What were the directors of St. Mary’s school and church in Manhasset thinking when they decided to ask Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly, host of the O’Reilly Factor, to host a fundraiser?
Did the leaders of a church named after the person they honor as the blessed mother of Jesus not see the problem in associating with a divisive personality who has become famous for his hateful and outlandish rhetoric? Did they need the money that badly?
O’Reilly said he agreed to host the event at Long Island University’s Tilles Center, “Since the pagans up in Albany aren’t helping the Catholic schools, it’s up to me,”
We don’t find that funny and it certainly isn’t true. We have on occasion found fault with Albany but we know where to draw the line.
O’Reilly never hesitates to cross the line of decency. At the same event he said he wanted to “beat up” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
No one should have been surprised by O’Reilly’s comments. He once said, “I just wish Katrina had only hit the United Nations building, nothing else, just had flooded them out. And I wouldn’t have rescued them.”
And after visiting the famous Sylvia’s restaurant in Harlem he said he was surprised that “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’”
O’Reilly has found a home on the Fox Network and he is entitled to freedom of speech.
But his words are so often offensive and intolerant that he makes a poor choice to host a fundraiser for a church or school.
