In my view, Bill O'Reilly is a chachki/tzotchke hawker, not a newsman, which means The Factor is not a "news" show so much as a cheap version of QVC jacked up with violent rhetoric. Everything O'Reilly does is about sales of his books, t-shirts, coffee mugs, pens, doormats, blankets, golf balls, wind shirts. But Bill has spent so much time trying to sell t-shirts by attacking DailyKos as anti-Semitic, that I felt it was time I confessed something to the readership that many people may not know about me.
I'm Jewish.
Not only am I Jewish, but I am professional Jewish, meaning I have an advanced degree in Jewish Studies (M.Phil.in Modern Jewish Studies from Oxford) above and beyond my Ph.D. in Anthropology. That means I am officially licensed and have been paid to talk, write and otherwise be an expert on Jewish stuff. In fact, one of the things I have written about is anti-Semitism--all kinds of anti-Semitism. I know, for example, that when you write "anti-Semitism," you capitalize the "S." Many people do not know that, but I do.
Among the many things I know about Jews, Judaism, one thing I know for certain is that Bill O'Reilly is not an expert on Jews and Judaism. If he was an expert, I would have come across that fact at some point in my studies or, if he had become an expert so recently that he was not yet mentioned in books or articles, then one of my many Jewish studies expert friends would have told me. It probably would have happened at at Jewish Studies conference (we have them every year) with a friend walking up to me and saying something like: 'Did you hear? Bill O'Reilly is now an expert on Jews and Judaism.'
That hasn't happened.
In all my studies of Jews and Judaism (in five languages, mind you--I'm no lightweight), I have also never come across any reference to Bill O'Reilly as an expert on anti-Semitism. There re many kinds of anti-Semitism. As long as there have been Jews, there has been anti-Semitism. And as long as there has been anti-Semitism, Bill O'Reilly has not been an expert on it. Whether or not Bill O'Reilly spends his leisure time informing himself about anti-Semitism, I cannot say. Many people have hobbies, perhaps that is his. But he has never given a paper, written an article, nor done anything in any official capacity that has moved any professional or lay organization to give him the official nod as expert.
That much being said, Bill O'Reilly has taken it upon himself to talk quite a bit about Jews, lately. Because of the recent attacks against this site by Bill O'Reilly, many of us think that his talk about Jews began a few weeks before the 2007 YearlyKos Convention in Chicago. As an expert on Jews and Judaism (see above), I can say that Bill O'Reilly's talk about Jews began several years back under the guise of something called "The War on Christmas."
What is the "War on Christmas." Well, for starters it's a book with a red cover written by Bill O'Reilly's colleague John Gibson, who also has a TV show on the FOX Network.
But even before that, Bill O'Reilly began using his show on FOX to argue that Christians in America were the victims of widespread persecution by non-Christians, particularly at Christmas time.
Now, the tendency by some to argue that Christians are the victims of non-Christians at Christmas time is not something that Bill O'Reilly thought up himself. It has actually been around for quite some time, albeit not widespread anymore.
Historically, however, the "non-Christians" in the story have been Jews. In this kind of talk, the idea that the "Jews killed Christ" is re-invented at Christmas time as the idea that the Jews are trying to prevent any celebration of Christ in their ongoing persecution of the Christian messiah.
As an expert on this kind of thing, I can tell you without hesitation that 99.9999999999% of the world's Christians think this kind of talk is a bunch of nonsense. There was a time in Europe when many people belied that story--a time called Sixteenth Century. And there was even a time in the United States when, for a short while, some people believed that story--a time called the early Twentieth Century. Americans who followed the writings of Henry Ford,in particular, believed that Christians were the victims of Jewish oppression, particularly at Christmas time. That story had largely vanished in America until Bill O'Reilly and his colleagues at FOX resurrected it. But he did it in a clever way. Rather than talking about "Jews" waging a "war on Christmas," Bill used the fancy phrase "secular liberals." That was his way of transforming the old anti-Semitic canard into a new fangled anti-liberal canard. But those of us who are experts recognized what Bill was doing.
And, sure enough, shortly after Bill O'Reilly started complaining about how the Jews secular liberals were hating on Christmas, he also started to get real aggressive in taking on Jews who stood up to complain about his campaign.
One such incident happened December 3, 2004 when Bill O'Reilly took a call on his radio show from "Joel" in Orange County, CA:
CALLER: I agree with what you've been saying recently -- you're concerned about the secularization of Christmas and -- I'm concerned about the secularization of Jews and about the -- and Christmas going into schools.
When I was growing up -- I'm Jewish, but I was not in a very Jewish area. There were some Jews there but, I was kind of -- grew up with a resentment because I felt that people were trying to convert me to Christianity --
O'REILLY: Were they?
CALLER: Yeah, when I got to college I found out -- that's true. A lot of people were. I found that millions of dollars were spent trying to convert --
O'REILLY: I mean that you really believe that people were trying to convert -- you personally -- were trying to make you change from being Jewish to Christian?
CALLER: Absolutely.
O'REILLY: How do they do that?
CALLER: Well, for example, there are various organizations in the colleges that go to people -- try to invite you to Bible study groups --
O'REILLY: Yeah, I know, but -- I mean, you don't have to go. I mean they do that to me. They come -- the Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door and invite me places. I mean, I don't care -- I just say no, get outta here.
