O'Reilly defends comparison of Daily Kos to Nazis and KKK
During the July 17 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, discussing comments he made the previous night comparing the Daily Kos blog to the Nazi Party and to the Ku Klux Klan, host Bill O'Reilly asserted that "[t]he comparison is valid." O'Reilly was responding to a viewer who said in an email that O'Reilly "owe[d] me and thousands of others an apology," claiming that "you should not compare anything to the Nazis." O'Reilly replied: "Hate to say it, sir, that website traffics in hate, as do the Nazi websites. No difference." O'Reilly then read an email from another viewer who asserted: "I'm a black American and understand your argument against JetBlue, but I disagree with you comparing the Daily Kos to the KKK. The website simply hates the Bush administration." O'Reilly responded: "What does the pope have to do with the president, sir? How about Israel? The website sells hate, as does the KKK and the Nazis. The comparison is valid."
The content of his viewers' criticisms stems from O'Reilly's report during the July 16 edition of The O'Reilly Factor addressing JetBlue's decision to sponsor the YearlyKos convention. The segment featured a number of statements posted as diaries or comments to items, including several documented by the blog News Hounds. Among those were statements about the pope and Israel, to which O'Reilly alluded on the July 17 edition of his program.
O'Reilly's reference to Israel apparently stems from an interview of JetBlue CEO David Barger by O'Reilly Factor producer Jesse Watters aired on the July 16 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, during which Watters asked: "I mean, do you think that your JetBlue customers want to know that you're kind of subscribing to the belief that Iran has the right to attack Israel? I mean, these are the kind of things they're saying on this website." Watters' allegation, in turn, appears to stem from a Daily Kos January 7 diary by "heathlander," titled "Iran has a right to attack Israel." In fact, the diary's thesis was that "any use of force aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear capacity would be preventive, not preemptive, and would thus be illegal." It added: "[I]f we accept that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, that would not qualify for a preemptive strike, even under the ridiculous standards of Israel and the United States. If it did, we would be forced to conclude that the majority of the states on the planet (including Iran) have a right to attack America, Israel, France, Britain, India and the other members of the 'nuclear club.' " The diary concluded: "I am not here advocating an Iranian 'preemptive' strike on Israel or the U.S."
O'Reilly's reference to the pope apparently stems from a user comment in response to a post reporting that a "Hindu delivered the morning invocation in the Senate chamber"; reader dconrad wrote: "Yes, the Pope is a Primate." As the Think Progress blog has noted, one of the pope's titles is "primate" because he is also the Bishop of Rome. A Daily Kos July 17 diary by AWhitneyBrown noted various media outlets referring to Roman Catholic bishops and archbishops as primates.
From the July 17 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: And finally tonight, the mail. JetBlue led the letters. BillOReilly.com premium members graded that segment very well.
David Reinstein, Buffalo Grove, Illinois: "O'Reilly, you owe me and thousands of others an apology. You should not compare anything to the Nazis. The Daily Kos keeps me informed."
Hate is hate, sir. That website traffics in it, as do the Nazi websites. No difference.
Kenneth Brown, Jacksonville, Florida: "Mr. O'Reilly, I'm a black American and understand your argument against JetBlue, but I disagree with you comparing the Daily Kos to the KKK. The website simply hates the Bush administration."
What does the pope have to do with the president, sir? How about Israel? The website sells hate, as does the KKK and the Nazis. The comparison is valid.
From the July 16 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thank you for watching us tonight. JetBlue and the radical left -- that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."
What do you think of someone who says the following: "The world would be better off without him." That after Tony Snow announced his cancer had returned. "The pope is a primate." "Evangelicals are nut cases." "Better luck next time," after an assassination plot against Vice President Cheney in Afghanistan. And "Some attacks against coalition forces in Iraq are legitimate."
All of those thoughts were posted on a vicious far-left website called the Daily Kos, one of the worst examples of hatred America has to offer. This summer, that website is having a convention in Chicago. And only one major corporation has stepped up as a sponsor. That company is JetBlue, the airline that melted down last winter.
As is our policy, we contacted JetBlue last week to ask why. Why would it sponsor a hateful website? It had no answer. So we sent Factor producer Jesse Watters out to see JetBlue CEO David Barger.
[begin video clip]
WATTERS: Hey, Mr. Barger, Jesse Watters with Fox News. How are you?
BARGER: Good morning.
WATTERS: Good morning. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?
BARGER: Regarding?
WATTERS: On the Daily Kos website, it says attacks against coalition forces in Iraq are legitimate. Does JetBlue subscribe to that kind of thinking?
BARGER: There's really, you know, politics and our business. Really, it's not something that we mix.
WATTERS: What about "The pope is a primate"? Do you agree with that kind of thinking?
BARGER: Same. I mean, it's -- from the standpoint of running our business, that's what we do from an airline perspective. So there's really not alignment along those lines. I appreciate your interest.
WATTERS: Do you think you're giving legitimacy to this kind of thinking? I mean, they're saying "The world may be better off" without Tony Snow when Tony Snow had a cancer relapse.
BARGER: It's -- I'm really not going to mix politics from the standpoint of running our business.
WATTERS: But aren't you guys kind of mixing politics by, you know, sponsoring this convention?
