Get rid of Billo or get rid of FNC

Those of you who follow the news, like I do, might have heard about the murder of Kansas doctor George Tiller in Wichita. Today, according to The Associated Press, Scott Roeder, 51, has been charged with Tiller's murder in the first degree.

Some might ask why I am talking about Tiller when my headline mentioned Fox News Channel and Bill O'Reilly. Let me explain:

Over the last few years, O'Reilly, on his Fox News Channel show, has been labelling Dr. Tiller "the Baby Killer" because of the fact he was one of the few left in this country who still performs late-term abortions, also known as "partial-birth abortions" because the not-quite-to-term fetus is pulled partway out the birth canal, and then the doctor severs the spinal chord to terminate the pregnancy. It does sound quite barbaric.

The reason O'Reilly lambasted Tiller, along with many people in the "Right-to-Life" Movement, is that he contended Dr. Tiller had performed the abortions without the need for a medical reason, as long as the mother wanting the termination can pay $5,000.

I don't watch O'Reilly, rather I view his main competitor, Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. Olbermann talked about the comments O'Reilly and other FNC "anchors" and "analysts" made about Dr. Tiller. He was appalled about the wordings of the Fox talking heads, and said that those comments may have incited Roeder to go to Tiller's Lutheran church Sunday morning, where Tiller was an usher, and shoot him.

What makes this case so apalling is that Roeder allegedly did this in a church, a place of worship, a place of sanctuary, the place most of the "Right-to-Life" Movement believes God tells them to preserve the unborn. I'm sorry, but being against abortion in any form does not give one license to kill someone who performs the proceedure.

Also, it's naive of O'Reilly and others at Fox News Channel to think their words didn't incite violence. It seems that hate speech is very prevalent on that network, mostly from talking points from either the Republican Party or different conservative groups, like those in the "Right-to-Life" Movement.

News flash, FNC and Mr. O'Reilly! Roe v. Wade is the law of the land because the Supreme Court ruled, using the Equal Protections clause, that a woman has the right to choose what they want to do with their own bodies. And, until her baby/fetus/whatever is born and can live outside the womb without assistance of an incubator, it is still part of the woman. It is hers to do with as she pleases.

You all say that a fetus is a living, breathing, growing being. Well, so is cancer, yet when we apply radiation and chemotherapy on cancerous cells, it's quite alright. I know that's a bad parallel, but some women would think of the embryo as a cancer if she doesn't want to be pregnant.

I am pro-choice. If my girlfriend and I would happen to do it when her birth control isn't working and she conceives, I would want her to make the final decision whether she would bring it to term. It's her body, even though the baby would be mine, too. She spends the nine months with the child, not I. I would also like her to discuss it with me, but if she isn't ready for motherhood, I would defer to her judgment as a nurse and a woman to make the final decision.

But I would not, as a responsible journalist, use inflamitory verbage talking about a doctor that provides abortions, even if I were pro-life. Like it or not, Mr. O'Reilly, some people out there who follow you, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or any other conservative talk-show host will take your words to heart and think of it as an invitation to do what they want to people who do things to which you're opposed.

I would suggest that you and your ilk tone down the rhetoric, stop the hate speech, and encourage people to instead of confronting those who do the proceedure, get their state and federal representatives to change the law. Unfortunately for you, any anti-abortion law may be struck down because of Roe. And Roe is not going to be overturned anytime in the near future.

So, those of you who see this blog, I encourage you all to contact your local cable operator and ask for the removal of Fox News Channel from their line-up, and tell them it's because the personalities on that channel have indirectly caused the murder of Dr. Tiller. If the cable companies get enough requests, either they'll remove it, or they could advise News Corp. to get rid of Bill O'Reilly.