As promised, below is a list of the national sponsors of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor. Bill-O again took on Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student who testified in front of a Congressional panel on behalf of a fellow student when the student health plan there refused to pay for birth control pills necessary to prevent ovarian cysts, the consequence of which was that the student lost one of her ovaries.
O'Reilly posits that this is really about the reelection of Barack Obama. That's right -- he now says that Democrats turned this from a war on religion (theirs) to a war against women (the Republicans'). Well, and here I thought the Democrats didn't have anything to do with Rush Limbaugh and O'Reilly himself being asses and calling Ms. Fluke all kinds of horrible things and suggesting nasty ulterior motives on her part. Silly me.
Both Limbaugh and O'Reilly are missing a lot about this debate, but many people and almost all the media are missing one other thing. For those who think Obama is still in the wrong about the birth control option in his health care bill, even after changing the provisions so a religiously-based organization of any kind doesn't directly pay for contraception, understand this... Obama didn't make that decision in a vacuum. That decision was OK'd by the leaders of several large Catholic organizations, including the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, with whom Obama consulted.
O'Reilly doesn't get that birth control pills are prescribed for things other than contraception, some quite serious conditions. On his show today he said this: "Why should anyone have to pay increased health insurance premiums so she (I presume he means Ms. Fluke) and others can get the pill free?" So he also doesn't understand that insurance companies would much rather provide contraception than pay for a) pregnancies, b) the other conditions that can be remediated by using birth control, particularly the pill, such as the condition that caused Ms. Fluke's fellow student to have to have surgery to remove her ovary. So, Mr. O'Reilly, no one is asking you to pay for anything. The idea is that contraception would simply be covered as part of the student health care plan. Also, and here's the kicker -- if insurance companies didn't pay for contraception, then your costs would go up. Hang with me here, I know this is really hard for knuckleheads like you, but pills are cheaper than babies. Or surgeries. You really need to get some schoolin' around this, Bill-O, before you spout off any more. Seriously.
Here is a partial list of advertisers on O'Reilly's Monday program:
T. Rowe Price
Viagra (I'm not making this up!)
Chevy Volt**
Advair
PCMatic.com
Aleve
Subaru
United Healthcare
HP
United Van Lines
Hyundai
Verizon
** There were at least two ads for the Chevy Volt on O'Reilly's program. But during his show O'Reilly made fun of the car by showing a disparaging internet video slamming the Volt. Way to bite the hand that feeds you, Bill-O!