BARGER: It's -- it's -- I can see where you're trying to go with it, but it's -- I'm just not going to, you know, to respond to that here at this point in time.
WATTERS: But don't you think your sponsorship has kind of attached an endorsement to this kind of thinking?
BARGER: I think just the ability to leave my apartment and do that freely and go to work is really what I'm trying to do. And along those lines, I think the people can draw their own conclusion. We're running our business. And from the perspective of politics, there's not alignment. So thanks very much.
WATTERS: Thank you. I mean, do you think that your JetBlue customers want to know that you're kind of subscribing to the belief that Iran has the right to attack Israel? I mean, these are the kind of things they're saying on this website.
BARGER: I'll just close by saying this. I think our customers are -- I'll treat them with dignity and respect. They're very smart. They'll draw their own conclusion, whether it's watching your news show, whether it's watching our in-flight television. They're pretty smart people. They'll draw their own conclusion.
[end video clip]
O'REILLY: And we have. It is beyond belief that a company like JetBlue would sponsor hatemongers like the Daily Kos.
Comes a time when American consumers have to take a stand, and this is one of those times. Any company or person who endorses hate websites should be held accountable.
Finally, this isn't an ideological issue. If the company was sponsoring a David Duke convention, we'd do the same story. Hate is hate, no matter where it comes from. And that's the "Memo."
Now for the top story tonight, another view of this. With us, Diane Brady, a senior writer for Business Week magazine. I think Mr. Barger looked as bad as I've ever seen a CEO look in an interview like that. What do you think?
BRADY: Well, he's probably sending free air tickets to the pope and Tony Snow right now. But I think the main reason they did this is eyeballs. Daily Kos is a very popular website. It gets 500,000 hits a day. And one of the things with airlines is they seem to throw, you know, tickets at high school debating groups, forums. I don't think they necessarily always know what's on there.
O'REILLY: But we told them what was on there before we did the story. You got to understand that. We didn't ambush this guy. We gave them a week. We said look, look at this stuff. And they don't care. JetBlue doesn't care that they said all the things Jesse said at all. And I'm saying to myself, are they just plain stupid? Because this is hate of the worst order. It's like the Ku Klux Klan. It's like the Nazi party. There's no difference here. People should die. They want Tony Snow to die. Cheney to die. Doesn't get worse than this, Ms. Brady.
BRADY: You know, there's no question Daily Kos is clearly on the left. And one thing that comes up, especially with these open forums is you get a lot of lunatics come up. And I'm sure -- I look at this site.
O'REILLY: You know, you - look, I have my own website. We don't -- open forum is bull. All right? You can regulate what's on your website. Now, this kind of a thing has got to be troubling to, I think, millions of Americans when they hear it. Because this is the only, as we pointed out, sponsor. The only one. Everybody else stays way away from this.
I do give Barger credit for standing there and trying to dodge questions. Most CEO's would've declined to talk at all. But I think he should've known when you align yourself with loonies like DailyKooks, you are bound to get some controversial media attention.
Perhaps the "Liberal Media" should start a guerilla campaign on CEO's whose companies advertise on the right wing smear programs at FOX "NEWS."
Yeah, I think that would be fair!
Unlike some of O'Reilly's fans, I have been reading Daily Kos since Markos first started the site. I remember the numerous "that [bleep] Jew Lieberman" posts and Markos' own resonse to the murder of civilian contractors in Fallujah - [bleep] them...they deserved it [paraphrase]. For the record - Markos was quizzed on his comment on C-Span's Q&A; his evasive answer spoke volumes.I visit 3 left-wing/progressive sites daily - MMFA, Daily Kos, and Democrat Underground. To be fair, MMFA does the best job of keeping hate out of their forums. This site has a self-admited agenda but I don't recall ever reading vile, hate-filled posts here unlike the 2 other sites.Between Daily Kos and DU, DKos is by far the worst. The frequent anti-Semitic, anti-military (funny considering Markos' own service in Iraq), and hateful posts are often deleted/redacted AFTER right-wing blogs like LGF, Best of the Web, and FreeRepublic pick them up.On a related note, I guess we all know what the Blue in Jet Blue stands for.
If O'Reilly considers it "FAIR" to tar a site with ALL THE CONTENT on that site, including the words of "guests" ...
I wonder what this says about O'Reilly. After all, he has Ann Coulter on, has interviewed pedophiles and skinheads ... so by O'Reilly's own rule, O'Reilly adopts and promotes and agrees with everything these people have ever said or done. That's how O'Reilly "rolls".
Of course, O'Reilly is a strong advocate of DOUBLE STANDARDS, so he certainly exempts himself from the same treatment he gives others. And nobody notices ... right?
Go to Townhall.com and read the THOUSANDS of violent, racist comments spewed by the right-wingers that infest that site.
More often than not the sort of posts being discussed here are also challenged by other contributors to DKos. While cherry picking for salacious and offensive entries would it have been so hard to note the replies decrying them?
So here's some questions: If just one offensive posting makes DKos a hate filled Nazi/KKK site, what does just one anti-hate entry make it? If JetBlue is now a KKK/Nazi affiliate because of their association with DKos, what does that make the US Government, which sponsored the reporting and travel of numerous right wing bloggers from sites that have themselves been known to host quite a few hate filled and murderous comments?
