O'Reilly's Alternative Reality

Has grown to include random attacks on New Yorker writers. Well not exactly random, Hertzberg did offer a pretty snazzy take down of O'Reilly and collaborator Newt Gingrich...

Like a polluted swamp, anti-gay bigotry is likely to get thicker and more toxic as it dries up. Viciousness meets viscousness. “Look,” Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, said the other day (on the air, to Bill O’Reilly), “I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence. . . . I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact.” For diversity’s sake, he added that “the historic version of Islam” and “the historic version of Judaism” are likewise menaced—which is natural, given that gay, secular, fascist values are “the opposite of what you’re taught in Sunday school.”

This sort of sludge may or may not prove to be of some slight utility in the 2012 Republican primaries, but it is, increasingly, history. A couple of days before the California vote, the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Wildermuth noticed a “No on Prop 8” sign on a front lawn. The lawn and the sign belonged to Steve Young, the football Hall of Famer and former 49er quarterback, and his wife, Barb. Steve Young is a graduate of Brigham Young University, which is named for his great-great-great-grandfather. The Youngs still belong to the Mormon Church. “We believe all families matter and we do not believe in discrimination,” Barb Young said. “Therefore, our family will vote against Prop 8.” It wasn’t enough this time. But the time is coming.

Follow things first hand over at Rick Hertzberg's blog, where he is amusedly reporting in on the ongoing saga.

It'd be funny if it weren't so sad; one of the principles was once the Speaker of the House and way too many people get their opinions via O'Reilly.

Nice to see that the New Yorker isn't to be intimidated, and that Hertzberg is pretty nonplussed.

And by the way, good for you Steve Young!

image from sports resource zone