Last night, culture warrior Bill O’Reilly ran a segment about a new gay-themed McDonald’s ad airing in France. After previewing the ad, which shows a young man talking on the phone with his boyfriend, O’Reilly asked Fox News anchor Jane Skinner, “does that make you want to buy a Big Mac? … Because, you know, straight people are going to watch that, too.” When Skinner explained that the ad was part of a campaign showcasing people from different walks of life, O’Reilly asked if they would cut an ad featuring Al-Qaeda and insisted that the ad would never run in America:
O’REILLY: Alright, so look, they want to make a political statement selling burgers. They’re entitled to it. It will never run in the USA. They’ll never do that.
SKINNER: Part of an overreaching campaign called come as you are, which you saw at the end there. So they show people in different walks of life. This happens to be their gay friendly ad.
O’REILLY: OK. Do they have an al Qaeda ad, you know, come as you are? You know?
SKINNER: And how do you know it’s not coming to the States?
O’REILLY: I don’t know.
SKINNER: Never say never.
O’REILLY: No. That would not — I guarantee you that will not run here.
Watch it:
O’Reilly has a long history of homophobic and anti-gay remarks. Last month, for instance, O’Reilly compared transgendered people to Ewoks and suggested that they could scare straight people.
Update:
Karl Frisch has statements from LGBT groups criticizing O’Reilly for his remarks.