Oops. Bill O'Reilly is "furious". So you know what that means, of course. Fox "News" gets it wrong again...
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Oops. Bill O'Reilly is "furious". So you know what that means, of course. Fox "News" gets it wrong again...
Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
Raising Bill O'Reilly's ire this time is a doctored photograph that appeared on the DailyKos website of Senator Joe Lieberman on his knees seemingly unzipping George W. Bush's pants in prelude to performing a sexual act. The fairly tame photo is clearly meant as parody but, according to O'Reilly, is "very offensive" and a "disgraceful exposition." O'Reilly assures viewers that Lieberman "is a patriot and a man of conviction" who is "opposing the loons in the Senate" and deserves "respect not hatred."
O'Reilly goes on to threaten JetBlue and the Democratic candidates speaking at the dKos Convention before bringing on two consultants to discuss the matter further where he again compares dKos to Nazis and the KKK. And when Lanny Davis offers a weak defense that not everyone on DailyKos is a hater, O'Reilly screams, "Hey look, there was some good stuff on the Nazi site. You know, give to the kids, give to the Aryan kids."
See video of O'Reilly's original attack of dKos here along with some commentary from Brad of The BRAD BLOG.
Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
Bill O'Reilly goes off the deep end tonight (video at left) because of alleged comments his producers claim to have found "on a vicious far-left website called the DailyKos, one of the worst examples of hatred that America has to offer." O'Reilly proceeds to take issue with Jet Blue for sponsoring the DailyKos convention (with 10 plane tickets!) which, coincidentally, is this week in two weeks, August 2-5. At one point O'Reilly makes some rather unfortunate comparisons with the DailyKos:
UPDATE/ADDENDUM FROM BRAD: As dKos diarist "mcjoan" a pointed out over there in advance of O'Reilly's big hate scoop, perhaps No Spin Boy may have a gripe against dKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga that he failed to mention in his hit piece. "Markos led the way in getting the Democratic presidential candidates to boycott the Fox debate," she writes, "and we're going to be having a Democratic presidential candidates forum at YearlyKos."
There's that, and the fact that dKos is only the largest community in the blogosphere, either Left or Right, and a grave threat to folks like Fox "News" and O'Reilly, since they have a habit of countering their spin with actual facts.
And most importantly, O'Reilly forgot to mention that the comments he alluded to on the site could well have been posted by anyone, since it's an open site. A question one might ask then (one that's at least as responsible as O'Reilly's ridiculous attack): Did Bill O'Reilly or one of his producers post those "hateful" comments at dKos themselves? Perhaps someone should ambush them to find out. Without evidence either way, I'll just go ahead and say O'Reilly did it himself. Why not? O'Reilly has no journalistic credibility and he's got the biggest show on cable "news." Perhaps we need to start making stuff up too!
FURTHER UPDATE FROM BRAD 7/17/07: Daily Kos' "DarkSyde" responds directly to O'Reilly segment, patiently explaining exactly what Billo doesn't grasp about the progressive blogosphere. "ShaunMcDonnell," a dKos diarist who claims to be a "Right-Leaning Lurker" takes O'Reilly to task for his hit piece calling it "easy" and a "cheap shot". And Kos himself posts a few of the pieces of hate mail (ironically enough) from O'Reilly's fans that he's received since the story ran yesterday.
Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
Bill O'Reilly responded to a recent Indiana University Study comparing the Fox "News" mouthpiece unfavorably to the notorious propagandist of the 1930s, Father Charles Coughlin, with even more propaganda. While O'Reilly spent the bulk of his time defending himself by attacking Media Matters and George Soros, he does question and mock the most publicized part of the research that evidences O'Reilly using a derogatory name to describe his opponents every 6.8 seconds during the Factor's "Talking Points Memo" segments. This mashup shows O'Reilly's response to the study and then looks back at the six previous "Talking Points" to see whether O'Reilly or the Indiana University researchers are to be believed.
