Bill O'Reilly Reveals His True, Anti-Semitic, Colours · 7:37pm Mar 19th, 2015
(The text below was originally published by Media Matters with the headline "Bill O'Reilly's Anti-Semitic Tropes: George Soros Is A Tentacled 'Puppet Master'". It is also available on the groups Religious Tolerance and Jewish Ponies.)
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly resorted to anti-Semitic imagery in an effort to smear George Soros, describing the Jewish philanthropist and businessman as a "shadow puppet master" who "has his tentacles into political organizations."
On the March 18 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly warned viewers that the American people have a responsibility to counter so-called "anti-capitalist violence on display" in Europe. He deplored what he claimed is "crazy left-wing economic stuff" on its way to taking root in the United States as a result of the economic agenda championed by President Obama, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and 84-year old philanthropist George Soros, whom O'Reilly declared "the most frightening of all." He continued (emphasis added):
O'REILLY: Soros has now taken his ill-gotten gains and is financing the most radical left-wing organizations in America. He is the shadow puppet master behind corrupt far-left groups like Media Matters. Soros has his tentacles into political organizations like the Center for American Progress, which has provided operatives for the Obama administration, some of whom are now going over to Hillary Clinton's campaign. Few Americans even know who Soros is, but the 84-year old uber-leftist is behind much of the political strife in this country.
Depictions of Jewish people as "puppet masters" controlling the government and the media are anti-Semitic stereotypes that go back decades. O'Reilly's claim that Soros' "tentacles" have infiltrated the upper echelons of political society is also a play on overtly anti-Semitic imagery. The white supremacist, neo-Nazi online forum Stormfront.org contains a trove of examples, including a March 19, 2013 post called "The 6 Tentacles of Jewish Supremacy Revealed." The image of a Jewish octopus engulfing the globe or ensnaring political institutions dates back to at least the 1930s, when it was a common theme in Nazi propaganda.
In 2010, then-Fox News host Glenn Beck was condemned by Jewish groups in part for using similar negative stereotypes and for accusing Soros of being a Nazi collaborator who helped "send the Jews" to "death camps."
So wait, you're arguing that because Soros is Jewish, accusing him of improper influence is inherently anti-Semitic? You're putting the cart before the horse -- it's only anti-Semitism if the reason for the accusation is (implicitly or explicitly) that Soros is Jewish. By the same token, one can be a critic of Obama without being anti-black, of Sarah Palin without being anti-female, etc. etc.
Oh, and Soros actually did collaborate with the Nazis during World War II. He admitted to it; his defense was that he was doing whatever he needed to do in order to survive. That wasn't universal, but was hardly among the victims of the Nazis, who encouraged it as a means of dividing and ruling their foes. I advise you to read up on the history of the Holocaust.
2892106 To be more specific, O'Reilly's statements about Soros, although they were not criticisms of the latter's religion, were anti-Semitic anyway due to the fact that they utilized the anti-Semitic canards highlighted above in bold.
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So, we Jews are uniquely incapable of being "shadow puppet masters" inserting our "tentacles into political organizations?" I disagree with this claim.
Also, I haven't heard you complain about the rather similar criticisms being made by the Democrats of the Koch Brothers.
So, because Jews are stereotypically seen as puppet masters: It's racist for O'Reilly to accuse Soros of being a puppet master?
Black Americans are stereotypically seen as criminals, does that mean it's racist to ever accuse a Black American of being a criminal? White Americans are stereotypically seen as racists, does that make it racist to ever accuse a White American of racism? Men are stereotypically seen as more violent then women, does that
make it sexist to ever accuse a man of violence?