don't convict someone of murder because he shows poor judgment or because he racially profiles.

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly is no stranger to offending a wide swath of people during his program, “The O’Reilly Factor.” And this time, his latest insult occurred while he was having a conversation with Reverend Jacques DeGraff, claiming that crime in the United States is at high numbers because of young African-American men. The conversation took place Monday night, following an earlier discussion with actor LeVar Burton on Monday, whom which O’Reilly curiously refers to as “a good guy.” Continuing his “Race & Crime In America” segment, the host posted the question to Rev. DeGraff if he was wrong...

Imagine the pleasant surprise I encountered after reading the headline “just in case George Zimmerman walks free…” adorning the top of a post composed by hip hop mogul and GlobalGrind.com founder Russell Simmons. It was my hope that Simmons, a respected voice in the black community, would spell out for an attentive audience why pundits preparing their audiences for riots in the wake of a possible acquittal were wrong. Instead, Simmons identified a variety of “victories” that resulted from the killing of Trayvon Martin. He cited setbacks for the National Rifle Association and state-level “Stand Your Ground” laws which he...

Rush Limbaugh -- the most powerful talk-show host in America -- just rightly called out Fox News for telling him to avoid talking about immigration. Why would the most fair and balanced television news source do this? Are they trying to shy away from a subject which embarrassed their number-one voice? For those Americans who still don’t understand the one-thousand page “Gang-of-Eight” immigration bill -- and that would be most Members of Congress, most of the Obama administration and virtually all Americans -- it is critically important for them to go back and watch the June 20th airing of The...

Freshman Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has become an increasingly controversial figure in American politics as evidenced by comments MSNBC’s Chris Matthews made this week comparing Cruz to Nazi sympathizer Father Coughlin. Fox’s Bill O’Reilly laid into Matthews last night for equating his “black Irish” looks with Cruz’s and today Megyn Kelly picked up the thread by asking what it is about the senator that makes liberals so angry. Conservative radio host Mike Gallagher said people are only attacking Cruz because he’s “effective.” He said people are “impressed” with the “tea party darling” who “rose out of nowhere” and used this...

Very impressive. He looks and sounds good. Did not trip over words. He totally understands Islam and Jihad. It is as if he has been reading Jihad Watch for a few years and learned everything Robert Spencer had to say He speaks in non-posh English accent. Working class accent? This highlights his populist appeal.

Why? Because Mr. Rivera likens it to calling someone a “negro” or a “homosexual.”

“The O’Reilly Factor” host Bill O’Reilly on Thursday criticized those seeking to downplay the role of Islamic extremism in the Boston Marathon bombings. “There is no question that many on the left are very disappointed the two suspects in the terror bombing are Muslim,” O’Reilly said. “And it is sad to say that many in the Muslim world will never believe the Tsarnaev brothers committed the atrocity.” O’Reilly referred specifically to comments by Zubeidat Tsarnev, the mother of suspected Boston Marathon bombers Dzohkhar and Tamerlan Tsarnev. ...more (w/video)...

Wow! Just watched BOR w/Lou Dobbs. He wants full gun registration with a 10 year sentence for failing to register. He also advocated "stop & frisk." This guy is over the deep end.

During the highly publicized exchange between Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham on "gay" marriage, O'Reilly made this statement: "There are Bible thumpers, and all they do is say, 'I object to gay marriage because God objects to it.' You don't win a policy debate in America with that." Really? Before central control out of Washington was imposed in 2003, policy arguments for criminalizing homosexual acts were won explicitly "with that." And because of "that," the idea of "gay" marriage has been unthinkable throughout the history of the American nation. Just over four years ago, during the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack...

Bill O’Reilly’s charged gay marriage debate with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham drew a strong reaction from TheBlaze audience, particularly over O’Reilly’s contention that same-sex marriage opponents often “thump the Bible” to make their point. …ordfan: I AM an opponent of same-sex marriage. If anyone wants to call me a Bible thumper, go ahead. I DO NOT CARE. My Bible IS the basis for my ENTIRE argument against homosexuality…period. Now DO NOT be mistaken, being against homosexuality and against homosexuals are two VERY different things. I am not against homosexuals just because of that. P.S. If two men or two...

What do "Big Rig Bounty Hunters" and "Swamp People" on History Channel have in common? They both pummeled CNN and MSNBC's brand new shows' debuts last week in the ratings. CNN's attempt to mimic Fox News' hugely successful "The Five" with a five person panel show called (get to) The Point" seems to have crashed and burned in spectacular fashion. The week-long tryout at 10:00 PM ET, in place of an Anderson Cooper repeat, was dead last in cable news ratings, finishing behind CNNHLN and CNBC.

