Posted on 10/25/2005 7:01:29 AM PDT by Millee
Last March, at a workshop aimed at empowering girls to confront bullies, I listened as girls recounted tales of being harassed and intimidated.
One girl's voice cracked as she spoke of a student who cursed at her and tried to trip her in the hall of her school. We learned that bullying is "the unjust exercise of power of one individual to humiliate, frighten, denigrate or injure another."
That day, a national expert said it's not just victims who have to stop bullies; bystanders need to speak up too; otherwise they're enabling the bullies.
So today I'm standing up to one of the biggest bullies I know: Bill O'Reilly.
On his TV show, "The O'Reilly Factor," the host interrupts guests, denigrates them, calls them names, and when someone makes an intelligent point countering him, O'Reilly cuts the microphone and shouts, "you're spinning!"
His aggressive style is entertainment for millions of Americans, some of whom think he's a real news anchor looking out for the common man. In reality, he is an instigator who stirs resentment and creates friction.
O'Reilly tried bullying me in January 2004. I had mentioned in a column that he had misquoted the figures of a flawed study on illegal immigrants and their supposed abuse of welfare.
That week, O'Reilly flashed my photograph on the screen and asked viewers to complain to the editor of my paper, telling him they plan to boycott. No one canceled any subscriptions, but my editor and I were inundated with e-mails from places far from Denver.
When that happened, I did what my mother had taught me: Ignore the bully.
Last week, he was at it again, taking aim at a columnist at The Dallas Morning News, Macarena Hernández.
Hernández had written a column about a string of murders in southern Georgia in which five Mexican migrant workers were bludgeoned to death and a sixth shot dead. Four other men were injured and a woman was raped during the attacks.
The murders occurred 3½ weeks ago and were mentioned in the national briefs column of a handful of newspapers.
Hernández said this and other recent attacks against illegal immigrants are partly spurred by hostile propaganda that characterizes illegal immigrants as subhuman.
She said that hateful rhetoric can be heard regularly on O'Reilly's TV and radio programs. Two years ago, O'Reilly called Mexicans "wetbacks"
on his TV show, only to later say he meant "coyotes."
In April, O'Reilly agreed with a caller to his radio program who labeled illegal immigrants "biological weapons" because they may have "tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy."
O'Reilly's response: "I think you could probably make an absolutely airtight case that more than 3,000 Americans have been either killed or injured, based upon the 11 million illegals who are here."
Huh? That doesn't even make sense.
O'Reilly is a powerful man. Millions of people watch his TV show and listen to his radio program. But he would have more credibility if he spoke intelligently about illegal immigration. Why not talk about solutions, such as using new technology to secure the border or creating a national ID card?
O'Reilly resorts to personal attacks because it's what bullies do.
On his program, he called Hernández a liar and swears he's never made unkind remarks about illegal immigrants, even though there are video and audio clips on the Internet that prove otherwise.
Throughout most of last week, he flashed contact information for her publisher on TV and urged people to boycott.
My platform may not be as large as his, but I'm using it to tell O'Reilly to apologize to Hernández and to stop spinning.
Incidentally, Carey Hendrickson, spokesman for The Dallas Morning News, told me nobody had canceled any subscriptions.
But Hernández did get a ton of hate mail.
O'Reilly's response: "I think you could probably make an absolutely airtight case that more than 3,000 Americans have been either killed or injured, based upon the 11 million illegals who are here."
Huh? That doesn't even make sense.
Yes it does. Illegal immigration causes irreparable harm to our Nation.
Proven liar. A viewer wrote to O'Reilly and said he cancelled his subscription to this woman's paper.
What a smearmonger this piece of garbage is from the Denver Post! She writes articles like she's strait out fo j-school or the campus newspaper.
Tough call. OReilly is irritating. On the other hand he has the right target.
" Proven liar. A viewer wrote to O'Reilly and said he cancelled his subscription to this woman's paper."
He could have written to O'Reilly but not actually canceled or he could have canceled but not let the paper know why .
Bill O'Reilly is an a$$hole, but this woman needs to toughen-up a bit, she sounds like some whining 6 year old.
I agree. He is a self important blowhard, but he often is barking up the right tree.
Guess what. The girls are the biggest bullies in Middle School. They don't need any 'training' on how to be bullies.
so therefore al franken is a bully. why no write up on him, i wonder????
I don't like O'Reilly, but it seems political correct speech is more important to Cindy than the truth. The truth is, illegal immigration is a problem. At least O'Reilly is talking about it.
And O'Reilly was right.
This newspaper bimbo accused him and his "callers" on his show of fomenting anti-immigrant hate which resulted in the Georgia murders. O'Reilly doesn't take calls on TV, proving she doesn't watch the program yet accuses him of complicity to murder in print.
Now she and her dense employer are paying the price for her outrageous smear.
Condition: temper tantrum.
The best debater on the airwaves is Rush Limbaugh. It's no accident that he's also the least confrontational.
Is her TV stuck in the on position?
I can say that I booked a flight to Mars on Orbitz, but that doesn't necessarily make it so.
Give me a break. These liberals don't want us to take them on... they want the same old same old. And when O'Reilly stands up to idiots who want millions flooding across the borders I want him to take them on... and if they can't defend their positions, I want him to point it out. I'm tired of "polite" being an excuse to ruin my country. If the writer can't take the heat, she needs to get out of the kitchen.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.