Bill O'Reilly is the last person who should be lecturing someone else about what's considered journalism, but that didn't stop him from doing just that with Univision's Jorge Ramos this Wednesday night.
Ever since his dust up with Donald Trump, the right wing and the yakkers on Faux "news" have been on the attack, accusing Ramos of being an "advocate" rather than a journalist, and whining that heaven forbid someone in the media has a point of view that they disagree with.
Bill-O of course was one of the ones carping about Ramos last week, and for some unknown reason, Ramos agreed to come on with bully-boy O'Reilly and put up with being yelled at for the better part of the segment. Ramos did at least get a chance to tell O'Reilly that he's the last person he needed to be hearing a lecture from when it comes to doing his job: Jorge Ramos tells Bill O’Reilly not to lecture him on journalism:
O’Reilly kicked things off by asking Ramos why he doesn’t want a border wall that would “stop people from infiltrating from Mexico into the United States.” The host mentioned that a wall could have prevented the death of 32-year-old Kate Steinle, who was recently killed in San Francisco by an undocumented immigrant who had been deported five times. He said this is why the country needs legislation like Kate’s Law.
Ramos disagreed: “I don’t think you are approaching the problem in a global way,” he said, while stressing that he’s not defending criminals.
“You are!” O’Reilly responded. “You’re an enabler. Jorge, you’re enabling guys like Sanchez,” referring to Steinle’s alleged killer.
“You have to concentrate on enforcement, background checks, and at the same time you have to resolve the situation of 11 million people in this country,” Ramos responded.
O’Reilly asked Ramos, “Do you believe that Mexican nationals—and you were one, you came to the United States on a student visa and then, I guess, you did everything, legally, and you’re here and you’re successful—do you believe that Mexican nationals, Guatemalan nationals, Honduran nationals, have a right to come to the United States?”
Ramos said he believes they have a right if done legally but that immigrants are coming to the U.S. because they are also needed here by American companies.
“You want to criminalize a whole community,” Ramos said. “And at the same time, we are also responsible. You think they are just coming because they want to go to Disneyland? Of course not. They are coming because they are doing the jobs nobody else wants to do; we are giving them jobs. That’s why they are coming.”
The Fox host then turned the discussion to Ramos’ career. “You’re an anchorman, how can you possibly cover illegal immigration fairly when you’re an activist, when you’re a proponent of allowing them amnesty?” O’Reilly continued, “You should excuse yourself from it, or recuse yourself from it, or become like me, a commentator.”
“Mr. O’Reilly, I don’t think you are the right person to lecture me on advocacy and journalism when you spend most of your program giving opinions and not asking questions, defending Republicans, criticizing Democrats, and, frankly, conducting interviews—soft interviews—with conservatives that you agree with,” Ramos responded. “The difference between you and me is that you are partisan, and I’m independent.”
