Below is ANOTHER article about Bill O'Reilly's stance on the border. This article can be found at www.denverpost.com


Article Last Updated: 10/25/2005 07:19 AM

cindy rodriguez
Bill O'Reilly's bullying ways merit apology

By Cindy Rodriguez
Denver Post Staff Columnist
DenverPost.com

Last March, at a workshop aimed at empowering girls to confront bullies, I listened as girls recounted tales of being harassed and intimidated.

One girl's voice cracked as she spoke of a student who cursed at her and tried to trip her in the hall of her school. We learned that bullying is "the unjust exercise of power of one individual to humiliate, frighten, denigrate or injure another."

That day, a national expert said it's not just victims who have to stop bullies; bystanders need to speak up too; otherwise they're enabling the bullies.

So today I'm standing up to one of the biggest bullies I know: Bill O'Reilly.

On his TV show, "The O'Reilly Factor," the host interrupts guests, denigrates them, calls them names, and when someone makes an intelligent point countering him, O'Reilly cuts the microphone and shouts, "you're spinning!"

His aggressive style is entertainment for millions of Americans, some of whom think he's a real news anchor looking out for the common man. In reality, he is an instigator who stirs resentment and creates friction.

O'Reilly tried bullying me in January 2004. I had mentioned in a column that he had misquoted the figures of a flawed study on illegal immigrants and their supposed abuse of welfare.

That week, O'Reilly flashed my photograph on the screen and asked viewers to complain to the editor of my paper, telling him they plan to boycott. No one canceled any subscriptions, but my editor and I were inundated with e-mails from places far from Denver.

When that happened, I did what my mother had taught me: Ignore the bully.

Last week, he was at it again, taking aim at a columnist at The Dallas Morning News, Macarena Hernández.

Hernández had written a column about a string of murders in southern Georgia in which five Mexican migrant workers were bludgeoned to death and a sixth shot dead. Four other men were injured and a woman was raped during the attacks.

The murders occurred 3½ weeks ago and were mentioned in the national briefs column of a handful of newspapers.

Hernández said this and other recent attacks against illegal immigrants are partly spurred by hostile propaganda that characterizes illegal immigrants as subhuman.

She said that hateful rhetoric can be heard regularly on O'Reilly's TV and radio programs. Two years ago, O'Reilly called Mexicans "wetbacks" on his TV show, only to later say he meant "coyotes."

In April, O'Reilly agreed with a caller to his radio program who labeled illegal immigrants "biological weapons" because they may have "tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy."

O'Reilly's response: "I think you could probably make an absolutely airtight case that more than 3,000 Americans have been either killed or injured, based upon the 11 million illegals who are here."

Huh? That doesn't even make sense.

O'Reilly is a powerful man. Millions of people watch his TV show and listen to his radio program. But he would have more credibility if he spoke intelligently about illegal immigration. Why not talk about solutions, such as using new technology to secure the border or creating a national ID card?

O'Reilly resorts to personal attacks because it's what bullies do.

On his program, he called Hernández a liar and swears he's never made unkind remarks about illegal immigrants, even though there are video and audio clips on the Internet that prove otherwise.

Throughout most of last week, he flashed contact information for her publisher on TV and urged people to boycott.

My platform may not be as large as his, but I'm using it to tell O'Reilly to apologize to Hernández and to stop spinning.

Incidentally, Carey Hendrickson, spokesman for The Dallas Morning News, told me nobody had canceled any subscriptions.

But Hernández did get a ton of hate mail.

Cindy Rodriguez's column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays in Scene. Contact her at 303-820-1211 or crodriguez@denverpost.com.