Hip-Hop Fridays: Bill O'Reilly is a Pompous, Hypocritical Idiot by Davey D

I peeped this thing with Bill O'Reilly and I had a few 'Talking Points' of my own which I will share in a quick minute. However, I have to get a few things off my chest... When I first got wind of this, it was a few hours after I got a phone call from Chicago about a tape being played of Ja Rule verbally heating up on DMX. The war of words between those two has all but dominated the Hip Hop grapevine. This latest skirmish comes a week after Snoop directed some choice words at Xzibit and Suge Knight. The week prior to that there was some other beef.. Too many beefs and not enough time to keep up. To be honest I really don't care to keep up.

The real beef is with outside 'factors' that are now weighing in and chin 'checking us left, right and left again...

For example, while we had the Ja Rule vs. DMX beef in full effect, NORE was having his concert shut down by Atlantic City officials who feared that he would attract a gang element to the venue. None of our beefing rap stars got on Hot 97 and put the sheriff who made that decision on blast. No one dropped stinging lyrics on a mix tape that would let the Atlantic City officials know what's up. Yet in a 24 hour period we can quickly turn around and pen smoldering lyrics and put it out a song to respond to someone's insensitive remarks on the radio. We seen searing responses to beefs from everyone from Jay-Z to KRS-One to Nelly down to Angie Martinez...The list goes on...

Closer to home, I've sat back and watch cats complain, complain, complain and complain some more about how they can't get put on the bill at Summer Jam and numerous other concerts. I hear them complain about how the local radio station don't play their material. Yet not one venomous barb gets directed at the Mountainview Police department who won't let them perform while they and other police agencies maintain dossiers on all these local groups and their associates. Not since Too Short, has any rapper stepped up and put the local stations [KMEL/KYLD] on blast for ignoring their music and shining them on..

I use these two examples to make a larger point. For all the countless songs about how we are macking, pimpin' and running things.. when it comes down to it we're getting run on...We're getting played. That's a hard thing to admit, but it's true. The irony to this is that I am likely to catch more heat for penning these words then the identifiable, bigger then life, outside forces that caused the drama in the first place.

This thing with Ludacris being shut down by Bill O'Reilly is just a continuation of the on going attacks and convenient blame being placed on the Hip Hop community. The thing that makes O'Reilly's situation troublesome is the fact that he's on TV and radio every night and can rally up the troops to shut things down... And he's doing it in such a way that will take money and potential advancement away from you and me while he and his company continue to profit off what you create.. I will explain what I mean by that in a minute.... I wonder if the DJ and radio station that gleefully downloaded excerpts of Ja Rule's tirade and played them on the air yesterday in Chicago will play excerpts of O'Reilly's talking points where he pretty bluntly states his intentions to regulate on folks.

As so many are fond of saying... It's time for us to 'focus'...

Now on to the cheap shot taken by the morally esteemed, obnoxious Bill O'Reilly. Where does one begin? On paper what he states seems to make perfect sense. What well meaning person wants to say; 'Yes.. I want a guy who has unsavory lyrical content to advertise my 'wholesome all American product?. Very few of us would say yes especially corporations after being called out in such a public way by O'Reilly.

While O'Reilly makes his claim that he is outraged by the 'immoral decision of Pepsi and even more outraged by Ludacris for being a 'thug rapper', he convenient disconnects himself from the media machinery that gives rise to what he is complaining about...

One doesn't hear O'Reilly putting out the rally cry to his factor listeners to hold in check his own parent company Fox TV which is not the exactly the cleanest litter in the bunch. For example, I woke up this morning and watched the morning news 'Good Day LA' and heard one of the anchors Dorothy Lucey use the word 'Tits'. It wasn't the first time those anchors have made such references. I've heard words like 'fart', 'boobs', 'ding-a-ling' and other colorful words for body functions and body parts. These raunchy Fox News anchors have billboards telling me to tune in and their commercial comes on all the time..So in a sense they are spokespeople for Fox-The parent company of the 'O'Reilly Factor'. Yet I hear no cry from O'Reilly to boycott or shut them down

The week before Dorothy Lucey's 'Tits' remarks, one of the anchors was pulling tissue out of her bra while the other one was going on and on about how her breasts are real. She cupped her breasts while making these statement. This is all going on during the 8'clock hour of the FOX 11 morning Newscast in LA. This is the same Fox news show that Mr. O'Reilly has been on when he was promoting his book and his radio show...Funny how he never made no mention about immoral behavior back then... He didn't complain when they used is upcoming appearance as an advertising draw. Perhaps some of us started watching this news show after we saw ads saying he would be on?

