Jennifer Aniston outclasses and blows away Bill O’Reilly

Nasty Jack…the Gadfly

It’s another one of those "he said," "she said" situations that originates with two people who have high visibility. One, an intelligent, sophisticated and very talented actor, the other a religious right “wingnut,” as the person has been described in the past. I am talking about the spate between Jennifer Aniston and Bill O’Reilly over whether a father is an absolute necessity in raising children. Pretty sure you know which is which.

Promoting her new movie, “The Switch,” about an artificially inseminated single woman, the actress said that “women no longer have to wait for the perfect guy to start a family.” O’Reilly countered that her comments were “destructive to our society,” then accused her of “diminishing the role of the dad.” This, coming from a guy who was involved in a full-blown sex scandal with a Fox employee a few years ago.

Aniston’s retort was that the “ideal scenario for parenting is obviously two parents of a mature age.” The “Friends,” and more recently, movie star went on to castigate O’Reilly by feigning his Prince Charming, fatherly instinct, but added she was “glad science has provided a few other options.” I am sure there are many serious minds out there who wish Fox would replace him with one of those options.

O’Reilly, in his pseudo, narrow minded conservatism, completely ignores the progress of women’s’ feminism championed by leaders like Gloria Steinem and Betty Freidan. Even then, there are still absurd differences between male and female pay scales. In ten of the most common occupations, women make only 80 percent of what their male counterparts make.

Bonehead O’Reilly also seems to have forgotten his tryst with coworker Andrea Mackris, and the sexually explicit telephone conversations she is allegedly supposed to have recorded. The two reached an out of court settlement in 2004, and it was reputed that O’Reilly paid her around $10 million just to go away and destroy the tapes.

Mysteriously the media pulled up stakes and also went away, but they did hang around years for the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal. Could it be a payoff, or just a form of protectionism? Read more here.

It all comes down to the fact that Jennifer Aniston, who may or may not be a feminist, believes, rightly so, that she has the right to govern the way she runs her life. Betty Freidan, author of “The Feminine Mystique,” said:

“The problem that has no name - which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities - is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.”

Bill O’Reilly may be a junior Jesus Christ among right wing fundamentalists, but among intelligent, thinking individuals he is just another blowhard like Rush Limbaugh who also uses his broadcast platform to spew mudslinging and misinformation.

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