Sam Seder / Majority Report discusses the presidential campaign of business mogul Donald Trump and his “war” with NBC and Univision.
In other news, Latino rapper Pitbull recently took aim at Trump for his ill-advised remarks on Mexican immigrants in America by declaring the would-be politician had blown his chance of becoming president of the U.S., writes kerngoldenempire.com.
Last month, at his announcement that he would run for President, Trump suggested many Mexicans in the U.S. are “rapists” and “criminals.”
As a result of his controversial remarks, bosses at networks NBC, Univision and Televisa decided to dump coverage of his Miss USA pageant, which aired to low ratings over the weekend.
On Thursday, Spanish-language network Univision held its annual Premios Juventud Awards, and Cuban-American star Pitbull received the first prize of the night for Favorite Urban Artist, writes kerngoldenempire.com.
During his acceptance speech, Pitbull took a moment to call out Trump for his remarks, prefacing his own comments by admitting that he’s stayed at Trump’s hotels and used his helicopters.
He said, “I am not political. I am a musician. But more than anything, I am Latino.”
The Miss USA pageant ended up airing on July 12th on ReelzChannel, which is available on satellite providers DirecTV, Dish Network, and AT&T U-verse channel 799, according to NOLA.com.
According to NPR, on the morning of May 31st, 2009, a Wichita, Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions – Dr. George Tiller – was shot at his church.
Several hours later, the shooter Scott Roeder was arrested as he was driving toward Kansas City.
At his trial, Roeder admitted killing Tiller. “I did what I thought was needed to be done to protect the children. I shot him,” Roeder said.
Roeder was convicted of first-degree murder and given an enhanced sentence of 50 years.
Tiller’s clinic had been previously bombed in 1986, and in 1993, Tiller was shot in both arms. There had also been a “massive effort organized by the Pro-Life Action Network and Operation Rescue” in 1991 where anti-abortionist protested at three clinics that provided abortion services in the area. The main protest area was at Dr. Tiller’s clinic, and thousands poured in from across the country, states NPR.
“They did everything, they laid down,” says former district attorney Nola Foulston. “They wouldn’t walk. The officers had to carry them. They cried that there was brutal treatment.”
The protests were repeated 10 years later in 2001. The presence of “sidewalk counselors” near the clinic’s driveway continued almost on a daily basis.
But in the years before his death, Tiller did not shy away from the gates of his clinic nor from the media coverage, including from Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, who nicknamed him “Tiller the baby killer.” Through it all, Tiller remained defiant and vocal, according to NPR.
Even many Christians do not agree with the shooting of Dr. Tiller. The below editorial is from Christianity Today after the earlier, 1993 shooting of Tiller.
“A dangerous phrase is floating about pro-life circles these days. Following the murder of Dr. David Gunn and the shooting of Dr. George Tiller, extremists have rationalized those violent acts by calling them justifiable homicide. Fortunately, most people in the pro-life movement intuitively reject attempts to justify the murder of abortionists. But instinct may not serve us well in emotionally compelling situations. We must also think through the reasons for rejecting deadly violence in the abortion struggle.
“The logic for justifiable homicide runs like this: If a crazed killer enters your home and threatens the lives of your children, you are justified in grabbing your deer-hunting rifle and shooting the intruder. Likewise, these extremists argue, you are justified in using deadly force to stop a doctor known to be a “serial killer” of fetuses from murdering more.
“There are several assumptions in this argument that are worth examining. First, it is assumed one should try to kill a potential killer in order to prevent more killing. But the church has long recognized that the intent to kill is always sinful. The Christian may feel obliged to attempt to stop a madman with an AK-47. And that attempt may result in death. But moral theologians have applied the term justifiable homicide only to that killing which is an unintended secondary effect. The intent must be to protect the innocent. Disabling a killer—whether by hitting him with an unabridged dictionary or by shooting him with a bullet—may result in his death. But it is not permissible under the law of Christ for an individual acting alone to intend to kill another human being.
“Second, the analogy requires us to believe that the guilt of an intentional killing can be outweighed by preventing other, unknown, as-yet-not-committed evil acts. Christian ethicists have taught that we are not justified in committing a known evil in order to achieve a good end. Just as we do not cheat on our taxes in order to give more money to missions, we do not murder abortionists in order to bring more babies to term. The end does not justify the means.
“Shooting an abortionist, then, is unlike incidental killing in the defense of one’s family: it involves premeditation and sinful intention…
The Washington Post once discussed Bill O’Reilly’s faith with him. He appeared to be Catholic. Below is an excerpt.
“You grew up Catholic. How big of a role did faith play in your home?
“I lived in a traditional Irish Catholic home that didn’t deviate very much from what had happened in the past 150 years. We went to church on Sunday, went out to breakfast afterward. There were rituals. My mother wanted me to be an altar boy, so I was. I can compare it to a very working-class, predictable, faith-based situation. It was just: Here are the rules. Here’s what we do. There wasn’t a lot of why in it.
“Did you believe in God?