Finally, for those wondering what George Soros and Media Matters have to do with whether or not Bill O'Reilly is a propagandist, I will try to explain. For starters, George Soros - he who gives away billions of dollars trying to spread good governance, democracy, human rights and independent media around the world while combatting corruption and rights abuses - is the face of evil. As O'Reilly stated in last night's broadcast to former General Wesley Clark whose PAC received $75,000 from Soros, "There isn't a more radical person in the country than [Soros]". O'Reilly then asked Clark if he would also accept David Duke's money.
Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
It really doesn't get any worse than this Michelle Malkin (filling in for Bill O'Reilly) interview of Malik Shabazz Thursday night on Fox "News". There is so much wrong with the exchange that no analysis can do it justice. The clip picks up about halfway through a discussion on the Duke lacrosse case. Here is a taste:
Malkin: You want to call me a whore on national TV?
Shabazz: Yes.
Malkin: There is only one whore on this split-screen and it's you Mr. Shabazz.
Shabazz: As a woman of color, you should be ashamed of yourself...
Only on Fox "News" and immediately after back to back to back Don Imus segments!
Wow...Just wow. Bill O'Reilly goes Morton Downey Jr.
The latest phony issue created by O'Reilly is crucifying the mayor and police chief of Virginia Beach for not having previously deported an undocumented immigrant who ended up killing two teens in Virgina Beach in a drunk driving accident. He's mad not because the guy was a drunk driver, apparently, but because he was "an illegal alien." O'Reilly was whacked all morning about it on his radio show, and then flipped his shit on Fox "News" tonight with Geraldo, charging him with "wanting anarchy." Give it a look...
A news conference was held in response to O'Reilly's batshit episode, in which he told the father and sister of one of the dead girls: "The authorities in your town would not obey the law, defied the law of the land and somebody needs to be held accountable sir. I want you to keep in touch with us. We're gonna get the mayor, Oberndorf and the judge, Whitehurst, because they're the villains."
At the news conference, with Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, the father of the other killed girl said: "We need to heal, and to bring immigration, that's disrespectful to a family who's just mourning."
O'Reilly has gone frickin' psycho. And again we ask, as we did after he cut off the mic of a 29-year army veteran two days ago: Why is this guy still on TV? The same reason Morton Downey Jr. was, we guess. Trainwrecks get great ratings.
In one of his most shamefully transparent swiftboat attacks yet, Bill O'Reilly twisted and perverted the comments of 29-year U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright last Friday, for having the temerity to explain that when Americans parade their own prisoners of war before the cameras, it's difficult to have the "moral high ground" in making the case that Iran has violated the Geneva Convention by doing similarly with their captured British troops.
For the record, Wright spent years educating troops on the Geneva Convention at Fort Bragg and understands it cold (unlikely, O'Reilly). She also spent 16 years in the diplomatic corps before resigning in protest as the Iraq War began. I interviewed her on the illegalities of the war while at Camp Casey in Crawford, TX, in August of 2005. Her explanation was exceedingly enlightening. (MP3 here, appx. 22 mins, as part of the collection of highlights from our 50+ hours of special BRAD SHOW "Operation Noble Cause" live broadcasts.)
Crooks & Liars' coverage of the interview, includes a transcript from the wrap-up of the attempted O'Reilly hit piece (in which he only seems to have hit himself):
O'REILLY: "Sure you do. Sure you do."
WRIGHT: "I surely do. That's what I spent 29 years of my life trying to do."
O'REILLY: "Sorry. No you didn't. You know what happened to you…somewhere along the line you started to dislike your own country…."
WRIGHT: "I served 29 years. How many did you serve? Where did you teach the Geneva Conventions?"
O'REILLY: "Cut her mic."
Watch the video. It's absolutely shameful.
(Hat-tip for the video to Chrish at the indispensable NewsHounds.us for "watching FOX so [we] don't have to.")
Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
On Friday Bill O'Reilly was arguing to guest John Flannery, in light of Khalid Sheik Mohammed's mass confessions, that the United States doesn't torture. What made O'Reilly's stance particularly perplexing was that back in September, 2006, ABC's chief investigative reporter, Brian Ross, appeared on The Factor and explained, to O'Reilly's approval, that torture was actually used by the United States. Nonetheless - back in the present day, PsychoBoy O'Reilly's memory seems to have erased itself, as he accuses Flannery of "buying all that propaganda"...for believing exactly that which O'Reilly had previously espoused.
But wait! Much more O'Reilly Video-a-palooza below!...
Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
Sure, these will likely be everywhere today. But for good reason. Colbert hit it out of the park twice yesterday. First when he appeared on O'Reilly's show and then again when O'Reilly appeared on his. Both infinitely worth the watch. And to underscore Colbert's genius, the cover that he shows of O'Reilly's book and the last line of his interview with O'Reilly on his own show. Both nothing less than solid gold...
Editor & Publisher published a comment today from the Executive Producer of Fox "News'" O'Reilly Factor on their having run a title under video of Rep. Mark Foley --- three different times, in two different segments --- which labeled the now-disgraced, now-former Republican Congressman as a Democrat:
"It was an honest mistake," Tabacoff said of the Tuesday mislabeling.
The BRAD BLOG orginally broke the story of Fox's egregious "error" last Tuesday.
We followed up with a report on AP having done a similar thing the next day, though they had the journalistic integrity (unlike Fox "News") to issue a correction statement when the problem was found.
Yesterday ran we ran another follow-up on O'Reilly and Fox's failure to publicly correct or even acknowledge the "error," indisputably closing any further debate on whether Fox is actually a news organization. It isn't. We included links to videos of both The Daily Show's and MSNBC Countdown's coverage of same in that last report.
UPDATE 10/10/06 4:52pm PT: Now NewsMax.com says Foley a "Democrat"!...
UPDATE 2/8/08: Fox now shows presumptive Republican Presidential candidate John McCain also as a Democrat! Screenshot...
So Fox "News" labelled an apparent sexual predator as a "Democrat", despite the indisputable fact that the man, disgraced Congressman Mark Foley, is a Republican.
As THE BRAD BLOG originally reported the day before last, Fox did so three different times during Tuesday's O'Reilly Factor and have never admitted this outrageous misreporting. They simply disappeared the issue on the subsequent rebroadcasts of the program after they were caught having done it.
The next day the Associated Press --- who appear to be a real news organization --- did something similar. However, they did the right thing within hours, and admitted the error in subsequent corrected versions of their original article, which had labelled the REPUBLICAN Mark Foley as a Democrat.
Everyone in the world, it seems, has now picked up on the story of Fox's outrageous "error." (Including Comedy Central's The Daily Show and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann --- both videos now linked below.) Everyone, it seems, except for Fox. To our knowledge, Fox has not taken responsibility or accountability in any way.
For now, we'll presume that's the end of this particular story, which sheds additional light (as if any further was needed) on the absurd claims that the Fox "News" Channel is actually a "news" organization. It is not. It is a Propoganda Ministry beyond the reach of the accountability and responsibility under which any self-respecting and true news organization would normally operate.
We can only imagine the uproar from the "conservative" community, and the heads which would have been forced to roll had the situation been reversed and CNN, or anybody else in the media, labelled a Democratic sexual predator as a Republican. Three times. Without apology or correction.
As mentioned, both Stewart and Olbermann ran with the story yesterday. Here are links to each clip, both courtesy of Crooks & Liars...
Countdown with Keith Olbermann video clip...
Daily Show with John Stewart video clip...
UPDATE 10/6/06 3:49pm PT: O'Reilly Executive Producer now says 'no on-air correction necessary.' Full details...
It looks like AP picked up on Fox's "error" yesterday in labelling Mark Foley as a Democrat!
The party affiliation that dare not speak its name.
Late Update: As of about 12:18 PM, the version of the AP story I linked to at the San Jose Mercury News has been corrected. But it must have been what the AP sent out over the wire. So I'm sure there are million more examples of it still out there.
