O'Reilly asked: "[W]hat's the difference between David Duke" and Daily Kos?


On the July 24 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, during an interview with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) presidential campaign communications director Howard Wolfson, host Bill O'Reilly again compared the blog Daily Kos to white supremacist David Duke, asking: "[W]hat's the difference between David Duke and the hate stuff that he puts on his website with his bloggers and this? What is the difference?" Wolfson responded that, unlike Daily Kos, “David Duke's entire organization is rooted in hate and racism.” O'Reilly then asked, “And the Daily Kos is not?” Wolfson replied: “No, it certainly is not ... It is primarily hundreds of thousands, as I said, good American citizens who are participating in our democracy.” Wolfson later accused O'Reilly of “cherry-picking comments that are objectionable and attempting to smear an entire community of people. And it's wrong.”

As Media Matters for America has documented (here and here), O'Reilly has repeatedly attacked Daily Kos, comparing it to Duke, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Nazi party. Wolfson appeared on O'Reilly's program to discuss a petition posted on Clinton's presidential campaign website titled “Tell Bill O'Reilly: Stop Smearing Grassroots Progressives.”

At the beginning of his interview with Wolfson, O'Reilly offered examples of “what Daily Kos posts about Hillary Clinton,” calling them “brutal personal attacks.” But the comments section of O'Reilly's own website featured several examples of Clinton attacks, documented by AMERICAblog (here, here, and here):

  • “As a woman, I would open the door for her.....now, if there was nothing on the other side but empty space and a 50 foot drop into a moat filled leeches and (gulp) rats...well, I can't be held responsible.”
  • “If Hillary wins, I will be respectful of our leader. If you could read my thoughts, I would be on the SS [Secret Service] watch list.”
  • “If she wins which hopefully she won't. My guns are loaded for the revolt are yours?”
  • “I didn't respect Stalin and I won't respect Clinton. They're both cut from the same cloth.”

Later in the segment, Wolfson said, “Bill, even your website has things on it that you would probably find objectionable.” O'Reilly responded by accusing Daily Kos of having “planted someone” on his website. However, as screen shots of the above comments show (posted by AMERICAblog here and here), this purported “plant[]” would have to have posted thousands of comments to O'Reilly's website, under different aliases.

From the July 24 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: This is what the Daily Kos posts about Hillary Clinton. “Hillary George Wallace Clinton, F you and you're A-sucking appeasing any way the wind blows careerist slag. We're looking at President George W. Bush with breasts,” only they didn't use the word “breasts.” “Hillary is not the answer. She is owned and operated by right wing crazies. She is for more war, more attack, weaponizing Israel. Hillary Rodham Clinton, just trust me, wink, wink, F that and F her. Hillary got stains on her dress, too. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a walking, talking repudiation of everything that Kos and the netroots have worked for over the past four years. I have nothing but contempt for this evil woman, Hillary Clinton. Damn her to hell.”

This is what's posted on the Daily Kos that you're sticking up for, Mr. Wolfson. You want to explain that?

WOLFSON: Well, I'm not going to stick up for those comments in particular. In truth, we do come in for our fair share of criticism on the site.

O'REILLY: No, no, this isn't criticism. These are brutal personal attacks --

WOLFSON: Yeah, and obviously --

O'REILLY: -- that the Daily Kos trades in and that you're going to their convention. Now --

WOLFSON: And --

O'REILLY: What's the difference between David Duke's and the hate stuff that he puts on his website with his bloggers and this? What is the difference?

WOLFSON: Well, it's a good question. And the crucial difference is that David Duke's entire organization is rooted in hate and racism --

O'REILLY: And the Daily Kos is not?

WOLFSON: -- and anti Semitism. No, it certainly is not.

O'REILLY: No?

WOLFSON: It is primarily hundreds of thousands, as I said, good American citizens who are participating in our democracy.

O'REILLY: And why do they permit this? Why do they permit it, then?

WOLFSON: You know, I haven't seen those particular posts. There are posts that disagree with Senator Clinton on policy. I think it's perfectly appropriate to disagree with her on policy. We're not --

O'REILLY: These posts -- so do I. You can disagree with anybody -- look --

WOLFSON: Absolutely. We're not going to agree with everything that everybody comes to Daily Kos and comments on.

O'REILLY: It's not a matter of agreeing. This is what's on this website every day. [White House press secretary] Tony Snow deserves to have cancer. The pope is a primate.

WOLFSON: You are -- you are cherry-picking --

O'REILLY: I'm not cherry-picking anything.

WOLFSON: -- comments that are objectionable --

O'REILLY: This is what they do.

WOLFSON: -- and attempting to smear an entire community of people. And it's wrong.

[...]

WOLFSON: And we don't -- and there are things that we don't agree with on Daily Kos, of course. But you are cherry-picking the most extreme examples of inappropriate comments.

O'REILLY: I just read you -- and you want me -- I can read you 30 more.

WOLFSON: Sure. There are millions -- there are millions of comments on that site over the last several years. Millions. Could you find some that are objectionable? Sure you can.

O'REILLY: These are -- every respectable blog in the country --

WOLFSON: You know what? There are people who say objectionable things every day.

O'REILLY: -- every respectable blog in the country -- and you know this, because I think Hillary Clinton's website is respectable --

WOLFSON: Thank you.

O'REILLY: -- every respectable blog in the country does not permit this hatred. The Kos traffics --

WOLFSON: Bill, even your website has things on it that you would probably find objectionable.

O'REILLY: That's bull. Look, we know what you're going to say because the Kos planted somebody in there. But when we see objectionable things, we take it off immediately. They traffic in it. And there's where you're making a mistake.

WOLFSON: No.

O'REILLY: You're pandering to these people by showing up there.

WOLFSON: It is not pandering -- it is not pandering to talk to hundreds of thousands of people who are committed Democrats, committed progressives who are interested in turning this country around and changing it for the better.