Rosie O’Donnell, Madonna, and Britney Spears are just three of the women who come to mind when one thinks about accused wife-beater and alleged chronic sexual harasser Bill O’Reilly. Although these women are far from perfect, Bill O’Reilly has spent several years in front of the camera verbally assaulting these stars, who have done some good things as well.
Strong and outspoken women enrage right wing hypocrites such as Bill O’Reilly. And though Rosie, Madonna, and Britney have put their feet in their mouth far too many times, O’Reilly’s criticism has always come from a place of hate, misogyny, hypocrisy, and — in some cases — homophobia. Let’s take a further look.
Rosie O’Donnell
Perhaps Bill’s biggest target has been Rosie O’Donnell, and O’Reilly’s attacks against O’Donnell — whether her fans want to admit it or not — have negatively affected her career. This is sad because even though O’Donnell might have deserved some criticism throughout the years, O’Reilly got away with making personal attacks against O’Donnell and creating harmful lies.
Rosie and Bill’s feud goes way back to 2002, when O’Reilly thought Rosie O’Donnell was ending the planet by advocating for gay and lesbian couples to adopt. Perhaps a huge mistake O’Donnell made was to actually appear on his show in April of 2002. They got along fine but became enemies again when Rosie became one of the co-hosts of The View a couple years later.
Rosie was one of the very few celebrities who had the guts to challenge George Bush and his unethical war in Iraq. She was very passionate about it. O’Reilly called O’Donnell a pinhead, a fool, and said she was anti-American. As Media Matters noted in 2006, O’Donnell claimed that radical Christianity was threatening our country. As a result, O’Reilly gay-shamed O’Donnell, accusing the star of hating Christians just because she was gay. In reality, that was far from the truth.
Madonna
Madonna’s support of the LGBT community in the 1990s enraged Bill O’Reilly.
Madonna should certainly not be immune to criticism, but O’Reilly’s obsessive-compulsive criticism of the Queen of Pop has been rooted in homophobia, misogyny, false patriotism, and ageism. When O’Reilly first started his show in the 1990s, he figuratively foamed at the mouth over Madonna’s support of the LGBT community (she was only one of a few vocal supporters in the 1990s), even mocking her fans at times.
In April of 2003, O’Reilly became enraged that Madonna made a war protest video, “American Life,” which she (unfortunately) pulled due to the backlash. The video, considered one of the best videos Madonna has ever created, was a statement on how war was being treated like a fashion show. As usual, Madonna was just a little ahead of her time.
However, Bill O’Reilly thought Madonna was un-American. He slated her for being old, a traitor to her country, and “over with” on several of his shows and newspaper articles during the next several months. O’Reilly promised that because of Madonna’s failure to support Bush, her fans would abandon her. Of course, this was two-and-a-half years before Madonna released “Hung Up,” the biggest international hit of her entire career. It was six years before Madonna would complete the highest grossing concert tour ever by a female artist.
In between those years, O’Reilly often laughed about Madonna’s age, her body, and everything else he could pick apart. Often, he had failed comedian Dennis Miller on his show to help him attack Madonna. O’Reilly even called Madge a “pinhead” when she made a playful joke about Pope Benedict, a man who nearly ruined the Catholic Church. Even though Madonna doesn’t publicly celebrate the downfall of others, you can bet the Queen of Pop is having a couple martinis, possibly with her best friend Rosie O’Donnell, every evening during the week.
Britney Spears
Britney Spears is one of the biggest pop icons to place her feet on Earth these past 20 years. However, Bill O’Reilly, who allegedly beat up his wife in front of his kids, constantly called Spears out in the early 2000s for being too sexual and a bad role model. This was around the same time O’Reilly allegedly had phone conversations admitting that he uses vibrators on himself, has sexual fantasies with falafels, and everything else that would make even the biggest sex addict in the world want to avoid sex for the rest of their lives.
In 2009, O’Reilly asked, “How stupid is this woman?” when referring to Spears and her video for “If You Seek Amy.” Eight years later, Spears still has a career. The same can’t be said about Bill O’Reilly, whose show is losing sponsors by the minute. After O’Reilly’s exit from Fox News, which will likely happen soon, the Fox News moralist can become the opening act for Britney Spears in Las Vegas. Sorry for even suggesting this, Britney.