One Man's Culture War

Bill O'Reilly sticks up for the little guy--that is, himself.

Cathy Young from the January 2007 issue

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In an October interview with Diane Sawyer, Gibson attributed his drunken outburst to hidden resentment over the “pretty brutal public beating” he suffered over The Passion. O’Reilly quickly embraced this bizarre “the Jews made me do it” self-justification. “I was right in the middle of that attack on Mel Gibson,” he told Geraldo Rivera on The Factor. “And it was brutal.…It wasn’t all Jewish people behind the attacks. But it was Frank Rich, who’s Jewish, at The New York Times and other people.…That doesn’t condone it, but it does explain it, does it not?” He went on to berate Geraldo for refusing to forgive the supposedly contrite actor/director.

The O’Reilly Factor always ends with a segment called “The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day.” These days, the most ridiculous item of the day may be O’Reilly himself. But his culture warmongering is no laughing matter. O’Reilly does, at the moment, have considerable influence—and he uses it to whip up hatred of secularists, people with liberal social values, war critics, and others who don’t fit his concept of a good American.

Cathy Young ([e-mail]) is a columnist for The Boston Globe.