Mary Alice Carr, NARAL Rep: Why I'll Never Again Appear On Bill O'Reilly's Show

Washington Post:

I made a personal pledge to no longer sit across from him after he called for people to converge on Tiller's clinic. I realized that appearing on the show with him would only legitimize his speech and that no good would come of my efforts.

So on Tuesday morning, when an O'Reilly producer called and asked me to come on the show to "discuss the reasons why women have late-term abortions," I held fast to my pledge

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[BumpyKnight]

Good for you, Ms. Carr. O'Reilly knows his viewers well and we should too. You are unlikely to reach anyone through this outlet, whatever the ratings. Ultraconservative media, Fox as well as Limgaugh and others, serve as safety zones for reality refugees.
Can't help but wonder how different things would be had O'Reilly not been a factor.

[lunchlady]

Great statement- make sure you read the whole thing, its very good.

Standing up to Bill and other GOP pundits is tough, since we progressives don't have a similar attack dog and we don't like to play as rough. I wouldn't want to mix it up with Bill either. I would love to tell him what I think of his anti-Tiller campaign and other things, but I don't think anything is going to make a dent in Bill's attitude except legal action and low ratings and a drop in salary.

So maybe the refusal to directly engage is the way to go, since it might help marginalize Bill and Rush and Glenn and Sean and so on. Stand back and encourage examination of Bill's modus operandi. It stinks, so focus on that.

[squarebird]

Aargh!! Bil is NOT a "GOP pundit". He is a populist and firm nanny-stater. Rush calls him "Ted Baxter" for a reason.

Having said that, though, I don't agree with shooting the messenger here. Although I am libertarian pro-choicer, Dr. Tiller will not a good matyr make, because the more people learn about him, the more unsavory he is revealed to be. O'Reilly lifted up a rock .. but Dr. Tiller is responsible for what was found underneath it.

Robert in D.C.

[lunchlady]

Populist? What is that exactly? He's not popular with anyone I talk to regularly. And I definitely have no clue about "nanny-stater".

Dr. Tiller was a provider of needed medical services, no more no less.

[grooveygrover]

Not being a woman who will ever need an abortion excludes you from having the right to have an opinion about Dr Tiller

O'Reilly is a hate monger who needs to be held accountable for what he spews. No responsible parent would allow their child to speak the way he does, much less to millions of viewers/listeners, why should an adult get away with it?

[JLRoberson]

The only liberals allowed on Fox that aren't spineless asskissers or fringe freaks are there for hosts to throw rocks at. There is nothing to be gained from appearing there; it is not a news organization. At best it's a commentary enterprise, and no liberal will ever change the mind of a single Fox viewer.

So starve them. Let them talk amongst themselves. Grant them no legitimacy.

[CynAnne]

Very well said, JL, and an idea I subscribe to wholeheartedly (I get what small doses o' Faux I might need through safety-filters like "Countdown" and HuffPo - sort of like wearing reality-based rubber gloves before handling toxic Faux 'commentaries')..! ;) ...

[Avanti2]

The same in reverse can be said of CNBC.

[lostpl8]

No, actually, Bill O’Reilly does have blood on his hands. I watch his show the same as I watch most other television commentators. He does use hateful rhetoric, and words that would incite many people. I know first hand what happens to people that come to the attention of Bill O’Reilly’s talking points. A friend of mine last year made the Bills list of targets, for a poem she wrote in response to an Israeli war. While I might not always agree with my friend, she has the right to print and say what she believes in. She is willing to put her body where her pen is and go to Gaza and the West Bank, to help find common ground among the young people in hopes of peace. And for that she gets hate mail and threats from Bill O’Reilly’s followers. From some of the responses that were shared with me, Bill O’Reilly should be brought up on criminal charges. Now with the Tiller killing Bill O’Reilly should be brought up on charges once again.

What is the famous saying: “You can’t yell fire in a crowded theater” Well Bill has been yelling fire for a long time on Tiller and half a dozen other people for years.

[conserve joe]

If your friend has the right to print and say what she believes in, why doesn't Bill? I am having trouble understanding your argument. I am pretty sure that Bill O gets hatemale from KO "followers" as well. It is still freedom of speech. And people need to take responsiblity for their own actions. Quit trying to blame everything on somebody else. The problem lies in the person who killed the Dr and the people sending hate male, not on the commentator's.

