Bayer’s Alka Seltzer and Aleve are featured in commercials on the Fox News Bill O’Reilly show. It is with regret that I must boycott these fine products until Fox removes Bill O’Reilly from the airwaves. The last time I wrote to Bayer in Whippany, NJ, they responded with a letter stating that they “try to exercise good judgment in selecting networks on which to advertise.” Good judgment, indeed.
Bill O’Reilly’s racist and misogynistic comments, and the fact that he has consistently lied about the news for self-aggrandizement, render him unfit for a news program. He lied about having been “on the ground in active war zones” during the Falkland Islands war with the United Kingdom. He lied about having been outside the home of George de Mohrenschildt, Lee Harvey Oswald’s associate, where he said that he heard the shotgun blast that marked his suicide. He lied about having seen “nuns get shot in the back of the head” in El Salvador. He lied about having witnessed bombings in Northern Ireland. He lied about having been attacked by rioters after the Rodney King verdict. He even lied when he said he grew up in Levittown on Long Island; his mother said it was in the “Salisbury” section of Westbury.
If you agree that a fair and honest media is a bedrock of democracy, if you agree that Bill O’Reilly makes a mockery of that principle every time he opens his mouth, if you agree that he should not be touted as a newscaster by the Fox Network, call Bayer’s Consumer Affairs Department at 800-395-0689, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and tell them to stop sponsoring the hypocritical, mean-spirited, serial liar that is Bill O’Reilly.
—Ruth Shalom
