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Bill O'Reilly has never been a fan of the New York Times, but an editorial the Times ran yesterday has him declaring all-out war against the newspaper after it essentially named O'Reilly as a racist. The editorial, titled "The Nativists Are Restless," decried what the Times sees as the "streak of racial extremism" hidden in the Republicans' "relentlessly harsh campaign against immigrants." As an example of this, the Times writes:
But racism has a nasty habit of never going away, no matter how much we may want it to, and thus the perpetual need for vigilance.
It is all around us. Much was made of the Republican mailing of the parody song "Barack the Magic Negro," but the same notorious CD included "The Star Spanglish Banner," a puerile bit of Latino-baiting. It is easily found on YouTube. Google the words "Bill O'Reilly" and "white, Christian male power structure" for another YouTube taste of the Fox News host assailing the immigration views of "the far left" (including The Times) as racially traitorous.
This sent O'Reilly into a fit of rage in which he accused the Times of lying and supporting "amnesty for illegal aliens, primarily as a way to gain political power." He also said that if Times editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal didn't know that "you can post anything on YouTube, any lie you want, any distortion, and Google can highlight the smear in the blink of an eye," then Rosenthal is "stupid."
However, as Crooks and Liars points out, this is not the first time that O'Reilly has expressed concerned about the Times and their strong support of immigrants. O'Reilly once warned John McCain:
But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have. In that regard, Pat Buchanan is right. So I say you've got to cap with a number.
That video can be viewed here.
Media Matters has more on O'Reilly's fears of what immigration will do to the country's ethnic landscape.
Watch O'Reilly rail against the New York Times below.