Then Bill O'Reilly won't mind if we compare HIM to Hitler, Stalin, or Pol Pot, right?????
:-)
Great that the comparison is so much easier!
And the contrasts so much harder to find.
"Then Bill O'Reilly won't mind if we compare HIM to Hitler ..."
Keith Olbermann already did that.
Quite accurately, I might add!
He (BOR) did defame dead American soldiers and accuse them of war crimes that they were victims to. He blamed American troops for Nazi crimes and when called on it, refused to correct himself!
Himler is a good fit for b.o.
A grouchy rightwinger is now defining hate: it comes from the left, and its mecca is DailyKos.
To add even more irony, Kos posted some of the mail he's getting from the O'Reilly faithful.
Looks like hate begets hate.
As a regular reader of DKos, they are not selling "hate", they're selling "pissed off" which right now has a huge market
I hope you recognized the facetiousness of my posts. I'm only an occasional visitor to Kos myself, and I've never seen the cherry-picked "hate" in question.
I read it as O'Piley's hate begets hate. I also have not seen any diaries that could be described as hateful, maybe in the reader comments? Or maybe he just means that everyone at DKos hates him personally, which I would have a hard time refuting. I mean come on! The guy's a sleazy, ugly, splotchy-faced liar who cheated on his wife. What's not to hate?
There are a lot of Hitler/Nazi comparisons floating around these days, from bothy sides apparently. Although, to be fair, O Reilly is an independent....LOL
Yeah, that is true: he did change it from "Repugnant" in 2000, to mitigate the pending exposure of his claim to be "Independent", didn't he?
O'Reilly is not an independent. If he walks like a Republican and talks like a Republican but calls himself an Independent he's still a Republican. Calling himself an independent with "traditional" values is like someone saying "I'm not a diabetic-I am a person with diabetes." His facade only fools the 2 to 3 million senior citizens who watch him nightly. I would at least respect him if he just admitted his political leanings rather than lie about it daily for ratings.
Yeah, it goes both ways...advertise with someone and you're related to them whether you like it or not.
Someone should start a web site called "Crazy lefty/righty fringe talking heads" and highlight every time one of them compares a politician or political entity to the KKK, Hitler, Nazis, Goebbels, Mussolini, etc.
I agree with BO on this one, the Daily Kos is a hateful website. KKK is a good comparison both are hate groups. Where are the groups that support unity in America, not hate?
Gee.....I didn't realise the Daily Kos burned churches, burned crosses, hanged people...or for that matter, hate just about anyone who isn't white and Christian. I must have left the room for tea, and that news slipped right by me.
No KOS just hates people who do not agree with him politically. Hate is hate.
It's the same thing on the Right.
Explain to me where I said the right does not hate?
I have no idea why you are replying to my comment with that question.
I hate what you write. I hate your opinions. I don't hate YOU!.
O'Reilly hates the left. See the difference?
That's funny, coming from someone as spiteful as yourself.
My goodness! Sounds an awful lot like Bill O'Reilly. He hates and smears anyone who doesn't agree with him, too. Hmmmm....
Sounds an awful lot like someone who posts on this very website. I think it starts with So...
Dave,
Does the poster you speak of have a national show or is he an anonymus American?
"No KOS just hates people who do not agree with him politically. Hate is hate."
Well BO, Savage, Hannity & Rush should really tick you off. Hate is hate.
BO, Savage and Hannity do tick me off, just because I want fairness and respect does not mean I support Savage and Hannity and Rush. I guess you want to be partisan?
We're all partisans, what's wrong with that?
Not at all. I just get a mixed read from you. Bill is attributing user comments to te entire site and then entraping The Jetblue CEO. If BO was fair he would call out his peers, but he never does. Hypocrisy anyone?
I have a bias, I will admit, but I amm no partisan. Right is Right and Wrong is Wrong.
I agree it's unimaginable that anyone would confront a CEO of a major corporation for something I an anonymous poster said on website. It’s a stupid attempt to copy Michael Moore when he actually confronts some one about something they should know and be responsible for. They missed this by a mile. It's just like that ½ hour comedy show they recently put on. They were desperately trying to do a Jon Stewart or Steve Colbert and again it was completely lame. God Fox is so lame it’s pathetic.
Good point. Partisanship has gotten pretty bad in this country and sites(including Kos, and Redstate) have done much to spread more devisiveness. I think as Americans we should work TOGETHER to solve our problems; not scream and rant about eachother...
Republican lawmaker's have often said that Democrat's don't want to join them in bipartisanship. The fact is--their idea of bipartisanship is to agree with what Republican's want to do.
We had six years of Republican bipartisanship. It essentially means do whatever Republicans want, don't keep any eye on the other branches, and if the opposition complains, play the victim and blame the opposition for all the problems you created.
I read in today's editorial that the percentage of Americans who now support GWB equals the percentage of Americans with IQs under 80.
Hmmmm.....Using your logic, if I hate peas, I'm on the same level as the KKK? After all hate is hate right? This IS what you are saying.
