O'Reilly deceptively claimed he "never said anything like" biological-weapon comment
On the October 20 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly read a viewer's email expressing concern that O'Reilly had compared illegal immigrants to "biological weapons." O'Reilly denied the charge, claiming, "I never said anything like that," and further condemned "dishonest media and smear merchants," chastising them for "doing tremendous damage to this country." This denial, however, is deceptive: While O'Reilly did not say those specific words, he agreed with a caller to his radio show who did make that comparison, and he expanded on the caller's statement.
On April 15, a caller to O'Reilly's nationally syndicated radio show, The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, claimed that each undocumented immigrant crossing the border "is a biological weapon." O"Reilly agreed, further stating, "I think you could probably make an absolutely airtight case that more than 3,000 Americans have been either killed or injured, based upon the 11 million illegals who are here."
In an October 15 column in The Dallas Morning News, editorial writer Macarena Hernandez wrote critically of the anti-immigration rhetoric heard on such shows as O'Reilly's. Hernandez specifically mentioned the April 15 exchange between O'Reilly and the caller.
O'Reilly fiercely responded to Hernandez's accusations during the October 18 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, calling her column "a matter of deceit." But as Media Matters for America has documented, O'Reilly selectively quoted from Hernandez's article, omitting her reference to his caller's "biological weapon" claim, with which O'Reilly agreed. Although O'Reilly has continued to blast The Dallas Morning News and Hernandez in recent days, his response to this email on the October 20 edition of his television show marks the first time that he has mentioned the "biological weapon" accusation. Then, confronting this charge for the first time, O'Reilly claimed he "never said anything like that." He characterized the viewer's concern as the product of "dishonest media and smear merchants."
From the October 20 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: Cheryl Anderson, Dallas, "Bill, my fiancé is Hispanic. And what you said is of great concern to me. Do you really believe my fiancé is a 'biological weapon'?" Now, Cheryl's letter points out the seriousness of a foolish column in a major newspaper. I never said anything like that. But because an irresponsible Dallas Morning News writer printed all kinds of falsehoods, Cheryl thinks I did. Again, we've got to start holding dishonest media and smear merchants responsible. They are doing tremendous damage to this country.
BO'R's definition of smear defies all his conventions. How many times (as noted on this site) has he used inflammatory language (pinhead, nuts, etc.) to describe his enemies. Yet when a newspaper prints his own words and exchanges they are "smearing" him.
Instant Karma's gonna get you.
For ONCE I agree with O'Reilly. People should be held accountable for the lies and dishonesty they spew on TV, radio and newspapers. Let's start by holding Bill accoutable. This is not an attack on free speech. Bill is entitled to his opinions, but he should not be free to lie.
To be fair, he didn’t speak the “biological weapons” line but he did agree with it. “You might be right,” he said, an endorsement of this comment, which is tantamount to approval, but he didn't say it. This falls into the category of an Al Franken’s “Wait, wait, don’t lie to me” weasel.
O'Reilly merely agreed that the caller might be correct, then expounded on the subject.
He himself never used the term "biological weapon"
Both the caller and O'Reilly brought up a topic that is certainly a feasible reason for tightening our borders. I suppose the wordage isn't considered politically correct, but sometimes the truth isn't.
He denies that he never said it, but where does he deny he doesn't agree with the "biological weapon" statement of the caller?
Does MMFS claim that he directly denies it?
His own words:
O'Reilly denied the charge, claiming, "I never said anything like that,"
The only thing that has interrupted the cascade of lies emanating from the White House and their corporate media apologists has been the veritable tsunami of governmental crime that has been washing over this country since the NeoCon in Chief was installed in office by the Supreme Court in 2000. Sickening. O'Reilly is but one of the many scumbags that (dys)functions to perpetuate the Disinformation State. May they live long enough to be eaten by their luffas.
Well, people ARE a life form, thus biological.
But for illegal immigrants to be a "weapon", there needs to be an enemy, you know, like Castro or Chavez. So, unless we can define who that enemy is that is attacking us with this weapon. . .
Hey, I know!! It's poverty! Wait, no that isn't an "ism". If it isn't a specific country it has to be one of them "ism"s, you know like communism, or terrorism.
Now I know why the weasel denied his implied consent of the term. He would never agree that we should be fighting a war on poverty!