Bill O'Reilly

Hi Everyone:

Well it happened again. Another public figure, this time TV personality, Bill O'Reilly used his platform to talk to millions of people without using any common sense what-so-ever!

Today's post isn't about whether one is for or against abortion. It is about public figures thinking they can say anything they want without any consequences. This is what happened. Since 2005, O'Reilly had talked about abortion provider and Kansas resident, Dr. George Tiller 29 times on his TV show, The O'Reilly Factor. O'Reilly actually used Dr. Tiller's name each time he talked about him. Salon's Gabriel Winant wrote that, "O'Reilly didn't tell anyone to do any violence against the doctor, but he did put the doctor in the public eye and helped make him the focus of a movement with a history of violence against these kinds of targets." O'Reilly even went so far as to call Dr. Tiller, "Tiller the baby killer!" So what was the consequence of O'Reilly's venom against the doctor? Dr. Tiller was murdered in cold blood while he was in his church.

Frank Schaeffer, who with his father Francis in the 1980's said that force could sometimes be justified in fighting abortions, wrote in The Huffington Post that he and the religious right "all contributed to this killing by our foolish words. I am very sorry." The Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote about the online commentary that O'Reilly bears some responsibility for the killing but said he wasn't going to join the attack.

O'Reilly himself said this about Tiller's killing that "quick-thinking Americans" should condemn it. O'Reilly's incendiary words about Dr. Tiller lead to his murder. The Fox News host, O'Reilly and maybe even Fox News should definitely be held accountable for his words and to question whether he had gone to far in personally assailing Dr. Tiller time and time again for years. I think that O'Reilly should be charged with accessory to murder.

If O'Reilly had used common sense, he wouldn't have named Dr. Tiller and where he lived. O'Reilly has the right to voice his anti-abortion views but not in the way he did. I believe that there is a law against someone yelling fire in a crowded place and there should be a law against how O'Reilly used a person's name and address. Because O'Reilly failed to use any hint of common sense in what he said, it lead to the death of a human being. This is just so wrong on any level. I hope the authorities do hold O'Reilly accountable. Freedom of speech can go only so far!

Till next week.