When people from the Daily Kos support white Christian surpremacy, hang people simply because they are a different color or religion, burn churches and crosses, THEN you can compare their hate with the KKK hate.
you sound like an expert on hate. is hate your idea of unity? sorry charlie, that tuna don't swim in the ocean of love.
peas!
So if someone disagrees with someone else, it's hate? Honestly Sue you make no sense. I visit the Kos and I have never read a hateful post from him.
Okay, SUEELD, define "hate" and then point us to some example of it exhibited or espoused by DailyKOS. By DailyKOS I mean Marcos or anyone who actually speaks for DailyKOS --and that, by Marcos's own definition, is strictly limited to himself and the contributing editors at DailyKOS (i.e., it does not include the folks who post comments). I read DailyKOS regularly and I've never read anything hate-filled. Strenuous disagreement for sure, and sometimes disbelief or disgust, but never hate. Challenging or questioning an opinion with which you disagree is not hating, it's called discourse -- raucous and even uncivil at times but not hate-filled. And rarely, if ever, does incivility go without being admonished by someone at DailyKOS.
Thank you. I'm not a regular reader of KOS but hadn't heard about any hate-filled posts. The article here says the comments O'Reilly mentioned were made by visitors to the site (or diarists? Not sure what a diary is at KOS.)
O'Reilly should at the very least know the difference and keep his comments directed at the operator(s) of the site, not those that comment. Otherwise, O'Reilly should be held accountable for every email sent by his minions to KOS (as someone else linked to elsewhere.)
"O'Reilly should at the very least know the difference and keep his comments directed at the operator(s) of the site, not those that comment."
Either he's clueless (check!), and doesn't understand the concept of blogs, or is smearing left-wing websites to keep his audience from reading the material and learning something. The 27 percenters will gladly avoid Kos to keep their minds protected from evildoers.
RE: "Media Matters is a vile, far-left smear merchant." A comment that might apply to some (really not much at all) posts in the comments section, but not the organization.
O'Reilly is talkin' smack, trying to link hatred to the left (as is his m.o.) by blurring the distinction between hate and anger.
We have to remember that so many rural communities in our country, wide swaths of towns, have no internet access. That's who Oreilly is speaking to. He's polluting the minds of people who have no means of participating in the WWW and therefore, no ability to make their own judgment on what really goes on at Kos.
O'Reilly is without shame.
I say that Bill O-Reilly is the same as the piles of dog poop in my back yard. They're both filled with excrement.
The comparison is valid.
:-)
Loonies like Daily Kos? That's rich. Judging a group based on handful of overly excited bloggers doesn't do much for Bill O'Reilly's *ahem* legitimacy. A lunatic himself that has exhibited racism and bigotry that would make a Nazi blush is just pouring more gas on himself. Daily Kos is an informative site. I don't participate in the blog over there but Kos is on top of current events and I enjoy checking in. I can't say the same for Herr O'Reilly.
The day Bush became president it has been a demand by his supporters that this country stands by him no matter what; otherwise you are just a Bush basher or Why do you hate America?
It became impossible to have a serious discussion about issues with Conservatives because they are of this mentality that the virtue of a monarchy aka Bush is loyalty, for the state is gathered into the person of the king aka Bush, and the society is bound together by each subjects personal duty to him.
Bush agrees with the above that he is the state and we the people are his subjects. It the Conservatives that have allowed him to get away with such mentality.
The proof of all that I have written above is the fact that there are people in our country known as loyal Bushies.
Therefore any disagreement with the Conservative's king will be branded as hate and any writings that counters king's desires is branded as hate literature.
O'Rielly calling DalilyKos Nazis and KKK's is just carrying out his role as a loyal Bushie aka Conservative.
O'Blabberface should know about peddling hate, he does it every single day, multiple times per day ! Poor guy must have run out of loofahs, he's getting cranky.
Jeesh, when will nuts like O'Really stop getting mixed up. He is either purposefully misleading or dumber than a gnat, personally I don't know which is worse. KOS is liberal, so comparing them to the KKK or Nazis does not make sense. Those like O'Really, unlike liberal groups, definitely do have similarities to those who were members of the KKK and Nazis because all inhabit the right wing of political ideology.
I don't see the DailyKos/Nazi and KKK parallel O'Reilly is referring to. Maybe I'm missing something.
Ther doesn't have to actually BE a valid comparison. Billdo is, after all, a LIAR!
He also called MMFA and extremist organization during his debate with Paul Krugman. Krugman cited MMFA as a source for a piece of data and BO told him he may as well have consulted the KKK. Bill's a weird guy.
"open forum is bull. All right? " Says who O' Leillee? I have noticed that most of the "far left" websites do have forumns and most of the "far right " do not. Ever seen an open forumn at " human (red meat for the far right ) events" or at mrc.org? You see Billy boy, we don't limit ourselves to just one point of view, that would be childish.
Actually the far right do have sites, but if you post a disagreement with their opinions or policy, it will not be posted, therefore, the left doesn't stay long and it is a perfect agreement fest for the rest.
The bit that really gets me in all this is O'Reilly's outrage that someone would say that the Pope is a primate: a claim that is inoffensive on two levels.
First, in the biological sense, all humans are members of the biological order primates, and there's nothing in that classification that is, in itself, contrary to a creationist theology.
