The hypocrite's crime is that he bears false witness against himself.
Hannah Arendt, On Revolution
It was simply a well-intentioned attempt to add perspective to a statement made during the Democratic convention. Judging by the response you'd have thought he was proposing something crazy. In fact, it was good that Fox News host, Bill O'Reilly, pointed it out. There is no reason he should be vilified for bringing an overlooked point of view to the discussion.
There were a lot of people who listened to Michelle Obama's speech on Tuesday night of the Democratic National Convention who had subscribed to the notion that slavery was bad in all respects and had no redeeming features. That perception had been helped two years earlier by the Academy Award winning movie, Twelve Years a Slave. That movie was based on a slave narrative memoir that was written by Solomon Northup, a New York State black resident who was kidnapped and forced into slavery in Louisiana for 12 years. The film received three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong'o and Best Adapted Screenplay for John Ridley. It did not include any scenes that showed the pleasant living quarters or the good food that the slaves enjoyed, and, in fact, even devoted more time than some thought needed to the vicious beating of a slave who had displeased the owner of the plantation
In her speech at the Convention Ms. Obama poignantly observed that she and her family awaken each day in a house built by slaves and that her daughters could be seen in the morning on the front lawn of that house playing with their dog. Mr. O'Reilly felt that Ms. Obama should not have left the impression that being a slave was all bad. To correct this, he used his Fox News program, The O'Reilly Factor. He pointed out, as Ms. Obama had not, that the slaves who were working on the White House when it was being built, albeit slaves, were "well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government." That was, Mr. O'Reilly believed, an important part of their story and helped provide an accurate historical perspective of those times that Ms. Obama failed to include in her narrative.
Mr. O'Reilly was immediately pilloried for his comments by critics around the country. To get support for what he had said, he invited two of his colleagues at Fox News to provide commentary and to discuss his critics and their motivations which, he believed, had nothing to do with the substance of his comments. The invited guests were Geraldo Rivera and Eric Bolling. They discussed the criticism that had been levelled against Mr. O'Reilly at some length. In response to their comments Mr. O'Reilly observed that he and his Fox colleagues needed to work harder to defend themselves from attacks that had followed his well-intentioned comments about slaves. He said: "I think the time has come now, where this whole network is going to have to band together, all of us, and we're going to have to call out the people who are actively trying to destroy this network, by using lies and deception and propaganda. We're going to have to start to call them out by name, because that's how bad it's become." Seconding, as it were, Mr. O'Reilly's comments, Mr. Rivera responded with the description of an event outside the Democratic gathering where an unidentified person, but presumably a democrat, had actually poured water over Mr. Rivera's head even though there was no suggestion by the pourer that Mr. Rivera needed to have his hair washed. Responding to that tale, Mr. O'Reilly observed that "propaganda and hate now dominate the media landscape."
Everyone who has followed the media would agree with that observation but many followers of such things would be forgiven if they thought that Mr. O'Reilly was referring to the success Fox News was having in spreading propaganda and hate and he was simply bragging of its success. That is not, however, what he had in mind as was clear if you heard the entire segment of Mr. O'Reilly's show in which this was discussed. Mr. O'Reilly said the attacks on him were an attempt to destroy him. As he explained: "This attack came out of Media Matters. . . and is designed to diminish me and harm the Fox News Channel." He said "it's getting to the point of danger" and it's hard for Fox news reporters to go out into the field. Describing an encounter, a Fox reporter had at the democratic convention at which someone swore at the reporter "right in his face" Mr. O'Reilly said: "This is provocation. These people are doing this. They want me dead." Mr. Bolling responded saying: "I'm not sure they want you dead," to which Mr. O'Reilly responded: "Oh they do, believe me."
If you didn't know better, you would think Mr. O'Reilly's hyperbole is exactly the sort of hate and propaganda speech that Mr. O'Reilly says have infected the media. You would be right. The only astonishing thing is that Mr. O'Reilly does not realize that he and his colleagues are the ones who have introduced us to the hate and propaganda speech he describes. Go figure. Christopher Brauchli can be emailed at brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu. For political commentary see his web page at http://humanraceandothersports.com