Was their on air spat simply a case of O'Reilly finally losing it, or was there much more at play in his War of Words with Geraldo Rivera?

::::::::

The O'Reilly Geraldo dustup via Oliver Willis:

In the entire, dark, black history of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, this is probably the craziest clip ever. A young girl was tragically killed by a drunk driver. But this was not enough for O'Reilly. Instead, because the criminal was an illegal alien he added this incident to his ongoing crusade against the brown people. Luckily Geraldo was on the show and he - to his credit - called out O'Reilly's xenophobia for exactly what it was. This drove Bill O'Reilly insane. I was almost certain he was going to reach across the table and hit Geraldo.

This video on YouTube

This is the leading face of cable news, right wing media, of the conservative voice in the media, and he's a freaking psycho. The kicker, O'Reilly concludes his tirade by saying "this is reason". Well, I guess that's what passes for it in today's MSM.

Geraldo managed to get in some good lines during the middle of O'Reilly's flip out. Such as...

Don't obscure a tragedy to make a cheap political point.

Geraldo also pointed out that the drivers previous arrests and convictions were non-violent (being drunk in public twice, and one victimless DUI - in Chesapeake - and there was no evidence of "Moral Turpitude" in any of these cases, hence Ramos was not targeted for deportation) - he was able to make these statements with authority because he - unlike O'Reilly - is a lawyer and knows what he's talking about.

Also...

Illegal Immigrants commit crimes at a lower percentage than the general population

O'Relly's worst moment was when he completely jumped the shark in response to Geraldo pointing out that their were over 340 drunk driving deaths in that state - yet none of this was shown on the Factor, and that this was actually about Drunk Driving, not Illegal Immigration - by responding with the straw man argument...

You want Anarchy!! You want Anarchy with Open Borders!

What Geraldo didn't ask is the real $60,000 question, and it's not why people are coming to America, it's why they are not being allowed a legal path into the country when they are overwhelmingly able to find work when they arrive?

The answer of course is that by forcing these people to use illegal means to gain entry, they can replenish in the underground economy of wage-slaves. It'a about keeping prices down the rock bottom. If employers were required to provide at least minimum wage pay for all their workers, and to legally sponsor any foreign workforce additions with visas this "problem" would dwindle down to almost nothing.

Oh, there would still be immigrants entering from the south (as well as Europe and Asia) - but they would mostly be Legal and documented. A fence doesn't change that, nor would place troops on the border (besides the Posse Commitatas issues)

I usually DVR O'Relly and actually watched this after being tipped off about the fight on Dkos, and the truly strange thing was that after both of them calmed down - they attempted to spin their spat into proof that Fux News is truly "Fair and Balanced" because it allows for both of them to have differing viewpoints.

<script>if (document.layers) {document.write('<SCR' + 'IPT language=JavaScript1.1 src=/Global/ad.asp?type=single&cls1=News&src1=loc&spct1=100&sz1=wnsz_20&callType=script />'); document.close();}</script>coreAdsCreate('wnsz_20', 'loc', '100');

What it allowed for a is a cock fight, where O'Reilly attempted to simply shout his opponent do down, but Geraldo stood up to him. O'Reilly couldn't cut off his mic as he's recently done to his own radio co-host Liz Weihl, when she correctly pointed that he was mistaken about the White House offering for Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to testify "under oath" and with a 29-year army veteran and Geneva Conventions Instructor.

But Geraldo is wrong, this little spectacle isn't really about either Drunk Driving or Illegal Immigration, it's just another playing of the "Cute White Female Victim" Card. It's Anna Nicole Smith mania in teen form with a touch of Terri Schiavo, Lacy Peterson, Chandra Levy and Natalee Holloway - times two!

And then you add the foreign, slightly mean looking perpatrator into the mix and you've got Television GOLD! Cable TV will cover this story literally to death - including both Geraldo and O'Reilly even if they do put different spins on it despite their arguments of "balance" both of thier views are decidedly right-wing and exploitative of a tragedy.  Geraldo has been riding the tragedy wave for a decade every since he devoted his entire show to Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.

Eugene Williams has written about this syndrom for the Washington Post.

Every few weeks, this stressed-out nation with more problems to worry about than hours in the day finds time to become obsessed with the saga -- it's always a "saga," never just a story -- of a damsel in distress. Natalee Holloway, the student who disappeared while on a class trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba, is the latest in what seems an endless series.

...The specifics of the story line vary from damsel to damsel. In some cases, the saga begins with the discovery of a corpse. In other cases, the damsel simply vanishes into thin air. Often, there is a suspect from the beginning -- an intruder, a husband, a father, a congressman, a stranger glimpsed lurking nearby.

Sometimes the tale ends well, or well enough, as in the cases of Smart and Lynch. Let's hope it ends well for Holloway. But more often, it ends badly. Once in a great while, a case like Runaway Bride comes along to provide comic relief. But of course the damsels have much in common besides being female. You probably have some idea of where I'm headed here.

A damsel must be white. This requirement is nonnegotiable. It helps if her frame is of dimensions that breathless cable television reporters can credibly describe as "petite," and it also helps if she's the kind of woman who wouldn't really mind being called "petite," a woman with a good deal of princess in her personality. She must be attractive -- also nonnegotiable. Her economic status should be middle class or higher, but an exception can be made in the case of wartime (see: [Jessica] Lynch).

Put all this together, and you get 24-7 coverage...

It's so bad, that it's even gotten under the considerly thick skin of Michelle Malkin.

Whatever the reasons these missing pretty white girl cases get flogged, I find the whole Missing Pretty Girl Sndrome disturbing (and that's coming from someone who works for FNC). I think we should be paying a hell of a lot more attention to Lodi and Tampa and Denver than Aruba.

The cause of this phenomenon could be racial, it could be sexism (why are missing boys hightlighted as often?) and it could even be simply about "attractiveness." - Conformity to the thin white girl paradigm - or even all the above. The Web and Newspapers are overrun with stories about 5'2", 100lbs blonde Jessica Lynch - but does anyone even remember that she wasn't alone when she was captured and wounded in the early days of the Iraq War? There were four men and another woman - Spc Shoshana Johnsonn - who were our first P.O.W.s of the 21st Century.


Ok, how about this - it appears that the drunk driver who killed director Bob Clark ("A Christmas Story") was also an illegal immigrant.

(AP) LOS ANGELES Federal authorities have placed an immigration hold on a 24-year-old Mexican national arrested on suspicion of driving drunk and causing the crash that killed film director Bob Clark and his son.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice says a hold was placed Wednesday on Hector Velazquez-Nava, an illegal immigrant living in Los Angeles.

Velazquez-Nava was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol and gross vehicular manslaughter.

But I don't see either Geraldo or O'Reilly pounding the table and ready to force the mayor of Pacific Palisades out of officer over that now do you?

Vyan

Authors Website: http://www.truth2powerproject.com

Authors Bio:

Born and Bred in South Central LA. I spent 12 years working in the IT Dept. for federal contractor Northrop-Grumman on classified and high security projects such as the B2 Bomber. After Northrop I became an IT consultant with the state of California in Sacramento and worked on projects with the Dept of Consumer Affairs and CalTrans, as well as projects for Kaiser Permanente in Oakland. Now living in Los Angeles with my own independant web design company where I operate the Truth 2 Power Online Radio Station.