[mofmars333]

There is free speech and then there's a line that should not be crossed. Bill crosses it and it is not free speech. It's inciting ignorant haters to violence and he does have blood on his hands. He knows it, too, and we can bet he's plenty scared now.

[JLRoberson]

If I wrote, "conserve joe is a bad person, and I have his home address so that somebody can give him the justice he needs,, not to mention his daily movements and that of his wife and children, whom I'd like to show you pictures of now" if I did not realize this put you at threat by someone, (a) would I be smart enough to be allowed on any media ever responsibly, and (b) would I not be lying?

Tiller was a doctor, not a politician. He was not a public figure, and Bill O'Reilly was an enabler of his death. There may or may not be a legal reprisal. But I will say that Bill better hope he lives to a very old age and enjoys all of it, because Hell is where hypocrites go according to his faith.

[grooveygrover]

it is, at the least, irresponsible to incite violence and murder.
Bill is entitled to his opinion, but he uses his medium and his opinion to incite others to unlawful acts and then lacks the integrity to take responsibility. There is a HUGE difference. This goes way beyond freedom of speech.

[Raster]

The charges should be: accessory to murder. That would happen in most of the EU and many other civilized countries.

[conserve joe]

Ummmm.....we don't live in Europe. We live in the US. Our laws are based on OUR constitution and reguardless what Ruth Bader Ginsburg believes, foreign law should not be a part of our rulings. So Bill, keep on talking. KO and Maddow keep talking as well. I don't care. Just quit trying to blame everything on everybody else.

BTW out of curiousitym when did libs quit believing in free speech?

[CynAnne]

You stated the case against OhReally quite well, lostpl8. He's trying now to wrap himself in the flag of 'free speech', but not all speech is 'free'. And OhReally's now-infamous, documented hate speech against Dr. Tiller will surely cost him, in either criminal or civil court (just like it cost Bill-o and Faux before) - see "Makris vs. O'Reilly/Fox Corp." or "Fox Corp. vs. Franken"..two humiliating defeats for OhReally, and ominous portents of things to come for the truculent badger OhReally..! ;) ...

[Avanti2]

The same can be said for Olbermann.

[coco51]

if others would do likewise, Fox and it's lowlifes would wither away. however as Ms. Carr suggests, appearing as a "guest" on O'Reilly is tempting because of the large audience he has. What the expert "guests" choose to ignore is the disrepect shown to those with an opposing view, that O'Reilly and his ilk have no regard for dialogue. What is most telling to me is that the "experts" are as narcissistic as O'Reilly and O'Reilly understands that. It's also why he treats them with such contempt.

[Mij13]

Thank you, Ms. Carr, for laying it all out so well. I agree that it would be good if someone represented pro-choice on his show, and at least tried to make it more ballanced, but not now. Let him live with what he did and go on defending it. The fact that he sees the whole thing as all about him and an attack on his show is so pathetic, and anyone tuning him in who might listen to someone like you will see that eventually.

[WorkingClass]

Being a voluntary punching bag for Bill only makes him richer. No decent human being should EVER go on his show.

[coco51]

maybe they enjoy the notoriety of being punched by O'Reilly. sad but true, celebrity by any means is celebrity.

[Hastings1066]

'Every time I appeared on his show, I received vitriolic and hate-filled e-mails. And if I received those messages directly, I can only imagine what type of feedback'............ Did she EVER stop to think what kind of attention SHE was bringing to Dr. Tiller???

[CrackerJacker]

Seeing as she often was there to rebuke his talking points, I think it's fair to say that the spotlight was already upon Dr. Tiller. Trying to reason with someone and debate their ideas when you don't agree with them and no-one else will even try - despite Mr. O'Reilly's record for stubbornness - is never a bad idea.

[coco51]

what got me was the "everytime." really now, how many times does it take for you to know you're there to incite O'Reilly's vitriol, encourage his audience and up his numbers. Boxing matches don't go to matches or pay pay-per-view to see a box end in the first 5 mins of the first round, they watch for the blood, the pulpy eyes, the double punch to the gut and the uppercut.

Reasoned dialogue concludes with the parties agreeing to disagree sometimes or agreeing but with respect for the debate and the debatee. O'Reilly has no concept of what respect is, he's a bully.

