O' Really?

As stated in this blog previously I no longer watch Bill O'Rielly on his "No Spin Zone" on Fox. I just don't like his bullying tactics toward his guests. I refuse to reward those who lower the level of discussion to an uncivilized level of rudeness. At least it qualifies as rudeness in this part of the country. But I was suckered in a couple of days ago - I was zipping through channels when his pre-show promo got my attention. "Reaction to Janet Jackson shows Secularism rebuked" - or something along those lines. What does Jackson's boob have to do with secularism I thought? I wanted to find out.

According to Bill O'Rielly the negative public reaction to Janet Jackson exposing her boob during the Super Bowl illustrates that "the secularists agenda of moral debasement" is overwhelmingly denounced by the American people. The secularists' agenda of moral debasement? I consider myself to be sort of a secularist myself - at least if you define secularist as being in favor of the separation of church and state - but I had apparently been out of the loop on our agenda. I didn't know we were supposed to be in favor of moral debasement. I immediately went to my secularist sources on the web - such places as the UK's National Secularists Society. Nothing there about being pro-moral debasement or even pro-exposed boob. A little more research and I had to come to the reluctant conclusion that Bill O'Reilly either didn't know what the heck he's talking about or he was trying to spin a very unpopular action into a controversy to benefit his biases on an entirely different matter. Could it be?

Just for the record O'Reilly this is one secularist that was outraged at Jackson's disrespect for people. I'm outraged that broadcast television has become base and degenerate. I don't want nudity and cursing being thrust on me and my family through the public airwaves. I want to be able to watch broadcast TV without constantly monitoring its content for my young daughter. I loathe the profits-at-all-costs nature of the TV industry. Where can we go now to watch good, quality TV news and entertainment that is both civilized and neutral on religious matters? Hard to find these days.

But I'm also upset with TV personalities like O'Rielly spinning events to suit their need to draw an outraged audience and line the pockets of TV executives. Reality gets further and further distorted by these self-serving performers that masquerade as arbiters of social commentary. I doubt if O'Reilly and his colleagues in business believe half the viewpoints they take in their effort to appeal to extreme idealogues. If they do, they're nuts.