Indeed Josh would appear to be correct. As of a quick Google search moments ago, there were still several articles indexed as showing Foley as a "(D-Florida)":
The stories listed by Google above now seem to have corrected the text in their online versions. No clue how many actually made it into newsprint that way.
Several of the outlets who ran AP's original "Foley is a Dem" version now have this correction notice at the bottom of their articles:
To our knowledge, no such admission has been issued by either O'Reilly or Fox "News", despite having run the most egregious version of this "error" (three times in total) during the initial primetime broadcast of The O'Reilly Factor last night as we originally reported just after it aired. They simply scrubbed the "error" by removing that title card during the later re-broadcasts of the program (the ones with the smaller viewerships).
(Hat-tip Joseph Cannon)
UPDATE: Eagle-eyed BRAD BLOG commenter "Fred T" notes that Hastert is also labelled as a Democrat in the AP story listed in the Google search graphic above!
UPDATE 10/10/06 4:52pm PT: Now NewsMax.com says Foley a "Democrat"!...
Just amazing. Fox's O'Reilly Factor just covered the Mark Foley (R-FL) issue in two different segments, one of them with a page who says he received communications from Foley, and another with Ann Coulter.
Never mind the content of either segment for now. Incredibly, during a total of three different cutaways to video footage of Foley, he was labelled at the bottom of the screen eachtime as "(D-FL)" !
Three different times. In two different segements. Each cutaway about 15 seconds or more. Showing Foley as a DEMOCRAT. Amazing.
Just an accident? We report, you decide.
UPDATE: Here's quick video clips two of the three times that Foley became made an honorary Fox "Dem"...
-- CLIP 1: Windows Media Player version...
-- CLIP 2 (Coulter): Windows Media Player version...
UPDATE 11:30pm PT: Though we didn't see the first evening rerun, several folks have reported that Fox "News" scrubbed the "error" by running the video during the late-night rerun of O'Reilly with no text on the bottom of the screen during those sequences. Also, please note we originally had the date of 6/3/06 on the screenshot above, instead of the correct 10/3/06. Once we noticed, we had so many folks linking up to this item, we couldn't get back in to the site at all to make the correction until now!
UPDATE 10/4/06 2:04am PT: Confirmed! We just watched the second late-night rerun of O'Reilly, and indeed, the evidence goes down the memory hole as Fox removed the mis-labelled chiron entirely from their later broadcasts without explanation! BTW, we watched both full segments this time, including the one with Florida's own alleged Queen of Voter Fraud, Ann Coulter who swears up and down that Hastert just couldn't have known anything about Foley's problem, he just couldn't have!
Screenshot from the rebroadcast, where the "(D-FL)" has been excised from all three video cutaways, is below...
UPDATE 10/4/06 2:13am PT: Heheh...Bob Johnson over at dKos may have the explanation for what happened at Fox today...
UPDATE 10/4/06 1:46pm PT: Now AP also labels Foley a Democrat!...
UPDATE 10/4/06 3:03pm PT: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) asks a fair question about this today...
UPDATE 10/4/06 7:15pm PT: Looks like Olbermann covered the story tonight, natch. (No credit to yours truly, however...go figure...sigh) ... Also, John Stewart this this on The Daily Show as well. Both videos now linked here...
UPDATE 10/6/06 3:49pm PT: O'Reilly Executive Producer now says 'no on-air correction necessary.' Full details...
UPDATE 10/10/06 4:52pm PT: Now NewsMax.com says Foley a "Democrat"!...
UPDATE 2/8/08: Fox now shows presumptive Republican Presidential candidate John McCain also as a Democrat! Screenshot...
Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com
Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...
"You're watching Fox News. America's Top News Source... for White People."
Bill O'Reilly takes us into the "No Spin Zone" for meaningless interviews of Seymour Hersh and Newt Gingrich. SNL's O'Reilly spits out almost as many incorrect facts as the real Bill.