O’Reilly blames TB scare on ‘secular progressives’

June 9, 2007

Given what we know of Bill O’Reilly, I guess this was inevitable.

On the June 1 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, discussing the recent news that attorney Andrew Speaker traveled by airline while infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of tuberculosis, host Bill O’Reilly asserted that the “the story comes down to … philosophy of life.”

O’Reilly explained: “Traditional values people put others on a par with themselves. That’s the Judeo-Christian tenet. Love your neighbor as yourself. Secular Progressives put themselves above all others. That philosophy says “Me first, then I’ll worry about you.” As a nation, the U.S.A. has been successful embracing the traditional point of view, but today, that’s being challenged and this TB case is a great example.”

He added: “Did Speaker put his own welfare above everything and everybody else? You bet he did.”

O’Reilly neglected to blame MoveOn.org, Bill Clinton, trial lawyers, feminists, environmentalists, the New York Times editorial board, and George Soros. I’m sure it was just an oversight.

Of course, it’s worth noting that O’Reilly’s obsession with “secular progressives” was just getting warmed up.

Later, he chatted with none other than James Dobson.

Later in the broadcast, discussing with Focus on the Family chairman James C. Dobson recent comments about drugs and sex made by panelists at the Conference on World Affairs to a group of students at Boulder High School in Boulder, Colorado, O’Reilly again generalized about the beliefs of so-called “secular progressives.” He said: “Secular progressives are going to basically tell children to use drugs, to have indiscriminate sex, do what you want when you’re 14 years old, never mind what your parents think.”

Media Matters for America has documented…numerous examples of O’Reilly’s attacks on what he calls “secular progressives,” as well as dubious claims about who qualifies as such. For instance, on the November 27, 2006, broadcast of Westwood One’s The Radio Factor, O’Reilly claimed that “secular progressives” want “out-of-wedlock birth in the USA” to be “at record highs.” Additionally, on the November 18, 2005, edition of The O’Reilly Factor, O’Reilly asserted that the “war” on Christmas is part of the “secular-progressive agenda” that also includes the “legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, [and] gay marriage, because the objection to those things is religious-based, usually.”

There’s really no point in responding to such obvious nonsense with substance, but I thought I’d pass it along anyway. It’s a reminder that some of the less stable elements in our public discourse will blame the left for literally everything.

During graduation weekend, one of my friend’s dads started to ask me about something political. Most of my friends are conservatives, so it didn’t shock me to learn that this guy’s dad was an O’Reilly watcher. (He wasn’t being a jerk about it, mind you, but a nice guy like he’s been in the past. He just wanted to talk. He even joked that he’d give me CULTURE WARRIOR to read and that I’d give him one of my books to read.) He used the phrase “secular progressive” a few times, particularly when talking about why he didn’t like the man awarded an honorary degree at the ceremony. I knew what it meant, but I just thought it was interesting because it’s not the type of terminology most people on the right, at least in my experience, use to characterize the left.

Do you suppose it’s coordinated, in that as liberals try to move past that label because it’s been so tarnished, he’s trying to counteract whatever efforts we make? Or do you think that it’s something he just used one day and kept on using?

  • Whuh?

    I’m one of those “secular progressives” and if I had TB, I sure as hell wouldn’t be fucking flying to Greece.

    ““Secular progressives are going to basically tell children to use drugs, to have indiscriminate sex, do what you want when you’re 14 years old, never mind what your parents think.””

    Uh, that ain’t secular progressives, that’s fucking idiots.

    This is Billbo’s psychological projection of his own issues onto us. He’s the one with the diva-esque behavior from what I’ve read about what happens backstage on his show. He’s the one who got sued by a female produced for sexual harassment but I digress.

  • Yes, we all know that when a person who has a contagious disease gets on an airplane, it’s not that individual’s fault. After all, we all know that there’s no such thing as personal responsibility. There are only “secular progressives” (evil, wrong) and neo-conservatives (good, right).

