Bill O'Reilly waded head-on into the furor surrounding Sandra Fluke, the law student called a "slut" by Rush Limbaugh for advocating for insurance coverage of contraception, on his Friday show, relentlessly attacking Fluke and echoing Limbaugh's argument that she simply wants taxpayers to pay for her sex life.
Limbaugh — who also called Fluke a "prostitute," said that he wanted her to make sex tapes so he could watch, and told her her parents should be "embarrassed" by her — has been making similar claims all week, and has been condemned by politicians, pundits and even some of his own advertisers, who pulled their commercials from his show in the wake of his comments.
None of this seemed to trouble O'Reilly, who, while not mentioning Limbaugh and while not making his points in quite the extreme way Limbaugh did, sided firmly with the radio host in excoriating Fluke.
"Let me get this straight, Ms. Fluke, and I'm asking this with all due respect," he said. "You want me to give you my hard-earned money so you can have sex?" (Fluke is actually calling for her university's private insurance plan to cover birth control.)
O'Reilly went on, saying that, since Fluke wanted society to cover her "activities," the government should also have subsidized his college football uniforms, since an injury might "cost society a lot." He also said that perhaps taxpayers should pay for gym memberships for men so they could stay physically fit.
O'Reilly cast Fluke's viewpoints as an attack on American freedom, concluding that "the progressive colossus is demanding payment for Sandra Fluke so that she can go through Georgetown Law School with an active, healthy social life."