Second, as MMFA points out, the word "primate" is a perfectly legitimate religious title for the Pope.
How could this possibly be construed as offensive?
Is the Pope Catholic? THE POPE IS CATHOLIC !!!
Yeah, and I thought O'Reilly was too. I have a hard time believing that he's never heard that religious title before.
that's the point...i'm certain o'lielly knows very well what that word is - but he's betting his viewers don't. it's intentional deception on his part.
How could this possibly be construed as offensive?
Well, it starts by believing that the world is six thousand years old. Then...
No, that's my point! Even if you do believe that the world is 6,000 years old and that humans and apes do not share a common ancestor... where's the offense? The category "primate" does not in any way implicate a theory evolution or a rejection of creationism!
no but to OB, it is akin to blasphemy, sorta like taking gods name in vain.
then....the godfather/god thefather decreed original sin, and forgiveness levered by punishment (reparations such as sacrifices, fines, confinement, torture, and banishment), demonstrating yet again the universal tolerance for natures' truly aberrant and unsustainable evolutionary experiments.
peas!
Following O'Rielly's history, it is time to buy stock in JetBlue. I am going to check my recent edition of the Paris Business Review to get their take on it.
Another attempt for Bill to hurt someone he disagrees with...Hey Bill, get this, if people don't want to read the Daily Kos, they can simply not go there. And Bill, calling you a Nazi would be a nasty insult......especially for all those Nazis still living today. And the Last Word, Bill, would you have your fine staff dig into some of the RightWing websites and go after their business connection...You are Fair and Balanced
I think this is a real testament to the power of the internet to get under the skin of those who would just as soon silence the people:
"SHUT UP!"
"Cut his mic!"
"Cut her mic!"
"Hey, shut up! You had your 35 minutes! Shut up!"
"And it is our duty as loyal Americans to shut up once the fighting begins, unless—unless facts prove the operation wrong, as was the case in Vietnam."
"Canada shouldn't have any say [about the Guantanamo prisoners] at all. I mean, just shut up about it."
"What Jimmy Carter should do is privately give Mr. Bush his opinion and shut up publicly."
"So with all due respect, senator, shut up."
"If you see [Sen. Tom Daschle] for me, senator, tell him to shut up. For me. You can be nice."
"[MMFA] will never set foot, not only in my program, but at Fox News Channel."
That's just a small sample, but here's one more, just for irony:
"Well, the 'shut up' line has happened only once in six years"
Jet Blue is a private company that has every right to make their own business decisions. O'Reilly also has the right to comment on such decisions, although his ambush sliminess he employs to trap whowever is his evildoer dujour is nothing more than a transparent attempt to pimp us his ratings through such tabloidy sensationalistic tactics.
On the other hand, I commend MMFA for not allowing such gutter trash talking cuss words to infect their website the way DailyKos does, either from their supporters or their critics.
This Daily Kos, is this something important or something? Why is BO wasting his time with irrelevancy? The Culture Warrior has dropped the ball on this one. If juveniles want to spew nonsense there's the forum....Daily Kos.
The same crusade that led him to gay days in SD, no doubt. The CultureKing picks and chooses little irrelevancies and makes mountains out of molehills for his own agenda driven nonsense.
Whoa! I need to give you more credit for cajones there, Tommy. I have a feeling that there's a few bikers headed for Sturgess that will take exception to you referring to their motorcycle rally as "gay days"...
Half a million visits per day is hardly irrelevant.
Daily Kos could do with a bit more moderation, but if the "user comments" can be attributed the the Daily Kos and Jetblue. Other open forums for the right are just as acceptable. I see equally (if not more)venomus things on righty forums. billy shouldn't throw stones.
Monk,
Have you ever checked out Huffington's website? Nasty crew over there. Mostly on the Left.
I don't know why Billy-Boy insists on referring to Kos or the Left in general as Nazis or the KKK.
Everybody knows the Left are pinko commies.
The Right are the fascist Nazis.
;-)
Get it straight Billy!
I use to post at The Huffington Post regularly and some of the comments there were pretty vile before flagging was instituted. I remember one poster in particular named Azim. He went on the site everyday day just to call Arianna a c*nt, whore or b*tch and how he would like to see her get raped or something similar to that and his comments weren’t removed. Stuff like that you just scroll pass.
coming from that bastion of Journalism known as Inside Edition, would we expect anything less than tabloid shenanigans from O'Reilly?
the guy is every bit as toxic if not more so than any of the things that have him clutching his pearls and passing out over his fainting couch on camera every day.
Hey! Inside Edition won two Peabodys!
I mean Polks.
After O'Reilly left.
"Jet Blue is a private company"
Oh Really?
JetBlue is publicly traded and owned by private persons and organizations. Tommy's point, I believe, is that JetBlue is not providing a public service; it serves private commercial interests.
O'Reilley is bonkers!
And that has been proven over and over again. It's sickening that he has sponsors given all the hateful bigoted and trash talk that has come out of his mouth. Not to mention that not much is rooted in fact.
Freedom of speech.. Daily Kos has many bloggers , who knows the context that the statements O'Rielly chose to take from the web site were written. He doesn't identify the writer, time, or provide any text, other than the soundbites he wants to use.
