On August 13, 2008, Jenna Kern, a Long Island Unitarian in her 20s, wrote this excellent contributing article in Newsday in which she showed a link between the hate of right wing radio and the killing at the church in Tennessee. Bill O'Reilly, one of the hate mongers who helped push the killer over the edge, was very briefly mentioned in Ms. Kern's article.
For speaking the truth, Bill O'Reilly decided to send his stalking producers to her home. O'Reilly whipped up the hatred and soon thereafter Ms. Kern-Rugile received multiple death threats which has led to police protection. Has O'Reilly denounced the death threats? Of course not.
Let's be clear here. O'Reilly intent is to terrorize Ms. Kern-Rugile and others into silence and make them fear for their lives. And regardless of politics, we should all denounce this. Thus I've sent the following editorial to Newsday and asked them to print.
Dear Opinions Editor,
On August 13, 2008, Newsday published an excellent contributing op-ed by Unitarian Jenna Kern which asserted that there was a connection between the murders of churchgoers in Nashville, Tennessee and the rhetoric of certain right wing talk show hosts, including Bill O'Reilly.
Instead of submitting an editorial to the contrary, Bill O'Reilly decided to ratchet up hate against Ms. Kern, going so far to send a stalking producer to her home. Since O'Reilly's hateful rhetoric, Ms. Kern has received death threats which have required police intervention. Has O'Reilly condemned the death threats? Of course not. O'Reilly's intent is to use the threat of violence to intimidate critics and Ms. Kern is not the first target of O'Reilly's tactics. That make all of us Jenna Kerns now even if we don't agree with her politics or religion.
When Bill O'Reilly threatens your reporter, your newspaper needs to get ten times louder, not meeker. Here's some things your readers may not know about Bill O'Reilly.
When 18 year old Jennifer Moore was raped and murdered in New York City, O'Reilly called her a moron and said that she invited the rapist because she had a mini skirt on which was showing her midriff. When 13 year old Sean Hornbeck was kidnapped and sexually abused, O'Reilly blamed Hornbeck, suggesting that the kid's pierced ear meant he was troubled and that he wanted to be kidnapped and raped. O'Reilly is nicknamed Falafel and Loofah because of his actions with former producer Andrea Mackris which resulted in O'Reilly paying her several million dollars for his sexual abuse.
O'Reilly once called on Al Qaeda to blow up the Coit Tower in San Francisco because he didn't like a resolution the city passed. Maybe the elusive #3 in Al Qaeda has been hiding at Fox News studios all this time.
When the Nazis invaded Denmark, everyone in Denmark was a Jew. We're all Jenna Kerns now. Now Bill O'Reilly will feign outrage that I am linking his tactics to the Nazis but considering that Bill O'Reilly sided with the Nazis instead of our World War Two veterans in the fight at Malmedy, the comparison is appropriate.
I live in Queens, NY. I blog as davefromqueens.
You can contact Newsday here.