Re: Bill O'Reilly's Oct. 31 commentary, "Getting radical is comfortable for Obama":
In his characteristically distorted way, Bill O'Reilly has manipulated information in order to make circular arguments for his rant about the president's supposed inner circle of radicals.
First, he trots out his regular whipping boy, old news Bill Ayers. Though not in the manner O'Reilly would like, Ayers has said on several occasions that he does have regrets for what he called "mistakes of excess." In the same article, Ayers acknowledges responsibility for the risks to which his actions exposed others.
He O'Reilly dumps on Father Michael Pfleger for comments Pfleger made about Hillary Clinton. Yet he fails to mention that Pfleger apologized twice for what he said about Clinton -- or the fact that then-Sen. Barack Obama criticized Pfleger for those very same statements. Nor does O'Reilly mention Pfleger's efforts in condemning "rap" lyrics that disrespect women or his ongoing fight against the pervasive drug problems rampant in his parish.
Distastefully, O'Reilly then goes about misrepresenting Kevin Jennings' statement regarding education. To quote Jennings, "Our curriculum at kindergarten, and first grade, and second grade and every grade until students have graduated school should be that you must respect every human being regardless of sexual orientation, regardless of gender identity, regardless of race or religion or any of the arbitrary distinctions we make among people."
And what was so wrong about the concerns expressed by Judge Edward Chen right after 9/11? In Los Angeles alone, law enforcement agencies reported 167 hate crimes in the first four weeks of the backlash to 9/11.
I ask you, would O'Reilly condemn himself as an alleged fraud, cheater and degenerate just because he settled out of court in order to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit in 2004?
-- Rodney K. Boswell, Thousand Oaks