Petrelis Files

Blogosphere Nanny-wannabe Tim O'Reilly Gave $2,000 to Sen. "White N-word" Byrd

Okay, so new electronic media mogul Tim O'Reilly is setting himself up, with the help of the NY Times, as the blogosphere's nanny, calling for a civil code of conduct for bloggers and all that we do.

Fine, it's still a relatively free country with constitutionally guaranteed rights to speech, even speech one doesn't like, and O'Reilly is more than entitled to make his nanny-ish proposals, that I don't expect will get very far.

In the Times this morning, reporter Brad Stone ended his story on O'Reilly's crusade with this money quote:

Mr. O’Reilly said the guidelines were not about censorship. “That is one of the mistakes a lot of people make — believing that uncensored speech is the most free, when in fact, managed civil dialogue is actually the freer speech,” he said. “Free speech is enhanced by civility.”

For me, free speech is enhanced by my right to publish what I want on my blog, be it civil or otherwise. Don't like what I post? Get your own blog and respond, is my attitude. And how O'Reilly defines civility may lead even to a small encroachment on free speech for the web.

But what about Tim O'Reilly's federal donations, and do they shed any light on his political beliefs and if he holds politicians to a high standard of civility, or any standard, before giving them any cash?

Federal Election Commission files reveal O'Reilly's donated $2,000 to Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WV, back in 2005. He's also gave $1,000 to Moveon.org last year.

Hmmm, while two-thousand clams ain't all that much, I find it curious, to say the least, that of all the politicians in Washington, the only one to warrant a contribution from O'Reilly is the Senator who was a member of the KKK and uncivilly used the n-word in 2001 on, where else, the Fox News cable outlet.

From Byrd's Wikipedia entry:

On March 4, 2001, Byrd said this about race relations:

"Are much, much better than they've ever been in my lifetime.... I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us ... I just think we talk so much about it that we help to create somewhat of an illusion. I think we try to have good will. My old mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody.' We practice that. There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."^[30]

To be fair and balanced to the Senator and Tim O'Reilly, I must point out that after Byrd was lambasted for his remarks, he soon apologized for use of the racial slur and expressed regret for over support and membership in the Klan.

Still, before O'Reilly's civil coduct proposals gain more traction or MSM attention, people should be made aware of his contributions to Byrd. Just want to make sure bloggers consider everything that turns up on his paper trail. Now that's not being uncivil, is it?

And maybe it's time for O'Reilly to call for civil dialogue, at all times, from his favorite Senator.