    Using this dichotomy it is easy to ascertain whether a given individual is good or evil, right or wrong. This will simplify the process of deciding who will be interred to the Halliburton concentration camps later, when Dear Leader declares martial law.

    Source: Disgusting Pig Factor

  • This guy is a nut-job of the first order, and he’s getting more ridiculous as time goes on. His recent diatribe of a column on atheism is so easy to poke holes through that it’s almost pathetic. His so-called response RE: formation of the earth as “proof” of god is sadly showing his lack of education in cosmology, and galaxy/planet formation.

    A lobotomy could only help, in his case.

  • Have people really just realized that Bill O’Reilly uses “secular progressive” as a negative thing? When he gets people on his show that he wants to attack, he starts the interview by saying “Now you are a secular progressive.”

  • Douchebag Oreilly is just a useless lump that found he has an unintelligent audience to buy his racist rantings. By Judeo-Christian values, does he mean values like this rabbi that advocated carpet bombing Gaza. I guess by “love your neighbor”, he means bomb your neighbor. News and the rants of assinine assholes like Oreilly are tailored to the audience. Consider this example using the news item about building the missile defense shield in Poland. The BBC reported, “Russia has proposed a radar station in Azerbaijan should be used instead of Polish and also Czech locations.
    Mr Lavrov said US plans could ‘seriously complicate’ talks on the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme.”     while in the Jerusalem Post’s article, Russia calls on US to halt missile deployment with no mention of the possible complications to the talks over Iran’s nuclear program. They might have considered what was omitted as important. Personally, I feel that if someone is still stupid enough to watch and listen to Oreilly, they should have a special license plate like that proposed for child molesters. The license plate would act as a warning to the rest of us, sort of like an “Idiot on Board” sign so we can give them a wide berth.

  • Does O’Lielly put his own welfare above everything and everybody else? You bet he does.

    I guess O’Lielly weaves his Secular Progressive boogeyman out of the Left’s tolerance for non-victim drug use
    (“tell children to take drugs”

    it’s belief in child rights such as allowing teenagers to get abortions without telling their parents,
    do what you want when you’re 14 years old, never mind what your parents think

    sex education, and promoting the use of condoms.
    to have indiscriminate sex,

    Their belief in treatment, not punishment, for drug use.
    (“tell children to take drugs”

    I think we need a term for taking bits and pieces of the other side’s beliefs and misinterpreting them to demonize them. Perhaps we should call it the Big O’Lie.

  • “Secular Progressive” … I like the sound of that.

    I’m neither monastic, ecclesiastical nor clerical, and I feel sorry for those who suffer from those mental illnesses, Nor do I relish going backward, devolving from a more advanced state, or undoing what little civilization and culture the western world can lay claim to.

    “Secular Progressive”? yes, I like that accolade. To borrow from the nobler “Black is beautiful” of forty years ago, Secular Progressive is Simply Perfect.

  • Straight out of the corporate lackey’s mouth.

    This kind of secular progressive does not exist. Does anyone know anyone like what Dobson describes?

    These authoritarians are worse than pathetic.

  • [O’Reilly] added: “Did Speaker put his own welfare above everything and everybody else? You bet he did.”

    To be sure he did; I agree with O’R here.

    But do we even know that Speaker’s a “secular progressive” (and I, too, will gladly wear that mantle)? I haven’t seen Speaker’s philosophy or political bent discussed anywhere. As a matter of fact, based on his disregard for others and his career as a lawyer, I assumed he was a Repub. Possibly deeply religious as well, as leaving the fate of all other passengers in God’s hands seems to indicate.

  • Olberman already debunked BillO on Speaker and secular progressives. KO seems to think Speaker is prolly a Repub. He’s ex Navy, an atty and his father is either a Baptist Minister, or teaches Sunday School, this was last week so I may be getting the details wrong. Besides that, the guy is from Atlanta, so chances are he’s conservative.

  • O’Reilly is our friend in disguise — he’s given us our perfect epithet: Secular Progressive.

  • He went to Greece to get married.

    He must have missed the memo.
    Now he can’t have children or we’ll throw him out of the club.

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