Just imagining a better world.

From David Neiwert at Crooks and Liars:

 

Bill O’Reilly is outraged, outraged we tell you, over Sunday’s superb New York Times editorial calling out Republicans — and particularly movement conservatives who have thoroughly embraced the nativist wing of the party — for the ugly racism they’ve indulged in recent years, driving what should be a rational debate over immigration into the fetid wastelands of hysterical fearmongering, bigotry, and scapegoating.

So last night on “The O’Reilly Factor” he declared “war” on the Times:

O’Reilly: In the Impact Segment tonight, more lies from the New York Times over illegal immigration. As you may know, the Times and other far-left entities favor amnesty for illegal aliens, primarily as a way to gain political power. As you may also know, most Americans reject blanket amnesty, as was demonstrated when the immigration bill of 2007 crashed and burned in Congress.

So yesterday, this man, editorial page director Andrew Rosenthal, printed a vicious piece of propaganda called “The Nativists Are Restless.” In this smear, the Times implies that I and others racists because we oppose amnesty. The editorial says:

It is easy to mock white-supremacist views as pathetic and to assume that nativism in the age of Obama is on the way out. The country has, of course, made considerable progress since the days of Know-Nothings and the Klan. But racism has a nasty habit of never going away, no matter how much we may want it to, and thus the perpetual need for vigilance.

It is all around us. … Google the words “Bill O’Reilly” and “white, Christian male power structure” for another YouTube taste of the Fox News host assailing the immigration views of “the far left” (including The Times) as racially traitorous.

Of course, you can post anything on YouTube, any lie you want, any distortion, and Google can highlight the smear in the blink of an eye — there are no rules. For example, I could post that Andrew Rosenthal completely distorted Bill O’Reilly’s view on illegal immigration, because Rosenthal is a dishonest far-left zealot who uses hateful tactics, like implying people with whom he disagrees are racist. I could post that, and then you could Google “Rosenthal” and “illegal immigration” and it would be there — uncensored. Now if Rosenthal doesn’t know that, he’s stupid. If he does know it, then he’s dishonest and intentionally misleading Times readers.

Well, besides O’Reilly’s point being the most meaningless of nonsequiturs, it’s also worth remembering exactly what does come up when you Google those terms: actual video from this site showing Bill O’Reilly, in full context, saying the following:

Bill O’Reilly: But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you’re a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have. In that regard, Pat Buchanan is right. So I say you’ve got to cap with a number.

http://crooksandliars.com/