I mean come on now, theoretically speaking, if I had a 9 year old daughter I would be more inclined to tell her to watch the Morning News and learn some current events. She would leave the Ludacris album where he raps about How 'Many Ho's he has in different area codes' only to hear an intelligent well dressed anchor who talks about her kids all the time, use the words 'tits'. The 9 year old would watch while the other anchor fondles her breast and the older male anchors laughs away...Maybe it's me... But it seems like watching TV news anchors get down and dirty like a rapper/artist would be confusing to a 9 year old. After all, we all know rappers and artists can be vulgar at times, but we're always told to respect journalist and news reporters...

Since we haven't seen him go on a bombastical tirade advocating the removal of his oversexed Fox News anchors, I can only draw one conclusion... Ludacris should've used the words 'tits' and not the word 'Ho' in his songs and you Bill O'Reilly would've never made a big stink about his Pepsi deal...

Question for O'Reilly: 'Hos' or 'Tits' Mr O'Reilly which do we chose? Which is more outrageous and morally reprehensible

Note to Ludacris.. choose your words more carefully....

Now I use today's situation as one example to make a larger point... Before clowning Ludacris, O'Reilly should clean up his own back yard.. And I think everyone reading this will agree Fox has a lot more then enough cleaning to do. Fox TV is home to such stellar shows like 'Celebrity Boxing', 'Marry a Millionaire', 'Ricky Lake' and 'Geraldo' who took the 'moral high road' and penned a book bragging about all his sexual encounters. You don't see O'Reilly up in arms about that...

Perhaps we can encourage O'Reilly to rile up his viewers to shut down the hit TV show 'American Idol'. We can all agree that there is way too much violence in our society. We try to tell 9 year olds to play nice and not use violence as a way to solve problems. We encourage them to be respectful and have high moral standards.This is what O'Reilly wants...So where was the shock and outrage when one of the judges-Randy Jackson, stood up and was ready to throw down against fellow judge Simon who is often rude and crude.

I'm thinking to myself this is a family show. Yet we have adults -grown men ready to fight. The interesting facet to note is that Ludacris says in his explicit labeled album he likes to knock people upside the head. Fox's 'American Idol' pretends to be a wholesome family show where the judges will say hurtful things to one another and even get ready to knock each other upside the head. These are the same Fox judges who are on all sorts of TV shows representing Fox. What happens if Pepsi or some other company offers Simon an endorsement deal, will O'Reilly take the moral high ground and knock him out of a job?

The point I'm making is that the behavior exuded by grown ups on a show like 'American Idol' may be the first step in little Johnny and Little Suzy having their m oral innocence shattered. It may lead to them to seek out something a bit more harder-like Ludacris.

Now if it sounds like I'm reaching, I am-the same way O'Reilly was. We can go down the slippery slope. Ludacris to my knowledge has no criminal record. I don't think he's done what he raps about. Its his persona. We can take it or leave it. What if Pepsi got the ruthless mob boss Tony Soprano which is played by the Emmy Award winning actor James Galdofini to pitch the soft drink? Would O'Reilly be complaining? Why hasn't O'Reilly gone off and made a stink about the actor who played the role of Big Pussy one of Tony Soprano's henchmen pitching for the New York based store-The Wiz? When we see these fine actors we tend to identify them with their immoral ruthless characters. For example, how many people know the real name of the actor who plays Big Pussy? When I see him in the Wiz commercials I see the Soprano Mob associate who got killed, not the actor. So is The Wiz guilty of using an immoral spokesperson?

As I'm writing this article... I just saw a commercial with former Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight. It was for Glad trash bags. Mr Knight is shown throwing dishes up against the wall. More people know Knight than Ludacris. Where's the Bill O'Reilly outrage. Why doesn't he get Fox to pull the plug on those Bobby Knight Glad Bag commercials? Isn't Knight being rewarded for bad behavior? Isn't Glad being irresponsible?