According to Bill O’Reilly, pundits cannot appeal to the Bible any longer for public policy regarding homosexuals that want to get married. At least I think it’s just in regards to homosexual marriages. Hell, I don’t know when and where we can use the Scripture any longer. Can we still use it in church? Does anyone know? Well for now, I think it’s just in regards to homosexuals who want to get hitched that we’re verboten to bring the Verbum Dei into the discussion. Geez, it’s getting tough keeping up with what we can and can’t reference anymore, eh? I...

There are various ways to describe the civil war rising inside the Republican Party: insiders versus outsiders, pragmatists versus true-believers, establishment versus Tea Party. Here’s another: Bill O’Reilly conservatives versus Rush Limbaugh conservatives. Last week, the two media titans clashed after O’Reilly accused opponents of gay marriage of lacking “compelling argument[s]” and merely “thump[ing] the Bible.” Limbaugh responded by saying that conservative Christians “were sort of marginalized” on O’Reilly’s show. On the surface, the scuffle merely reflected differing opinions about the arguments deployed last week at the Supreme Court. But in reality, it reflected a different view of conservatism itself....

Fox News has hired Tucker Carlson to co-host Fox & Friends Weekend, even though the two are on opposite ideological trajectories -- Fox is getting more moderate while Carlson is getting more fringe. The network has intentionally taken on a more moderate tone in recent years; this year, for example, it dumped Sarah Palin and hired Scott Brown. Megyn Kelly gently mocked Karl Rove for his insistence that Mitt Romney maybe would have beaten Barack Obama, if only he'd gotten more votes in seven states. "OLIGARHY"-fearing conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck is long gone. But Carlson, who founded the conservative blog...

On Thursday night, conservative radio host Mark Levin attacked Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and the “has-beens” at CNN for their “hit” on Rep. Michele Bachmann after she was caught racing away from a CNN reporter confronting her over factually inaccurate claims about the president’s “lavish” White House living. On Tuesday, CNN reporter Dana Bash attempted to confront Bachmann over her claims that the president has an extraordinarily luxurious lifestyle, but was famously met with deflection and a race away from the camera. On The O’Reilly Factor last night, the eponymous Fox host criticized Bachmann for her “trivial attacks on...

Bill O’Reilly took on the brewing war between Sarah Palin and Karl Rove after Palin called out Rove during her CPAC speech Saturday and he hit back at her on Fox News Sunday. Brit Hume joined O’Reilly to try to figure out what this latest bout of infighting means for the Republican Party. O’Reilly asked Hume, appearing from Miami, Florida in a salmon-colored sweater, if he was wearing material from Hillary Clinton‘s pantsuit before launching into the substance of the segment. Hume insisted that the skirmish between Palin and Rove has little to do with their actual political “ideas,” noting...

transcript: Mr. Cruz says his dad made it on his own without government assistance. That's the way this country is supposed to work. But President Obama, himself, has a very compelling story to tell. His father abandoned him. He was raised primarily by his maternal grandparents in Hawaii. How much the system helped Mr. Obama is unknown, as his college records have been kept private. We don't know the extent of affirmative action. We don't know how much the government subsidized his climb to the top. It would be very helpful to have that information simply to be fair to...

Bill O'Reilly's child custody battle with his ex-wife has gotten so ugly that he secretly hired the therapist designated as a neutral "arbitrator" in their disputes, Gawker reports. First, some backstory: The Fox News commentator separated from Maureen McPhilmy in 2011, and allegedly tried to start an internal affairs probe into her then-boyfriend, a police detective. Now O'Reilly's been caught paying six figures to Lynne Kulakowski, turning the custodial arbitrator into his children's nanny. In other juicy tidbits: McPhilmy's Long Island parish has reprimanded her for divorcing O'Reilly and marrying her detective boyfriend. The church warned that she can't tell...

Fox News Host Bill O’Reilly apologized on Thursday night for calling the network’s liberal commentator Alan Colmes a liar earlier in the week for saying that President Barack Obama made specific suggestions to cut entitlement programs. “Even though I’m sorry I said Alan was lying, I should not have used that word, I’m glad the exposition occurred,” O’Reilly said during his introductory monologue on the 8 p.m. show “Talking Points.” …