Fri, Apr 30, 2004 5:14pm ET

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FOX's O'Reilly engaged in same "pathetic rambling" he decried

Host Bill O'Reilly mocked a Canadian newspaper column, labeling as "pathetic rambling" the column's description of O'Reilly and FOX News Channel viewers as "the lunatic fringe." From the April 29 episode of The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: Yes, I -- let me explain that. Again, "The Globe and Mail" in like their 85th attack on me and the Fox News channel ... now call all Fox News viewers and listeners "lunatics." ... But this kind of pathetic rambling -- I mean, does this -- do Canadians just raise their eyebrows at that or do they take it seriously?

O'Reilly's dismissal of such rhetoric is ironic given his own history of using such terminology. Less than ten days before, on his April 20 show, O'Reilly labeled author Arianna Huffington "a loony lefty." On March 12, he chided a "lunatic" judge for rulings he opposed on reproductive rights. On January 16, he chided the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org because they "sanction left-wing loonies." On April 25, 2003, he dismissed the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for "going loony" for defending the rights of teachers to hang posters with political content in their classrooms.

—G.W.

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