Before we move to my next point, it sure would've been nice if O'Reilly used his influence and moral convictions to get 'positive shows' like 'Roc 'and 'Living Single' back on TV. Folks may recall all those letters we wrote to try and keep those TV shows on the air. People felt they were positive. They didn't have any Ludacris type characters. I recall collecting more then a 1000 letters at my radio station alone. But despite all those thousands of letters with people 'begging' to keep those shows on Fox-the company that owns Bill 'O Reilly's 'The Factor' said 'No' and kept it moving.

Yes, it would be great if Bill O'Reilly read off some harsh 'Talking Points' when his parent company Fox cancelled shows like 'Roc' and 'Living Single' while simultaneously keeping 'uplifting, positive shows of high moral standards[I'm being sarcastic] like 'The Simpsons', 'Married w/ Children' and 'King of the Hill'.These cartoons are huge attractions to the average 9 year old. Trust me Bart Simpson has more influence than Ludacris.

Picking on Ludacris is easy. Getting people to express outrage at his lyrical content wasn't too hard. What would've been a bit more challenging and more effective was for O'Reilly to go after the media outlets that play Ludacris type songs day and day out. He should've asked the Presidents of Clear Channel, Emmis or Infinity broadcasting why they allowed their radio stations to play all these immoral songs that have questionable lyrics.

O'Reilly's arguments would've been impressive if he asked Fox to pull their advertisements off the corporations that own any of the radio stations that play artist like Ludacris. Put your money where your mouth is. It's easy to lay blame. It's a lot harder when you have to make the sacrifice. Should we not be outraged that Mays Lowry who owns Clear Channel which owns over 1200 stations and has concert venues throughout the country play and showcase Ludacris? Some of the stations don't even beep out the word 'Ho'.. Where's the 'Factor' boycott against him and his company? It's no where to be seen..Isn't the person, company or institution that presents material to the public supposed to be responsible i.e Pepsi? Didn't O'Reilly say this? Are any of the stations he's on guilty of playing Ludacris on one of their outlets? Why not jam up the owners of the radio stations? Or does Bill O'Reilly only pick on people who can't come back?

Ludacris isn't on the air as an announcer everyday. He can't speak to the public day in and day out and rally up the troops that think Bill O'Reilly is a pompous idiot and a bully who only pretended to take the 'moral high ground'. What he did was a cheap ratings trick. He got his name in the paper and made it look like he was actually doing something for the kids?

We noticed that O'Reilly stayed away from Britney Spears and Bob Dole. Britney Spears is Pepsi biggest draw, yet she's woman who is underage that admits to smoking and drinking. She was living with her former boyfriend Justin Timberlake in a huge house when both were unmarried. She wore skimpy outfits, did a strip tease dance on MTV and had a former Senate Leader Bob Dole leering at her in a Pepsi commercial. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't hear or see any O'Reilly Factor boycott to get rid of Bob Dole and the 'immoral' Britney Spears. Spear of course, has far more influence on the average 9 year old than Ludacris would ever have. I didn't hear or see any any O'Reilly outrage when some of those Pepsi commercials ran on the stations owned by Fox- O'Reilly's parent company.

I know one thing, Fox had no problems running those immoral Pepsi commercials. They had no problem adding some of that immoral money to their coffeurs. Doesn't the money from commercial help pay for O'Reilly? Did he give back his portion of the take or did he simply pocket it and then point fingers at Ludacris. It seems to me O'Reilly has been quiet on that tip. We won't even talk about his personal finances. I wonder if he's checked all his 401 K investments to make sure that he has none of his moral money mixed in with companies that use immoral behavior to make their profits..

Yes, Ludacris has some harsh words. Perhaps this should be a wake up call to him. I agree bad behavior should not be rewarded... So while Ludacris is sitting at home without a Pepsi deal, I'm wondering why a guy like O'Reilly who is rude, interrupts people, and tries to clown folks is still on the air. I wanna know when he will look in the mirror and realize being a bully and pretending to want to help children is just as immoral as Ludacris cursing in his songs

Davey D. can be reached via e-mail at: misterdaveyd@aol.com

Davey D.

Friday, September 6, 2002

To discuss this article further enter The Deeper Look Dialogue Room

The views and opinions expressed herein by the author do not necessarily represent the opinions or position of BlackElectorate.com or Black Electorate Communications.