O'Reilly baselessly suggested that “religious fundamentalists” have “no influence” on politicians and the media

Written by Julie Millican

Published

Bill O'Reilly claimed that “religious fundamentalists” have “no influence in the media at all” and stated: “I don't know of one religious fundamentalist in Congress, not one. I don't know one governor who's a religious fundamentalist.” In fact, Republican politicians and conservative media figures -- including Sen. George F. Allen, Gov. Mike Huckabee, and right-wing pundit Ann Coulter -- attended the recent Values Voters Summit 2006, an event sponsored by numerous Christian-right interest groups.

On the September 27 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly claimed that “religious fundamentalists” have “no influence in the media at all” and suggested that they also have “no influence” on politicians, stating: “I don't know of one religious fundamentalist in Congress, not one. I don't know one governor who's a religious fundamentalist.” In fact, numerous Republican politicians and conservative media figures -- such as White House press secretary Tony Snow, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Sen. George F. Allen (VA), Gov. Mike Huckabee (AR), right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, Fox News host Sean Hannity, and conservative radio host and CNN political analyst Bill Bennett -- attended the recent Values Voters Summit 2006, sponsored by the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, Focus on the Family Action, and other Christian-right interest groups. As the weblog Think Progress noted, several speakers at the Summit reportedly asserted that the gay rights movement sprang “from the pit of hell itself,” and has a “satanic anointment,” and one attacked “guys that don't stand strong on principle” as “faggots” and “siss[ies].”

As Media Matters for America has noted, the Values Voters Summit sparked sharp criticism from former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), who wrote in a September 23 op-ed (subscription required) in The Wall Street Journal, that "[i]t's an embarrassing spectacle seeing [Republican] leaders bullied around by the likes of [Focus on the Family founder and chairman] James Dobson." In an interview with author Ryan Sager, which was excerpted on September 15 on the weblog RealClearPolitics.com and on Sager's blog, when asked “What's wrong with today's Republican Congress,” Armey asserted that Congress' intervention in the Terri Schiavo incident “was pure, blatant pandering to James Dobson,” and responded to the question, “Why does it seem Christian conservatives are more powerful now than in the 1990s?” by stating:

To a large extent because Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies. I pray devoutly every day, but being a Christian is no excuse for being stupid. There's a high demagoguery coefficient to issues like prayer in schools. Demagoguery doesn't work unless it's dumb, shallow as water on a plate. These issues are easy for the intellectually lazy and can appeal to a large demographic. These issues become bigger than life, largely because they're easy. There ain't no thinking.

From the September 27 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: Now that's absurd. I mean it's just, just absurd. I'm about as far away from a religious fundamentalist as you can get. All right? So, there is no intrusion on the media by religious fundamentalists. None. OK? They have no influence in the media, at all, zero. Among the congressmen and senators, I don't know of one religious fundamentalist in Congress, not one. I don't know one governor who's a religious fundamentalist.