[Zengeist]

As a friend of mine once said; Never wrestle with a pig - you'll just get filthy and the pig loves it!

[CynAnne]

Heehee, Zen. Hasting and his friends are way past disingenuous, and are now cruising along on 'auto-obtuse'. And short of Mary Alice taking out weekly ads in the "Wingnutter Shopper", there's NO way to equivocate her bringing the kind of dangerous attention to Dr. Tiller in the 'unfair and unbalanced' manner that OhReally did.. O_o ...

[ObamAtomic]

Mary Alice good for you! O'really had blood on his hands.

Tubular hypocrisy;. The man(Oreally) is a facade and his show is not news,
is a shocked tevee show.
He might walking on a thin rope,a civil suit is a possibility.
People on this site are calling the former pres and former VP : War Criminals,
that's what they are:War Criminals

Again with your hypocrisy..... Tubular Neo_con,get out,do not let the door hit your rear end on your way out.

[conserve joe]

You're right,,,it is not news. He is a commentator. It is his show and he can talk about any thing he wants and give his own view point. The same can be said for KO and Maddow. I'm sorry if you think those are news shows as well.

He does not have blood on his hands, either. This is the same argument we have been having for decades. They were trying to blame OZZY and Metallica for suicides back in the 80's. COME ON PEOPLE. If you are doing something because of a song or because of a TV show, something is wrong with you anyway. First amendment rights will win this arguement everytime.

[AFVet1A251]

Then he needs to quit calling it "news" and "fair and balanced" if it is only his opinion...

They should call the channel "Fox Opinion" because, in the end, that's all it really is...

[CynAnne]

Not so fast, conserve..unlike Ozzy or Metallica, OhReally targeted ONE specific person repeatedly with violent 'lyrics' of rhetoric and hate, and OhReally, like a demented deejay, broadcast those 'lyrics' over and over..As previously promised (and delivered), here's that link to Faux's favorite mouthpiece, their 'radio-head', as it were, specifically targeting Dr. Tiller with vile hate-speech of the yellowest kind: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/31/tiller/ ..every time the claim is made that OhReally and/or Faux 'aren't liable', I'll be happy to re-post evidence to the contrary..!

[condor101]

You made the right decision Ms. Carr.
O'Reilly spews hatred; Appearing on his program would only legitimize him as a presenter, fair-minded in the eyes of the viewers, because he would have allowed you,a dissenting voice on his program. By offering people with differing views on his show, he appears 'balanced and fair'.
I'm happy that you did not give him this opportunity to use you for his agenda.
I recommend that everyone stop watching his O'Reilly's program. I have never watched his show and a few times that I did listen to him through excerpts of his program, I felt sick to my stomach. O"Reilly caters to haters in this world.
The best that we can do is not participate in his show in any manner. I choose my news online and I listen to good and thoughtful commentators.
Boycott O'Reilly and Fox Channels.

[BambooHarvester]

FIRE oreilly !
~

[RuWii]

I'm aghast. This nation is so fractured, and over nothing of actual importance. Seriously, we are in for some hurting if we don't pull together. What's going to happen to us if a real crisis happens? Like, for instance, we lose our economic place in the world, and oil starts becoming scarce, and the national standard of living plummets? What then? Will there be anything of the US left to piece back together? Or will we fracture into sub-nations? Given history, I think we'll fracture.

It's sad. Leave party politics to the politicians, that's their job, our job is to be citizens of our nation and to demand that our government serve us. If we want to claim that we are the best nation in the world, why shouldn't we also want to have the best government in the world?

[Hastings1066]

I've never seen the country so divided as it has become since November 4th 2008

[RuWii]

yep, electing a non-neocon black man to the presidency will do that to a racist society.

[bibimimi]

oh, please. people now feel free to speak. we were always here, u just weren't listening.

[grooveygrover]

the country became divided during Bush's reign, it was his goal, these hate mongers are just carrying on his legacy

[madisonhack]

"Like, for instance, we lose our economic place in the world, and oil starts becoming scarce, and the national standard of living plummets?"

You joke, no? I think we passed that exit a few miles back.

[Heavy]

F0x News, the favorite network of domestic terr0rists.

[Heavy]

Fox News, the favorite network of domestic terrorists.