Fox's Bill O'Reilly in Hot Seat For Use of Ethnic Slur.
By Jeff McKay
CNSNews.com Correspondent
February 12, 2003
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(Editor's Note: Contains language some readers may find objectionable.)
(CNSNews.com) - The host of the highest rated primetime news program on cable television is facing criticism after using a disparaging term for Mexicans during a broadcast last week.
Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, host of The O'Reilly Factor program, used the term "wetback" during a Feb. 6 discussion of immigration problems along the U.S. - Mexico border.
During a segment of the show featuring Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), O'Reilly advocated the use of military forces to control illegal immigration and smuggling along the border, saying "We'd save lives because Mexican wetbacks, whatever you want to call them, the coyotes, they're not going to do what they're doing now, so people aren't going to die in the desert," according to a transcript of the program.
The word 'wetback' is a slang term for Mexicans who swim across the Rio Grande River to illegally enter the U.S. from Mexico and is considered by some to be offensive.
But it's apparently not the first time O'Reilly has used the term to describe illegal immigrants from Mexico. According to a report in the Jan. 5, 2003 edition of The Morning Call of Allentown, Penn., O'Reilly criticized the Immigration and Naturalization Service for not keeping "the wetbacks" out of the U.S.
The newspaper reported that O'Reilly was the featured speaker at a fundraising event in Easton, Penn. when he made the January reference.
When contacted for comment, an official with Fox News in New York repeated an earlier statement by the network. "The network doesn't condone the use of racial epithets nor does Bill," said Fox News spokesman Robert Zimmerman.
O'Reilly's use of the term during the January fundraiser in Pennsylvania apparently caught Zimmerman off guard. "This is news to me," said Zimmerman, who declined further comment.
"We find the comment made to be highly offensive," said Ashley Atwell, press secretary for Reyes, who is Mexican-American. "The issue {Reyes} broached with Mr. O'Reilly is a passionate issue for the people the congressman serves. They don't want the military on the borders."
Reyes is also a former U.S. Border Patrol agent and served as chief of the U.S. Border Patrol in the McAllen and El Paso areas between 1984 and 1995. Reyes is opposed to using American military forces along the Mexican border.
Atwell admitted this type of questionable slang has been used before, and said the Hispanic Caucus in Congress has dealt with situations like this in the past.
"It is regrettable. We consider the term 'wetback' to be a slur and offensive to Mexican-Americans," stated a spokeswoman for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who would not give her name.
O'Reilly was not available for comment, but was quoted by the New York Times in a Feb. 10 report that he was "groping for a term to describe the industry that brings people in here. It was not meant to disparage people in any way."
While O'Reilly's use of the comment has drawn criticism in some quarters, it's been muted elsewhere.
When representatives for Hispanic Magazine, based in Coral Gables, Florida; and the Washington, D.C.-based Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund were contacted, both organizations said they were unaware of the episode and declined comment.
Even at Reyes' office, inquiries have been limited, according to Atwell. "It hasn't been an all-consuming issue," said Atwell.
O'Reilly himself has been critical of others for their use of disparaging language in the past.
During a segment in his Jan. 24 show about a DaimlerChrysler vice president referring to conservative critics of Jesse Jackson as "myopic," O'Reilly said, "I don't like those drive-by - pardon the pun - comments, and, if this were directed toward liberals or anyone else, I would have the same problem," according to a transcript of the program. |
