At The Huffington Post, Salon, and the Daily Kos, readers are absolutely railing against Bill O’Reilly’s past incisive rhetoric against Dr. George Tiller.

Considering O’Reilly continually called him, “Tiller the Baby Killer,” it is no surprise people are now pointing fingers at O’Reilly.  Consistently, O’Reilly used inflammatory terms to describe Tiller as a baby killer, abortions as murder and executions, compared Tiller’s clinic to Nazi camps and murder mills, and the list goes on.

The thing is, if it wasn’t O’Reilly up there spewing his garbage alongside Glen Beck and Shawn Hannity, it would be some other neo-con, evangelical filling his shoes.  Why?  Because, like Jerry Springer, there is a market and Rupert Murdoch loves the money it generates.

So now that Tiller is dead, why isn’t O’Reilly still calling him the Baby Killer?

So why the change in rhetoric tonight?  Is the issue too sensitive, or is Fox and O’Reilly concerned about losing money to a lawsuit. 

Let’s take a look at this clip, unedited and in its entirety courtesy of the Huffington Post, from O’Reilly’s segment, “Talking Points” tonight:

  • :10 He uses Tiller’s full name, with no “Baby Killer” attached.
  • :23 He uses Tiller’s name again without “Baby Killer” attached. 
  • :25 He says Tiller “terminated” pregnancies, instead of calling them murders like he did in years past.
  • :49 Tiller’s name again, still no “Baby Killer” attached.
  • :57 Quotes the Washington Times using the term destroy instead of murder to describe the 60,000 abortions Tiller performed.
  • :58 He uses the term fetus instead of baby.
  • 1:02 Tiller’s name again, still no “Baby Killer.”
  • 1:34 Finally the term “Baby Killer” is mentioned, but is deflected as a nickname used by pro-life organizations.
  • 1:42 Tiller’s name without attachment, it looks like it won’t be used.
  • 2:28 O’Reilly claims no backpedaling, but his rhetoric tonight is proving otherwise, subtle though it may be.
  • 2:35 O’Reilly says his ‘analysis ‘ of Tiller was based on facts.
  • 2:55 O’Reilly deflects criticism by mentioning Bill Ayers.
  • 3:25 O’Reilly claims the real agenda of the ‘far-left’ is exploiting the death of Tiller in order to bash Fox News.
  • 3:40 Uses the term fetus instead of baby.

It’s no wonder the evangelical community in America feels ganged up on and backed into a corner.  They’ve picked some real winners to be their public faces:  Bill O’Reilly, Glen Beck, Pat Robertson, and the late Jerry Falwell just to name a few. 

I just can’t imagine Jesus using these politically power-hungry people as his spokesmen in his day.  I think he had a term for them… unmarked graves, hypocrites, and brood of vipers comes to mind.

When will the true followers of Jesus vocally break away from garbage like O’Reilly and become set apart instead of apologizing and making excuses?

-mike