“Yes, I bought into the orthodoxy. When you’re a little kid and your parents believe and then the school teaches you, it’s an inculcation. I didn’t challenge it.
“And what about Jesus? Did you believe Jesus was the Son of God?
“Oh, yes. Sure. Yes, back then in the late ’50s, early ’60s when I was in Catholic school, everybody believed it.
According to hollowverse.com, “O’Reilly grew up going to Catholic schools and is still Catholic today.” Hollowverse.com cites the “Bill O’Reilly Biography.”
On the website http://www.creators.com, O’Reilly writes, “Over the years, I have occasionally written about being a practicing Roman Catholic, a fact that sometimes leads to incredulous statements like ‘You go to church?’ Somehow, I don’t believe the question is a compliment.” He also writes, “A number of Catholics have left the church because of the priestly sins, but not me.”
Several sites show that he is Catholic. As a conservative, he also denies man-made climate change. So, the question is, will the pope’s encyclical on climate change affect Bill O’Reilly?
Writer Leonard Pitts looks at the typical talking points made by pundits like O’Reilly, such as the black-on-black crime rate:
“…this has become the go-to “reasoning” for those on the right — Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh — when asked to give a damn about the killings of unarmed black boys and men.
“That formulation is false for multiple reasons.
“In the first place, being concerned over the shooting of unarmed black men hardly precludes being concerned over violence within the African-American community. Giuliani and others suggest a dichotomy where none exists.
“In the second place, they ignore the obvious: When black people commit crimes against black people, they face prosecution, but when police officers (or certain neighborhood watchmen) commit crimes against black people, they face getting off with little if any punishment.
“In the third place, what exactly is “black on black” crime?
“Do black people kill one another? Sure they do. Ninety percent of black murder victims are killed by black assailants.
“But guess what? White people kill one another, too. Eighty-three percent of white victims are killed by white assailants. See, the vast majority of violent crime is committed within — not between — racial groups. Crime is a matter of proximity and opportunity. People victimize their own rather than drive across town to victimize somebody else.
Sam Seder and Majority Report discuss whether Bill O’Reilly committed spousal abuse. The news publication Gawker claims that Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly committed acts of domestic violence during his marriage to ex-wife Maureen McPhilmy.
Gawker reports that it has secured partial transcripts from the custody trial of Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly in regards to the dispute with his ex-wife, Maureen McPhilmy.
The documents, which record testimony given last year, confirm that the ex-couple’s teenage daughter told a court-appointed forensic examiner that she witnessed O’Reilly “choking her mom” as he “dragged her down some stairs” by the neck.
The same transcripts also reveal that O’Reilly told his daughter that her mother is an “adulterer”; that he struggles to control his rage around his family; and that his daughter regards him as an absentee father.
The news publication Gawker claims that Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly committed acts of domestic violence during his marriage with Maureen McPhilmy.
Gawker:
“According to a source familiar with the facts of the case, a court-appointed forensic examiner testified at a closed hearing that O’Reilly’s daughter claimed to have witnessed her father dragging McPhilmy down a staircase by her neck, apparently unaware that the daughter was watching. The precise date of the alleged incident is unclear, but appears to have occurred before the couple separated in 2010. The same source indicated that the daughter, who is 16 years old, told the forensic examiner about the incident within the past year.”
O’Reilly and ex-wife Maureen McPhilmy split on April 2nd, 2010 and divorced on Sept. 1st, 2011.
McPhilmy began dating a detective to whom she is now married.
Recently, New York Times columnist Charles Blow quoted the president speaking at Georgetown University about the poor:
“And I think the effort to suggest that the poor are sponges, leeches, don’t want to work, are lazy, are undeserving, got traction,” said the President.
“And, look, it’s still being propagated. I mean, I have to say that if you watch Fox News on a regular basis, it is a constant menu — they will find folks who make me mad. I don’t know where they find them. [Laughter.] They’re like, I don’t want to work, I just want a free Obama phone [laughter]…”
The columnist also criticized Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly for calling poor people “lazy.”
O’Reilly then gave his opinion of Blow’s column on his TV show The O’Reilly Factor.
Below is a quote from Media Matters that was cited by Blow in his column. Media Matters states the quote is from 2004 from O’Reilly’s radio show The Radio Factor.
O’Reilly: “Reagan was not a confrontational guy, didn’t like confrontation, much rather be your pal … doesn’t want to get involved with the really nasty stuff, the tough stuff, and that’s what racial politics is — nasty and tough. … It’s hard to do it because you gotta look people in the eye and tell ’em they’re irresponsible and lazy. And who’s gonna wanna do that? Because that’s what poverty is, ladies and gentlemen.”
Are poor people lazy? What about the “working poor?” Are people who work full-time for low wages lazy? Are there times – during an economic downturn, for example – when people are forced to accept low wages?
Recently, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly criticized Baltimore African Americans on many fronts, including income and arrest rates.
According to MediaITE, he said that “despite African-Americans controlling Baltimore, the city’s not prospering” and he focused on personal behavior instead of economic conditions. He also pointed out stats about black crime in Baltimore.
OK, Fine. 