CALLER: The thing is, is when you have -- for example, Christmas carols or gift exchanges being done in school, that kind of sets the kids up to being converted.
O'REILLY: Yeah, but you give gifts on Hanukkah, don't you?
CALLER: No, there's not really a Jewish tradition of giving gifts on --
O'REILLY: Well, the seven candles [sic], you get a gift for every night, don't you?
CALLER: Actually, the Jews give gifts on --
O'REILLY: All right. Well, what I'm tellin' you, [caller], is I think you're takin' it too seriously. You have a predominantly Christian nation. You have a federal holiday based on the philosopher Jesus. And you don't wanna hear about it? Come on, [caller] -- if you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel then. I mean because we live in a country founded on Judeo -- and that's your guys' -- Christian, that's my guys' philosophy. But overwhelmingly, America is Christian. And the holiday is a federal holiday honoring the philosopher Jesus. So, you don't wanna hear about it? Impossible.
And that is an affront to the majority. You know, the majority can be insulted, too. And that's what this anti-Christmas thing is all about.
I am not an expert on the United States Constitution, but I am an expert on Jews, Judaism and anti-Semitism. Telling a caller that he's "gotta go to Israel" was anti-Semitic because it implied that American Jews are somehow not fully American by virtue of their being Jewish. To be fully American, according to O'Reilly's logic, one has to be in the majority--a Christian.
I was not the only expert to pick this up. In fact, the professional organization that routinely cites media personalities when they make anti-Semitic remarks--the Anti-Defamation League--not only heard the anti-Semitism in Bill O'Reilly's remarks, but sent him an official letter of reprimand, which they still have posted on their website:
When you load up the general ADL page on your browser, you will notice that the title of the window says this:
ADL: Fighting Anti-Semitism, Bigotry, and Extremism
When you then click over to the ADL page with the letter to Bill O'Reilly, the title changes to:
"Go to Israel" O'Reily Tells Jewish Caller
From this we can conclude the following:
When Bill O'Reilly said "Go to Israel" to a Jewish caller on his radio show, that was an instance of anti-Semitism, bigotry or extremism. Therefore, the ADL sent him a letter of reprimand.
You can come to a different conclusion, but as I said above: I am an expert.
So what have we learned from all this?
First, we learned that I am Jewish, and an expert at that.
Second, we learned that Bill O'Reilly's talk about Jews did not begin with his attack on DailyKos leading up to YK07.
Third, we learned that Bill O'Reilly began talking loudly about Jews on his FOX TV and radio show in 2004 or so, along with other FOX personalities including John Gibson.
Fourth, we learned that Bill O'Reilly was officially reprimanded for "anti-Semitism, bigotry and extremism" during an on-air exchange with a Jewish caller December 3, 2004.
Update [2007-8-17 9:13:35 by Jeffrey Feldman]:
On Spelling
From the comments. A suggestion that I spelled "Chachki" incorrectly:
See here:
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
tchotch·ke /ˈtʃɑtʃkə/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[chahch-kuh] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun Slang.
an inexpensive souvenir, trinket, or ornament.
Also, chotchke.
[Origin: 1965–70, Americanism; < Yiddish tshatshke <Pol czaczko bibelot, knickknack (now obs.; cf. mod. cacko with same sense, orig. dial.); of expressive orig.] <br>Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
American Heritage Dictionary
chach·ka or tchotch·ke (chŏch'kə) Pronunciation Key
n. Slang
A cheap showy trinket.
[Yiddish tshatshke, from Polish dialectal czaczka.]
American Heritage Dictionary
tchotch·ke (chŏch'kə) Pronunciation Key
n. Variant of chachka.
Online Etymology Dictionary
tchotchke
"tinket, gewgaw," also (transf.) "pretty girl," 1964, Amer.Eng., from Yiddish, from a Slavic source (cf. Rus. tsatska).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet
tchotchke
noun
1. (Yiddish) an attractive, unconventional woman [syn: chachka]
2. (Yiddish) an inexpensive showy trinket [syn: chachka]
And a rebuke that my way of spelling "anti-Semitism" is not correct either:
There are all sorts of reasons to spell things, but how you figured out the one "right way" on antisemitism is a mystery to me. There are 3 common spellings http://en.wikipedia.org/... and frankly only "antisemitism" makes sense as a spelling.
"Anti-Semitism" with a dash suggests the existence of its obverse: "Semitism"... which has never been an ideology or thought pattern so labeled.
What there HAVE been are "antisemites"... people opposed to the existence or rights of "semites", which in the European context meant exclusively Jews.
The ideology of "antisemites" is indicated by affixing the suffix "ism"... hence "(antisemite)ism" or "antisemitism".
It's true that losing the dash forces you to lower case the S in semite... but the term semite, which was used to refer to Jews when it had a broader meaning hardly deserves to be capitalized here given that it is used so inexactly.
Your spelling completely misses the historical and etymological point about the word, and leaves open the door for all those who argue often unseriously that other semitic peoples can also suffer from "anti-Semitism". In fact they can suffer from all sorts of discrimination but it makes little sense to refer to that (for example, Anti-Arab) discrimination as "antisemitism" or anti-Semitism" which has never meant anything other than anti-Jewish feeling or action. Your spelling makes no sense in that context, and opens the door to that unfortunate misunderstanding.
Stick with "antisemitism", one word, no hyphen, no caps. I use that spelling for a reason, and it is no error.
Orthographic pistols at dawn. You decide...