Bill O’Reilly spares no opportunity to disseminate mistruths that undermine the experiences and threaten the lives of Black communities.
On the April 8th edition of The O’Reilly Factor, he was at it again, using debunked statistics to claim more white than Black Americans are killed by police officers in the wake of the fatal South Carolina police shooting of unarmed 50 year-old Walter Scott.1 Though he did condemn the shooting, there was an insidious caveat; that police shootings of Black folks have fallen “70 percent in the last 40, 50 years.”
“They’re way, way down,” he assured viewers.
This is a lie. And the statistics he cited in this segment were debunked months ago, after he used them in a previous segment to argue the very same manipulative, dangerous point.2 But that doesn’t seem to bother O’Reilly one bit. He’s made a career (and a killing) off race-baiting, fudging facts, and undermining the very serious issue of police brutality in Black communities. Enough is enough.
Nearly 40,000 ColorOfChange members have signed our petition, urging advertisers to dump O’Reilly. We’re poised to begin applying pressure to these companies, but we need to know you’re with us.
Click here to demand advertisers dump The O’Reilly Factor once and for all.
1. “O’Reilly Cherry-Picks Debunked Statistics To Downplay Racial Disparities In Police Shootings,” Media Matters for America 04-08-15
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4723?t=11&akid=4276.1298081.p8Ipm-
2. “Bill O’Reilly cites faulty data for claim about shooting deaths of blacks, whites by police,” Politifact 12-04-14
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4724?t=14&akid=4276.1298081.p8Ipm-
