O'Reilly wouldn't call Penn "anti-American" minutes after Factor referred to Penn as "anti-American"
On the January 29 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, blogger and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin claimed that "Jane Fonda's anti-American position has never changed over the last several decades." Host Bill O'Reilly responded: "[Y]ou say it's anti-American. You know that the Fondas and [Sean] Penns are going to say, 'Listen, I'm as American as you are, Michelle Malkin. I just see things differently.' And I'm willing to give them the benefit of that doubt. I don't want to say that they're anti-American." However, just minutes earlier during the "Talking Points Memo" segment, onscreen text had referred to Penn as "anti-American actor Sean Penn." While that text was on the screen, O'Reilly referred to Penn as "far-left actor Sean Penn."
To close the segment, O'Reilly asked Malkin if she had "any personal message for Sean Penn," to which she replied, "I'm glad that he's gone now from D.C.," before adding: "Jeff Spicoli for president." Penn played stoner Jeff Spicoli in the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
From the January 29 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: But to far-left actor Sean Penn, who consistently sides with America's enemies, that really isn't much of a problem at all.
[...]
MALKIN: Jane Fonda's anti-American position has never changed over the last several decades. And I think that it's clear that the concern for the troops that the anti-war left has shown is cynical. The compassion that they pose for the Iraqi civilians is totally disingenuous. And their opposition to the war is not rooted in principle, but in clear Bush hatred and in a desire to see this country fail.
We talked about those poll results last week showing that a hard, significant portion of this country wants us to fail there. And that's what we saw voiced over and over again this weekend.
And I think that there's another ugly aspect to the anti-war movement. It was not just sort of the peace-loving '60s throwbacks that we saw in front of the camera. But we saw the ugly side of the anti-war movement this weekend, too.
And you won't see that on a lot of the mainstream media coverage. People spitting at an Iraq war veteran, vandalism on the Capitol steps, rocks thrown at military recruitment centers. This is what it's about. It was a big temper tantrum. And that's all the left has to offer.
O'REILLY: All right, but you say it's anti-American. You know that the Fondas and Penns are going to say, "Listen, I'm as American as you are, Michelle Malkin. I just see things differently." And I'm willing to give them the benefit of that doubt. I don't want to say that they're anti-American.
[...]
O'REILLY: All right, I gotta load up Michelle for one final -- Michelle, any personal message for Sean Penn?
MALKIN: I'm glad that he's gone now from D.C.
O'REILLY: Yeah. I just -- I was wondering about the hair that was going on up there with him.
MALKIN: Jeff Spicoli for president.
—R.C.
