O'Reilly: "I understand Europe. They're cowards ... they won't confront evil on any level"

Summary: During a discussion of Condoleezza Rice's trip to Europe on The Radio Factor, Bill O'Reilly stated, "I understand Europe. They're cowards." He went on to add, "[T]hey're cowards over there, with all due respect, and I'm generalizing. But by and large, the European population is soft and afraid. ... They won't confront evil on any level. It is anything goes, just leave me alone. Give me my check from the government and leave me alone."

On the December 6 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly reprised a familiar motif when he stated, "I understand Europe. They're cowards." He went on to add, "[T]hey're cowards over there, with all due respect, and I'm generalizing, but by and large, the European population is soft and afraid. ...They won't confront evil on any level. It is anything goes, just leave me alone. Give me my check from the government and leave me alone." O'Reilly's comments came during a discussion of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's trip to Europe.

While O'Reilly has primarily directed his hostility toward France (here, here, and here), this was not his first characterization of the entire continent as "cowardly." As Media Matters has noted, on the July 7 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor television broadcast, O'Reilly asserted that "Europe is a cowardly continent. They know what the stakes are. They don't care." His comments came hours after a series of suicide attacks in London.

From the December 7 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: Europe will never learn. Never. Those people will die before they learn. Now, the U.S.A. is a different story. Most of us understand evil, and we're committed to confronting it. But the far left and the media in conjunction has really made it difficult to wage this war on terror.

[...]

OK, set up a structure to take the ammunition away from the far left. But the -- look, essentially, here's the question that every American has to answer. Why do 20 percent of your citizens -- co-citizens -- why do they not see the danger we are facing? Why? I understand Europe. They're cowards. They're cowards over there, with all due respect, and I'm generalizing. But by and large, the European population is soft and afraid. And you've seen that for the last 100 years, by and large.

They won't -- they won't confront evil on any level. It's anything goes, just leave me alone. Give me my check from the government and leave me alone. All right, so that -- I understand that -- here -- I'm not getting this. I'm not getting the undermining of the war on terror. I'm not getting [former talk show host] Phil Donahue, I'm not getting [filmmaker] Michael Moore, I'm not getting [progressive talk radio network] Air America -- I'm not getting any of these people.

—A.D.