Daily Kos is a progressive, ahead of the curve, responder to the "politics of destruction" going on now. Jet Blue has every right to sponsor their conference.
O'Reilley is the culprit that looks to and for "hate.". He and others of his ilk throw that work around along with Nazi, like it was "have a good day."
Childish and ignorant.
Companies are starting to realize that Liberalism is now starting to be where the country is headed, and will be where the bucks are, just as conservatism WAS for the last 12 years or so.
My problem with that report is that O'Reilly and his producers took FOUR comments from a site with 500,000 DAILY visitors, and used those comments to characterize the entire site. Does anybody realize how inaccurate it is to do so with .000008 percent of the daily traffic?
Then, they didn't bother to get a response from anybody affiliated with the site; instead, they accosted a CEO sponsoring a political convention associated with the Web site and accused him of sharing those same political views.
But Barger said his customers were smart enough to draw their own conclusions. Anybody who can divide 4 by 500,000 should be able to do the same.
That's a damn good point.
O'Reilly is being disengenuous of course. He likely doesn't give a crap who a business trffics with, he has his eyes on a larger picture. He wants to taint public perception of Kos and link hatred with the Democratic Party. Kos is hosting a Democratic Forum in the not to distant future, I think in August. This is Bill's and Fox's preemptive strike with a big side helping of sour grapes.
Yes I believe you are correct here. I do remember them saying that there would be presidential candidates at this gathering.
Thanks. Your post alerted me that, besides my typoes, that I forgot to type the word, Presidential. Kos is hosting a Democratic Presidential Forum.
Now the post makes sense thanks to you.
"As is our policy, we contacted JetBlue last week to ask why."
And what "policy" is this, that they didn't contact the Daily Kos? Is this the same policy that won't let David Brock on the show to talk about MMFA? The same policy of cutting off the mics of guests who disagree...or cutting off or threatening callers?
I agree with Kevin that a few bloggers out of thousands can't define a web site. As an example, right wingers visit MMFA, and it's often very obvious that they haven't read the article or links. They read the comment section....adressing the comments of those who actually read the articles, often reffering to posters as "you guys at MMFA"....as if our comments are the views of MMFA. MMFA catalogs and presents their views of media misinformation through their articles, and we, the readers, are premitted to discuss the articles with other readers...some comments are hateful or nasty, and some are intelligent and insightful, but they are not "MMFA".
The "policy" is that O'Reilly can't stand it when a corporation sponsors a left leaning site. In his view, corporations are only allowed to sponsor right leaning sites so he can continue to claim that left sites can't generate support/viewership/audience or whatever the phony claim of the day is.
And one of those 4 out of 500,000 that O'Reilly cherry-picked WASN'T IN ANY WAY OFFENSIVE TO ANYONE!
If I was the CEO of JetBlue, stepped outside one morning, and found a guy putting a mic in my face and asking me if my company stood behind a site that claimed that the Pope is a primate, I'd be pretty darned confused. What possible offense could be taken from that statement?
All that aside, however, this point is absolutely critical. O'Reilly's perennial complaint against MMFA is that the organization takes his words out of context. And yet he offered no context whatsoever for any of the remarks he attributed to the DailyKos. Who were the authors? With what degree of prominence were these quotes featured? Were these remarks in any way framed as reported speech or counterfactual claims?
O'Reilly should know better. I mean, the guy is a trained, skilled, award-winning journalist. At Inside Edition, he won a Peabody award. I mean, a Polk Award. Same diff.
Vy,
You make a good point about context and O'Reilly's selective outrage where it's concerned. The JB CEO was taken aback by this producer shoving a microphone and a camera in his face and you are absolutely right, offered no context with his charges against DKos.
Typical O'Reilly - which is why I find his so infuriating. He bellyaches and whines all the time about others doing exactly what he does......yet he keeps at it under his endless culture warrior baloney, and lookin' out for the folks. It has worn out.
Like the "Happy Holidays" merchandise offered on his web site, at the same time he was organinizing his base into a frenzy about stores saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas?"
I was in a department store at the customer service counter when a mgr. took a call from one of O'Reilly's "War On Christmas" supporters.
When the call was over, an employee asked if it was ANOTHER one of the "War on Christmas" callers. The customer next to me asked if they have been getting a lot of those calls, and the Mgr. said yes, at least a couple a day, and the callers usualy aren't even from the store's area. She said one of the Christian groups was helping O'Reilly's cause, and the calls were coming from outside the state....the complaints all sounded like they were reading off the same sheet.
The newspaper also reported that many area retailers had complained that they were being bombarded with similar calls.
A mass mailed family/friend Christmas letter from my husband's aunt began by discussing how we must all fight the "War on Christmas". I tossed her Christmas letter in the trash.
O'Reilly is a hypocrite, but this shows how far reaching his comments can go. I remember the problems that Proctor and Gamble faced many years ago when a religious group boycotted them for using the signs of satan as a logo, which couldn't have been farther from the truth. What problems will JetBlue face as a result of this?
I don't know about you, but O'Reilly's excellent, hard-hitting exposé on this issue has moved me to act: I'm e-mailing JetBlue a letter of support.
