Days after announcing his candidacy for California governor, self-described "smut peddler" Larry Flynt staged a peculiar event to rally supporters – a prayer vigil seeking the death of Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly.
The flamboyant Hustler magazine publisher called for a "National Prayer Day" service where Americans "of all denominations and faiths" could "pray to God" for the death of the "blowhard."
According to event spokesman and magazine editorial assistant Sean Carney, an "overjoyed and ebullient" crowd of 50 - 65 people mostly under the age of 30 gathered at Cornerstone Plaza in Los Angeles this afternoon for the "bash bigot O'Reilly ceremony."
"We had people with signs and we had people who drove by and flashed us out the window and stuck their finger out saying 'No. 1' and shouted and honked at us. It was great," Carney told WorldNetDaily.
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Flynt did not attend the service because "he's busy with his campaign," according to Carney, who called the porn mogul's newly launched gubernatorial drive a "strange coincidence." He said the
event had been planned for months and was advertised in the October issue of the magazine which hit the newsstands in the beginning of July.
Flynt's website offers a sample "prayer" which describes in graphic and ghoulish terms how the host of cable TV's top-rated talk show, "The O'Reilly Factor" should meet his death.
"Dear (God/Allah/Buddha/other entity of your choice)," the "prayer" begins.
Carney said the service attendees said a paraphrased version of the "prayer":
"Dear God, we ask you to afflict Bill O'Reilly with a brain aneurysm that will lead to his slow and painful death. Lord, make those blood vessels bulge out of his head and explode. Make him writhe on the floor in contrition for his cynical attacks. When O'Reilly reaches for the phone to call 911 and accidentally dials 411, Lord, please remind Bill of all the people he has
shouted down with no mercy. Oh Lord, as Bill O'Reilly lies on the floor and contemplates his miserable life, make him lose control of his bowels so that the last warm feeling he experiences is his own excrement. Oh Lord, grant us this wish. Your humble servants forever and
ever."
Although Carney described the event as a "spoof" he emphasizes it was a personal attack.
"We don't like the fact that this guy who's a Harvard M.B.A. goes around cynically riling people up," he said. "He's a demagogue, somebody who plays to people's fears. That may bring in good ratings but he's like the jackass dad at the high school sporting event yelling at the reff. He may get the attention of everybody in the crowd but everyone loathes him."
"We're not really asking for him to die. It is a spoof. But the ceremony was real and I think the sentiments are real," he added.
Bill O'Reilly |
"We are not going to dignify it with a response," O'Reilly spokesman Robert Zimmerman told CNSNews.com.
WorldNetDaily reported Friday Flynt filed papers and paid the required $3,500 fee to run in the historic recall election challenging sitting governor and fellow Democrat Gray Davis.
"California is the most progressive state in the union," Flynt told the Los Angeles Times. "I don't think anyone here will have a problem with a smut peddler as governor."
Flynt, who is also connected with the Hustler Casino in Gardena, Calif., said he hopes to expand gaming, private casinos and slot machines to raise enough revenue to wipe out the state's projected $38 billion deficit.
He's banking on name recognition to give him an edge over the potential scores of opponents who have also joined the race.
"People know me. They know I've devoted most of my adult life fighting to expand the parameters of free speech," he told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I took a bullet for the First Amendment. I'm concerned about our basic freedoms, the erosion that has taken place in the last few years. I would like to motivate people and get them more concerned."
Free speech apparently doesn't apply to conservative voices such as O'Reilly's. According to Flynt's website, the motivation behind today's "service" is that the "right-wing shill" tries to "destroy the careers of those he disagrees with" by telling them to "shut up" or by "turning off their microphone."
"We believe it's time for The Almighty to pull the plug on Bill," the website declares.
When asked whether this anti-O'Reilly drive ran contrary to Flynt's campaign as an advocate for free speech, Carney said no.
"We don't question his right of free speech," he told WorldNetDaily. "But when you're always stirring people up so
cynically like he is you sometimes have to pay the consequences. And in this case, the consequence is a whole younger generation that is sick and tired of his awful, race-baiting and class-baiting attitude."
Carney similarly complained to CNSNews.com that O'Reilly uses "racist" rhetoric in order to appeal to the "common man."
"He has attacked some people that we really love, like [rap singer] Ludacris and [porn movie actress] Jenna Jamison. Bill O'Reilly treated them terribly and tried to ruin Ludacris's career – really awful stuff," said Carney.
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