The antigay conservative group One Million Moms threatened to boycott retail giant JCPenney simply based on the fact that the company’s latest spokesperson, Ellen DeGeneres, is gay. Now, DeGeneres and JCPenney have found an unlikely ally in conservative talk show host Bill O’Reilly, who compared One Million Moms attack to 50’s era McCarthyism.
DeGeneres doesn't often use her wildly popular talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres show, as a platform to discuss political topics, but Wednesday she weighed in on One Million Moms’ threatened boycott and how JCPenney has vowed to stand by its decision and to keep her. One Million Moms had created a Facebook page aimed at intimidating JCPenney, but DeGeneres pointed out on her show that many of the Facebook comments were in defense of her and the retailer. One Million Moms’ Facebook page has since been removed.
On her show Thursday DeGeneres thanked O’Reilly for coming to her defense on The O’Reilly Factor.
Speaking to Fox News commentator Sandy Rios O’Reilly said on his show that he didn’t think boycotting a business over its hiring of a gay spokesperson was in “the spirit of America.”
“What is the difference between a McCarthy era Communist blacklist in the fifties and the Million Moms saying, ‘Hey, JCPenney and all you other stores, don’t you hire any gay people. Don’t you dare?” O’Reilly argued.
“This JCPenney thing is a witch hunt and it shouldn’t happen,” O’Reilly added.
DeGeneres thanked O’Reilly on her show, adding that he is welcome to use her JCPenney employee discount.
Watch the video below.
Follow SheWired on Facebook.
Follow SheWired on Twitter.
