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O'Reilly scolds guest who outed gays, then calls judge a lesbian

By John Cook
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 21, 2004

Fox News Channel's star talk-show personality, Bill O'Reilly, says he is uncomfortable with the practice of outing gay political figures--except, it seems, when he is doing the outing.

On his show Monday night, O'Reilly chastised guest Michael Rogers for maintaining a Web site publicizing the names of gay staffers working for politicians who oppose gay marriage.

"We're uneasy with this kind of exposition," O'Reilly said. "Somebody's personal sex life should have nothing to do with any kind of a policy."

But on the same show--and for at least the third time in the last year--O'Reilly described one of the justices on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court as a lesbian, a claim that the justice herself, through a spokeswoman, denies.

On shows in November, last week, and again on Monday, O'Reilly has referred to "the lesbian judge on the Supreme Court who dissented" in the court's landmark ruling in favor of gay marriage.

O'Reilly has never named the judge, but of the three dissenting justices in that case, only one--Justice Martha B. Sosman--is a woman.

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Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 
Well that sucks. Especially since the first statement about it not mattering is so true.

Hypocrite.

Dagonee
 

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Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 
Some questions to help me understand what happened:

Is she really a lesbian?
Was that already known?
 

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Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
 
She denies being a lesbian, and so far O'Reilly appears to be the only person insisting that she is.
 

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Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 
MPH, my comments were based on both questions having "no" for an answer. If that's not the case, then technically he wasn't "outing" her. But the quote says she's denied it.

If she's publicly acknowledged she's a lesbian, then it might be appropriate to bring into the discussion, if nothing else for assigning credibility to the dissenting opinion. But the whole idea makes me uncomfortable.

Dagonee
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
You know, I'm sure that this is all the liberal media's fault. It'll take me a little while to find a way to justify that, of course, but with a little work we should be able to pin it on them. Damned liberal media!
 

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Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 

 

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Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
 
You know, I bet white slaveowners during the Civil War came up with some pretty good slurs for white abolitionists, too.

If I disagree with O'Reilly, who will he claim I'm sleeping with? Farm animals?
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
I just think that the idea of some monolithic "liberal media" is something of a boogyman, mph. There is bound to be bias in news reporting--it's a human endeavor, after all--and a person would be foolish to ingest any news story uncritically, regardless of the source. Some media outlest skew left, others skew right. Taking all of them with a grain of salt, but not automatically dismissing them because you're of a different ideological position than the source, will result in one's being a much better informed person, I think.
 

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Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 
Actually, he agrees with this judge he's calling a lesbian, at least on the idea of judicially-created gay marriage in Mass.

Dagonee
 

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Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
 
So, wait, he's calling a woman who voted against gay marriage a lesbian? How does that make sense?
 

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Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
 
I heard him call her a lesbian on talk radio. But I didn't necessarily think he meant it as a slam -- it didn't come across in a derogatory way, and I assumed that because he said it, she was already "out" -- common knowledge. I didn't know that she wasn't one...

FG
 

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Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
 
He's doing it to say that not all gays think gay marriage is a good idea.
 

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Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
 
If a gay judge votes against gay marriage, then obviously then real gay people don't want to be married, and the whole gay marriage thing is a plot by some liberals and greedy lawyers to gain power and money.

Besides, O'Reilly and Logic are not well aquainted.
 

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Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
 

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the whole gay marriage thing is a plot by some liberals and greedy lawyers to gain power and money.

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This is true.

*Swears solemnly*

Recent surveys show that the only demographic group that shows 100 percent support for gay marriage is...

divorce lawyers!

Hey, what's wrong with making a buck?

.....

Anyway, O'Reilly has no business complaining about anyone else engaging in "outing" - either it's wrong or it isn't. He can't have it both ways.

And I'm in the "it's wrong" camp. I don't like it as a tactic on the left, which is where it gets used more.
 

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Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
 
Or, O'Rielly is so conservative he assumes that any woman who works must not be married, and any woman who is unmarried past the age of 27 must be either ugly or a lesbian, or both.
 

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Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 
Hmm, are people here saying it's OK to use O'Reilley's tactics against him? If so, O'Reilly can justify much of what he does on the same grounds.

Dagonee
 

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Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
 

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*Swears solemnly*

Recent surveys show that the only demographic group that shows 100 percent support for gay marriage is...

divorce lawyers!

Hey, what's wrong with making a buck?

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