Color me not shocked that Bill O'Reilly was terribly upset that the likes of George Soros or MoveOn.org or labor unions are being supportive of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Naturally O'Reilly thinks that their support equals some Socialist conspiracy to turn the United States into Cuba if anyone heaven forbid might want to see this millionaire's taxes go up a few percentage points.
Apparently O'Reilly does not know the difference between groups lending their support to an actual grass roots movement and big monied interests starting one, like Fox and CNN did with the AstroTurf "tea party movement."
O'Reilly was extremely outraged over this statement by the protesters on Wall Street, offering it as proof that those protesters just want to destroy capitalism in the United States if heaven forbid anyone speaks out against the fact that the only ones getting ahead these days are the ultra-rich, like O'Reilly and would like for there to be some shared prosperity for everyone:
We want to voice our belief that the American dream will live again, that the American way is to help one another succeed. Our voice, our values, will be heard.
Apparently O'Reilly isn't so happy with that "help one another succeed" statement because god forbid, it might mean he's got to give up a few thousand dollars out of those millions he's making every year. The horror!
I'm sure O'Reilly made a few gains here with the "I've got mine and screw you crowd" that probably watches his show, but I've got to wonder just how many people he thinks this whole "income redistribution" argument is appealing to these days when we've got some of the greatest income disparity in the United States right now since the Gilded Age. He's probably counting on the fact that a lot of them can't afford cable television to begin with and if they could, they wouldn't watch his show.
As we've already noted here in a number of posts at C&L, both Fox and CNN after throwing their weight behind those AstroTruf "tea party" protests, have had nothing but disdain for an actual grass roots protest that's tired of the greed and our politicians looking out for the wealthy while ignoring the poor and the middle class.
If these protests continue to pick up steam and more people showing up who are tired of the status quo, it's going to be interesting to say the least in how these corporate "news" organizations handle their coverage. Billo just gave us another example of what we're sure to see more of here, which is to attack those protesting. That or they'll eventually end up ignoring them completely if they think they can get away with it like they did with the protests in Wisconsin.
