Last week*, Bill O'Reilly once again used his prominent soap box to soil himself.
CAL THOMAS: [ . . . ] I talked to an official at Icon Productions, which is behind The Passion this afternoon. And he assured me that Mel Gibson is taking this issue very seriously and will meet with Jewish groups.
But as you have mentioned, not necessarily with those who have already judged the film before seeing it.
O'REILLY: All right...
THOMAS: I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
O'REILLY: ...see, I don't either. As I said, I wouldn't show my book galleys to people who are going to hammer me. I mean, we want a sense of fairness. But here's the problem in my thing. I see a deeper agenda here. I think The Times and the others who really fear a return to any kind of spirituality in this country, no matter what religion it is or what it is, they just want secularism, is using the anti-Semitism to beat down this film so it has no credibility to promote a secular agenda. Am I crazy, Cal, or what?
Well, since you asked, Bill, and to put it politely, yes. But don't let that stop you from sharing your paranoia and pathetically researched punditry with your television audience.
This entire interview, on the part of host and guests alike, missed the point and obfuscated the facts so completely that it nearly took my breath away. Yes, Bill. Yes, Michael. Yes, Cal. The seemingly deep and sincere concern expressed about this film throughout most of the Jewish community and a good part of the Catholic community, as well, can be dismissed as nothing more than an insidious plot to destroy traditional American values. How very clever of you to have figured that out for us.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the truth about 'The Passion' is out there. And (pssst!) it has nothing to do with secularist or liberal conspiracies.
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*I now see that the show discussed in this post was from last Tuesday, not last night as originally posted. Sorry about the confusion. I haven't had time to peruse last night's transcript yet. Perhaps more on that later.
UPDATE: Last night's transcript now perused and nothing much worthy of comment. Oh, except for this:
I know Gibson. I'm in business with Gibson, OK. Talk with him about this quite extensively. He believes that people seeing his movie will then become better people. They'll understand more why Jesus lived, why he died and what he stood for, which is -- as we all know -- love your neighbor as yourself, treat everyone equally.
If you see his movie -- Mel Gibson believes this firmly -- you will emerge from the movie theater a better, more compassionate person.
Uh huh. He's "in business with Gibson." Well, that would certainly explain his "fair and balanced" attitude on this issue. Hey. We have it from O'Reilly. The unmistakable message of 'The Passion' is "love your neighbor." We can all stop worrying now.
