Bill O’Reilly To Kate Upton: “Get Off My Lawn!”

Since being named the cover model for the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, With Leather’s favorite superdupermodel Kate Upton has finally become a household name. No longer reserved to the dreams of bloggers and their pervert uncles, the 19-year old Florida native (call me!) spent her Monday and Tuesday on a whirlwind TV tour, starting with the official reveal (sort of) of her new cover on the Late Show with David Letterman, and including a stop by the Today Show and one especially hilarious visit to CNBC’s Power Lunch, on which she awesomely humiliated Darren Rovell. And here I thought we couldn’t love her more.

But there were also plenty of TV and media personalities who either didn’t think to send in an interview request for Upton or just felt like it was much easier to tear her down now that she’s been built up without her actually being there to defend herself. Enter: Bill O’Reilly, who discussed Upton’s rise to fame last night on The O’Reilly Factor with a marketing expert and another angry woman. And if you’re wondering if O’Reilly came across as clueless while using out-of-context TV clips and information to support his claims, watch for yourself.

First of all, O’Reilly claims that Upton was nobody until she showed up at a NBA game doing the Dougie. False. Before she even posted a video of herself doing this “dopey dance”, she was the face of Guess. She was already selected for the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, too, otherwise nobody would have even known who she was. She was already established as a model, so to claim that her rise to fame was solely the result of her Internet savvy is insulting and just plain wrong.

But in true O’Reilly fashion, he gloriously contradicted his entire point, as he used Upton as an example of how people in this era don’t need actual talent if they have access to YouTube (something me, Vince and Fred Figglehorn will totally agree with) but then brought up his “Hot Words” girl who used her good looks and a website to establish a career for herself. Ultimately, the only thing I take away from this is that O’Reilly is pissed off that Upton’s career is exploding and Maria’s isn’t.

Then again, maybe Upton just doesn’t speak to Bill’s generation:

“I don’t understand this dance. To me, she’s not Ginger Rogers out there.”

Andy Rooney, line one. Oh, and who the f*ck is Ginger Rogers?

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