We can all hope that this tragic event wouldn't be used to try and score cheap political points. Unfortunately, it hasn't even been twenty four hours and already that is not the case. Now, some on the left are trying to imply that Bill O'Reilly is responsible for Tiller's death.
But there's no other person who bears as much responsibility for the characterization of Tiller as a savage on the loose, killing babies willy-nilly thanks to the collusion of would-be sophisticated cultural elites, a bought-and-paid-for governor and scofflaw secular journalists. Tiller's name first appeared on "The Factor" on Feb. 25, 2005. Since then, O'Reilly and his guest hosts have brought up the doctor on 28 more episodes, including as recently as April 27 of this year. Almost invariably, Tiller is described as "Tiller the Baby Killer."
Tiller, O'Reilly likes to say, "destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000." He's guilty of "Nazi stuff," said O'Reilly on June 8, 2005; a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida, he suggested on March 15, 2006. "This is the kind of stuff happened in Mao's China, Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union," said O'Reilly on Nov. 9, 2006.
O'Reilly has also frequently linked Tiller to his longtime obsession, child molestation and rape. Because a young teenager who received an abortion from Tiller could, by definition, have been a victim of statutory rape, O'Reilly frequently suggested that the clinic was covering up for child rapists (rather than teenage boyfriends) by refusing to release records on the abortions performed.
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This is where O'Reilly's campaign against George Tiller becomes dangerous. While he never advocated anything violent or illegal, the Fox bully repeatedly portrayed the doctor as a murderer on the loose, allowed to do whatever he wanted by corrupt and decadent authorities. "Also, it looks like Dr. Tiller, who some call Tiller the Baby Killer, is spending a large amount of money in order to get Mr. Morrison elected. That opens up all kinds of questions," said O'Reilly on Nov. 6, 2006, in one of many suggestions that Tiller was improperly influencing the election.
Salon is not the only leftist making this claim. Longtime O'Reilly nemesis the Daily Kos is making a similar argument.
Since 2005, Bill O'Reilly has waged jihad against Dr. George Tiller, dedicating 29
segments of his show to demonizing and dehumanizing Tiller, who he invariably called "Tiller the baby killer."
First, there is delicious irony in folks like Salon and Daily Kos, who themselves frequently refer to George Bush as a mass murderer, expressing righteous indignation that O'Reilly demonized Tiller.
O'Reilly did demonize Tiller. Tiller performed thousands of abortions of fetuses that were viable. He performed thousands of late term abortions, making him one of only three doctors to perform such abortions. Tiller often also performed abortions on females under the age of 18, without reporting anything to the authorities. By law if you are under 18, you can't consent and so being pregnant is evidence of being raped.
Also, Tiller has been the target of mentally deranged individuals long before he became the target of O'Reilly. He's had attempts on his life since the 1980's. Was O'Reilly also responsible for those attempts? Yet, the folks at Salon find no problem insinuating that this individual snapped and killed Tiller because O'Reilly made him a frequent target of impassioned and direct criticism.
The whole thing is disgusting. All of this is meant to do one thing. It is meant to intimidate anyone else that seeks to criticize or be held responsible for demonization that leads to the target's life being threatened. Ultimately, these folks have used a tragedy not only to score cheap political points but as an opportunity to silence voices with which they disagree.
2 comments:
First and foremost, the only reason Tiller was "controversial" is because right-wing terrorists who tried and eventually succeeded in assassinating him found "controversy" in him.
Second, I have a hard time disagreeing with people like Salon when the conservative movement is so heavily reliant upon 1. disgust for liberals as people, 2. synonymizing conservatism with being American, 3. anti-intellectualism.
Your own posts are rank with epithets about liberals and liberalism. "socialist" "democrat party" "the radical left". All phrases designed to describe your political opponents as nuisances at best and threats at worst.
Take your previous discussions of Reagan's management of the Republican Party. You said that Reagan invited people to become part of his movement, so long as they accepted that it was his movement and they had no control over its direction. The conservative movement seems to have extrapolated that idea to the nation as a whole. To a conservative, liberals are welcome to live in this country, so long as they acknowledge that this country belongs to the conservatives and that liberals live here at their discretion.
You feed people enough rhetoric about liberals collaborating with terrorists, imposing socialism and tyranny, forcibly disarming the population, forcing unqualified minorities into positions of authority, banning them from practicing their religion, stealing from them so liberal cronies can live slothful and immoral lives, a case can in fact be made that you are asking for things like this to happen. Liberals demonized Bush, but they wanted him to go to jail, or at the very least be impeached, not be jailed.
This the second major instance of right-wing terrorism to occur since Obama became President. I just don't understand how you can continue to believe that everything good about this country comes from conservatives.
And by the way, the age of consent in Kansas is 16, which kinda blows your "all girls under 18 years old were raped" theory out of the water.
Tiller was controversial because he performed thousands of late term abortions yearly and made millions of dollars doing it. Partial birth abortion is a brutal operation. It is done long after the fetus is viable and it's done way late into the pregnancy long after the woman should have made up her mind to have the abortion.
Second, by doing so many abortions, these weren't all done to save the mother. They were usually done for mild health issues, and often, they were done with no real health issues at all.
That's why he was controversial.
The rest of your rant is nonsense. I don't call all liberals the "radical left". I'm not even sure that I use the term "radical left". I call Daily Kos far left because they are. When I have referred to Obama as a radical, I have backed that up with evidence.
You show absolutely no evidence for your rant.
As for Reagan, my piece was about Krugman and not very much about Reagan. If I ever said that Reagan invited people to his movement as long as they acknoweldged it was his movement, then that is news to me, the supposed author of said thoughts.
You assign all sorts of thoughts to entire group of people which is just nonsense. Conservatives are not monolithic. They have political philosophy, they don't see the other side all in the exact same way.
You are spewing a bunch of nonsense.
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