Well said, Tommy. It's an awfully tired act, and I can only hope that it's a matter of time before even the most committed members of O'Reilly's audience begin to find it unbearably stale.
Try as he may, O'reilly can't bring down the ACLU, MMFA, Democrats, Liberals, or Activist Judges. So what does he do? He goes after another web site.
We must really be getting under his skin. LET"S POUR IT ON!
"BILL O'REILLY IS A PRIMATE !!!"
Actually, he went after the web site, but only for comments posted there by visitors to the site. That sort of free speech for the unwashed masses must really drive Ol' "one of the folks" BilldO nuts.
As I said, DailyKos could take a page from MMFA's standards and not allow such vile spewings on their website. It does nothing to advance any discussion and only gives those like O'Reilly ammunition to accuse them of at least tolerating such disguisting language.
Shooting themselves in the foot doesn't help their cause.
f*ck off, Tommy. ;0)
Yep, considering we have to flower down our language here, I will just have to say fu2
:)
Hey, would you two knock it off and stop acting like a couple of bipedal primates?!?
Sheesh, I'm sorry. I really let me temper get the best of me. Hope I didn't offend anybody.
yes you offended me vy and i hope you die screaming but its ok to say that because i dont hate you actually that was uncalled for i would like to apologise to mrs clinton herr soros and their little boy david if anyone is intrested i have a vague but colorful arrow digrm to show why i said it
Dammitall HBL--your doing NOTHING to help our cause!!!
You make a very good point. MMFA's approach gives their targets very little to work with, forcing them to simply label MMFA or whine and cry that quoting them is "character assassination".
I agree Tommy. This is why MMFA is pretty much the only place I post, although on occasion I've felt compelled to post at the Huffington Post. But a lot of the other sites do very little moderating. I'm sure it's expensive to have full-time moderators though.
DailyKos has democratic community moderation.
If you're logged in, you'll see a recommend checkbox by each comment. You can check any comments that you like. If you post often and get lots of recommends, you can earn trusted user status. Trusted users see a second checkbox where they can troll-rate comments. When a comment receives a few troll-ratings, it's hidden.
It's all automatic. All the site managers do is tweak the settings, like how many recommends you need to get a trusted user status and how many troll ratings you can give a day.
Go Cheney yourself, Tommy.
The irony of all of this is that the Daily KOS is about as good humored as any web site with a political stance. Sure they have a slant opposed to the likes of Fox News but they offer analysis as opposed to vitriol and name calliing. The comments on the blog are no more than comments like those received by anyone else including Bill O himself. Clearly the producers or Bill paid no attention to the content of the site itself or deliberately omitted the obvious.
f*ck off, Tommy. ;0) - HuntingtonBeachLefty / Wednesday July 18, 2007
Yep, considering we have to flower down our language here, I will just have to say fu2 :) - tommy / Wednesday July 18, 2007 06:01:54 PM EST
Both of you guys must know what a bar of soap tastes like.
I think I speak for HBL, who lives in LA - we don't use bar soap here. We use organic shower gel infused with natural floral essences........and I haven't tasted them yet.
Bill O'Reilly is a Nazi.
Why?
Nazis go to the bathroom. Sometimes several times a day. I have very reliable sources telling me that O'Reilly also goes to the bathroom, often more than once a day.
O'Reilly goes to the bathroom, as does Nazis. The comparison is valid.
That was funny ;-)
I've read that Nazi's used to blink their eyes 3-8 times each minute. I counted BO blinking within that perameter--Could He Be A NAZI?
Ding dang the dwisell witted hippo schlumping nannywaste. Sorry all this overlunged misequisition has me wimple nosed, my triang is in a wiskit and don't ask about me frumple.
Just because I tune in to Stewart and Colbert on Comedy Central doesn't mean I like Carlos Mencia.
I am a hater
I hate Nazis and all other fascists - given the opportunity they would put me up against the wall. Hating the evil bastards who want to kill you, who do everything possible to inspire others to hate and harm you is not a bad thing - it is a survival instinct.
Was it wrong for Jews in 1930s Germany to hate Hitler? Is it wrong for me to hate the bastards who are doing everything possible to steal our constitution - and building concentration camps for me and you as we speak?
There is fascism afoot and Bill O'Reilly is one of it's chief proponents and apologists. Yeah, I hate his stinkin guts - along with the merciless, psychopathic traitors in the current administration who have plans for you and me. I would like to see trials for treason and the punishment prescribed in the constitution - the fullest extent of the law.
If Stalinists were anywhere close to a complete takeover of our government as the fascists are now, I would hate them too.
For a modern day Himmler to compare leftist opponents to the Nazis would be laughable were it not for the ignorance of his historically challenged audience which doesn't know the difference.
It is time for us to collectively wake up! There is more at stake than simple disappointment at not having one's candidate in office. We sat quietly while two consecutive presidential elections were stolen and a usurper took over our government. He believes he was ordained by god to rule us and every action he has taken since his successful coup d'etat indicates that he has no intention of relinquishing that power - ever.
So for all of you who think it's wrong to hate the fascists - Ill see you in the camps.
This raises the issue of the power of speech - does speech have the power to harm? Certainly. But more harmful, we would all agree, is action.
