Joan Walsh Took on Bill O’Reilly

She stays calm, he stays crazy

Abortion is a tricky subject.  Personally, I’m pro-choice, but after 15 years of arguing about it, I’ve resigned myself to avoid the abortion debate.  It is a sensitive issue.  For a lot of people, it’s a religious issue.  For others, a feminist issues.

Nonetheless, I think we can all agree that tossing around terms like “baby killer” or “abortion mill” do nothing but inflame an already inflammatory issue the discussion or try to reach a common solution about the abortion debate.  It’s inflammatory an unnecessary rhetoric.  Furthermore, it is rhetoric that, TMIMO, lead, in some way, to the murder of Dr. George Tiller.

It doesn’t matter whether you think late term abortion is wrong (always or only in some cases), or whether the legal facility which Tiller operated was a moral abomination. (I say “legal,” fully understanding that the legality of an activity doesn’t make it “right,” whatever “right” means to you.)  The point is that vigilante justice is no justice at all.  Justice should be sought from one’s government and legislators.

I also hope that we can all agree that violence begets violence, and violent speech, often results in violent behavior.  Those individuals who are public figures or members of the media, therefore, have an obligation to watch their damn mouths.  What is incomprehensible to me is that even in the wake of Tiller’s death, the inflammatory rhetoric has not abated.  There are people who are glad that he’s dead (and have no problem saying so in a public forum), who prayed for his death, and even after Tiller’s murder, continue to malign him.  It’s disrepectful to his memory, it’s disrepectful to his family, and it’s not journalism. It just isn’t.

Considering the frequency with which O’Reilly spouted hate speech about Tiller: “Yes, I think we all know what this is. And if the state of Kansas doesn’t stop this man, then anybody who prevents that from happening has blood on their hands…,” it’s no wonder that he came under fire after Tiller’s murder.

Of course he’s saying it’s “far left lunacy” that has him under the gun.  No Bill.  It’s the fact that you are a hypocritical proven misogynist who seems to think that women get abortions because they wake up one day and are feeling “a little blue” or because they want to “go to more concerts” and “play sports”–as if undergoing such a personal and often traumatic experience is something that women regularly do just because they feel like it.

So, Joan Walsh, of Salon.com, called him vile (via Twitter), and when he invited her onto his show, The O’Reilly Factor, she felt obligated to call him vile to his face.  Apparently she prepared like hell, even got debate tips from her ex-husband, her friends, and even fans on Twitter.  (Her blog post on the subject is worth a read.)

Some called her crazy… why would any thinking liberal attempt to reason with a man whose show is not about debate or politics, really, but about shutting up, harassing, and bullying people who don’t agree with him?  (At one point he yelled at Ms. Walsh, “STOP TALKING!”)

I know Bill O’Reilly’s shenanigans aren’t news.  Why am I bothering to even write about him, right?  It’s like pissing into the wind.  But too many times, liberals appear on his show only to be made to look like a fool, and, here, I think Ms. Walsh handled herself quite well.  She got snarky at the end–just enough to get her point across–without coming across as “bitchy” or “aggressive” or a “ball-breaker” (and whatever other sexist terms are used to describe women who don’t wile away their days barefoot and pregnant.)  She came across as reasonable and he came across like a rabid jackass– right from the very first question which he asked her over and over and over: “Do you feel that late-term fetuses deserve any protections at all, Ms. Walsh?”

Oy vey.

Video after the jump.