No one on Daily Kos has attempted any form a physical harm to any individual on the right. Sticks and stones, as they say. And I would assume the same is true for BOR.
Now, some might say that this kind of speech promotes hateful action. There was just that report that 85% of those who were arrested for child pornography had molested a child. But we still can't say that the child pornography caused the molestation. In all likelihood, those who molested children sought out child pornography.
The same is true of hateful speech. Those who are going to commit violent hate crimes might seek out hateful speech, but hateful speech itself does not cause violent crime. Markos Zuniga and those on his website are not killing or terrorizing. And I would also say that BOR is not terrorizing, though his rhetoric is certainly distasteful and filled with hate.
I am all for raising awareness (as MMFA does) on the fallacy-filled rhetoric of the media. But we need to rein ourselves in when we begin to call the other side Nazis. BOR promotes a culture of ignorance, and he misinforms the public. He does have that power, and I am all for countering his misinformation with truth. But last time I checked, he was not committing acts of real violence.
I guess my next question would be, what is the difference between propaganda and free speech? Uneasyone claims that BOR is a part of the system that has caused all the other problems we are experiencing. But does BOR have that much power? Is he creating the world that we live in, or reflecting it? Did his hate speech cause the suspension of the constitution, or is he simply sharing with the world what already exists in the minds of many people?
I don't think Nazi propaganda caused anti-semitism. Anti-semitism was so deep rooted in Europe and had a long and horrific history. But the propaganda did bring this dark side to light and legitimize it. But I would stop short of saying that the propaganda caused the Holocaust. It was definitely a piece of the puzzle, though.
Not sure where this leaves us. Perhaps with more truth seeking and less name calling on both sides...
That's right, lull everybody back to sleep
Demonizing the left doesn't really do any harm. If we are calm and reasonable, they will be also. The fascist corporate media always offers the opportunity to refute wingnuts like O'Reilly, Savage and so on. Hitler didn't create antisemitism so his hate speech and domination of the German media had no effect on the mobilization of the final solution - it would have happened anyway, I guess.
And our media has been ferocious in exposing the lies and misinformation of the Bush administration, haven't they?
And those camps I referred to? Well now that the media has exposed the situation and discussed it endlessly, the danger is passed. Fortunately, after 50,000 voters were illegaly disenfranchised in Florida in 2000, and Bush unconstitutionally installed by the Supreme Court, the media outcry made it impossible for such a thing to happen ever again (not counting Ohio in '04).
Don't worry - it can't happen here.
What I'm saying is that you are not helping by calling BOR a Nazi. He calls someone a name; you call him a name. That is not consciousness raising or taking action - it's ad hominem attack on both sides. It might make you feel better, but it doesn't do anything.
I never called O'Reilly a Nazi
I called him a fascist propagandist - uh - because he is.
I support Social Security, Medicare for All and various other socialistic programs. To call me a socialist would have some justification; to call me a communist would be name-calling.
Calling a spade a spade is only that.
Since Bush is attempting - and so far successfully - a power grab comparable to Hitler's, since he is assuming dictatorial powers for himself unchecked by any other branch of government, since his ideology is corporatist/fascist (rather than the conservative/Republican he claims), since O'Reilly is a very popular spokesman who demonizes administration opponents while acting as a spokesman for the fascists, I said nothing out of line.
To call the man who ordered the outing of a CIA agent, exposing her cover organization and entire network and causing untold harm to the country simply to discredit a man who told an uncomfortable truth is treason. Our vice president and quite likely our president (who is obstructing justice at least and abetting treason thereby) is a traitor. To state fact is not ad hominum attack - it is fact.
Your posts contain the assumption that if somehow we play nice, O'Rielly and the other wingnut attack dogs will. The camps await those who are willing to play nice with fascists.
The pope IS a primate.
Primate:
1.Ecclesiastical. an archbishop or bishop ranking first among the bishops of a province or country. 2.any of various omnivorous mammals of the order Primates, comprising the three suborders Anthropoidea (humans, great apes, gibbons, Old World monkeys, and New World monkeys), Prosimii (lemurs, loris, and their allies), and Tarsioidea (tarsiers), esp. distinguished by the use of hands, varied locomotion, and by complex flexible behavior involving a high level of social interaction and cultural adaptability.
Seems to fit both to me.
I don't think Nazi propaganda caused anti-semitism. Anti-semitism was so deep rooted in Europe and had a long and horrific history. But the propaganda did bring this dark side to light and legitimize it. But I would stop short of saying that the propaganda caused the Holocaust. It was definitely a piece of the puzzle, though.
Not sure where this leaves us. Perhaps with more truth seeking and less name calling on both sides...
- blfsn
Well, yes it did to a degree. Many people, children, were indoctrinated at early ages, Hitler Youth Camps.........
So yes, his propaganda did "cause" some of the anti-semitism. Jews were not placed in concentrations camps, nor were they allowed to be, before hitlers propaganda.....
GET IT?
Agreed.
In a way thought is action, for action rarely arises without a preceding rationalization.
The dehumanization and desensitization inherent to violent rhetoric is analogous to the slow creep of soil down a slight slope. An ever-descending elevation of moral acceptability is established with each successive stormy diatribe.