O'Reilly again attacked Huffington Post as using "same exact tactics that the Nazis used"

During the March 5 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly again attacked The Huffington Post because of comments that readers had posted on the website. After reading several comments, O'Reilly stated, "And I said that these tactics that are being used on this website, The Huffington Post, are the same exact tactics that the Nazis used in the late '20s and early '30s to demonize certain groups of people, so it would become easier for them, the Nazis, when they took power, to hurt those people." Later, responding to Townhall.com managing editor Mary Katherine Ham's claim that "you need to do your best to keep" controversial comments off one's website, O'Reilly agreed and stated, "[A]s we do on BillOReilly.com." However, O'Reilly's website has numerous comments from readers that use violent and inflammatory language.

In comparing The Huffington Post to the "tactics that the Nazis used," O'Reilly stated, "First you have to demonize; first you have to create the hatred. Then you can take action. Now the hatred is by left against left. That's what's going on there." Ham replied: "I still disagree with you about the Nazi comparison." Later, O'Reilly commented: "[I]f you go to that site, and you know I'm -- what I'm saying is true. There is hate from top to bottom on that site. There is defamation on that site. There is the worst possible stuff. So you don't tell me that's freedom of speech, because that isn't. That's irresponsible. And I'm standing by my comparison."

O'Reilly claimed to "knock the bad apples down" on his own website -- "as we do on BillOReilly.com" -- and stated: "Those people do not have a right to spread hatred around and -- and, you know, wish people die and all of that. That is not freedom of speech. That's irresponsible." Ham said she "agreed" that "you need to do your best to kick it out of there" and O'Reilly concluded: "And she [Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington] doesn't. She traffics in that. That's one of her marquee players. You can be as vile as you want."

O'Reilly read several comments that appeared on The Huffington Post regarding Sen. Hillary Clinton's wins in the Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island primaries on March 4, including: "The B--- finally won"; "Go ahead and someone punch the F-word B-word in the nose, she deserves it"; and "Why are so many Obama lovers such right-wing tools?" But O'Reilly has not taken down reader comments on his own website smearing Spanish speakers and immigrants, the Congressional Black Caucus, and Muslims. One commenter wrote:

In the grocery store yesterday, in almost every aisle I had trouble getting past Mexican women pushing loaded carts full of babies, little kids clamoring around loudly - not speaking one word of English. Jabbering in Spanish. Heck, I knew they werent legal. It was so obvious. I was so *ed I just pushed my basket past them, not caring if I ran over one of them. I am so angry about the onslaught of Mexicans in this country; Im sick of their jabbering in Spanish; voting places posting signs in Spanish; walmart announcing over the loud-speaker in Spanish; and on and on.

Our newspapers publish huge stories on them to get sympathy for them. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THEIR PLIGHT. THEY NEED TO BO BACK WHEREVER THEY CAME FROM. IM SO SUCK OF THIS I COULD PUKE.

Another commenter posted a joke about "[a] Mexican, an Iraqi, and a redneck girl ... in the same bar," which concluded: "The redneck girl, cool as a cucumber, picks up her beer, downs it in one gulp, throws the glass into the air, whips out her .45, and shoots the Mexican and the Iraqi. Catching her glass, setting it on the bar, and calling for a refill, she says, 'In America we have so many illegal aliens that we don't have to drink with the same ones twice.' " Of the Congressional Black Caucus, the same commenter stated: "When I was watching the black caucus, the first thing that I pictured was a room full of black people who might as well be wearing white sheets with eyes cut out to see because to me they are on the same level as the k'k'k'. They are out for one race only and that is no, in my definition, a call for unity." Finally, in a post titled "You Might Be Muslim If..." a commenter wrote: "1. You wipe your butt with you bare left hand, but consider bacon unclean."

The following comments were posted on BillOReilly.com and remained on the site at least as late as noon ET on March 10:

O'Reilly frequently attacks those with whom he disagrees, comparing them to the Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan. During the July 17, 2007, edition of The O'Reilly Factor, for example, O'Reilly claimed that the blog Daily Kos is a "hate website[]" and opined: "There's no difference between the KKK and the Nazis, who have websites, than the Daily Kos."

From the March 5 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: Also, Arianna Huffington's website continues its hateful agenda. Posted on there is stuff like this: "Hillary would kick a baby in the head if it would get her what she wanted."

"The B---- finally won."

"Go ahead and someone punch the F-word B-word in the nose, she deserves it."

"Have you ever in your life seen a more dominating, manhandling shrew than Michelle Obama. Boy Obama loves to be lead around by the nose."

"Why are so many Obama lovers such right-wing tools?"

And the hits just keep on coming.

Our Internet cop, Mary Katherine Ham, has been investigating the situation, joins us now from Washington. Now, when we last left you, I was telling you about the tactics -- Nancy Reagan fell down, had to go to the hospital. Bang, on The Huffington Post: "We hope she suffers and dies." All kinds of vile stuff. And I said that these tactics that are being used on this website, The Huffington Post, are the same exact tactics that the Nazis used in the late '20s and early '30s to demonize certain groups of people, so it would become easier for them, the Nazis, when they took power, to hurt those people.

First you have to demonize; first you have to create the hatred. Then you can take action. Now the hatred is by left against left. That's what's going on there.

HAM: Well, I -- I still disagree with you about the Nazi comparison. But, you know, this is -- partly this is the cost of having, you know, very open free speech on the Internet. And I am in favor of that and love people getting involved in the electoral process.

On the other hand, this is what I was talking about with people taking responsibility for their own sites and the comments that go on. Because as you see on Arianna's site, if you let the culture get nasty in the comments, then eventually it comes back to bite your own party. Where, these guys, you know, the right is certainly watching this and saying, "Heck, yeah, we want to watch them eat their own." And they're really going after each other with -- with pretty much the same vehemence that they go after the right. Now --

O'REILLY: OK, now would you say that a newspaper with an editor -- and the editor is there hired to keep hatred, defamation, irresponsibility out of the paper, that wouldn't be freedom of speech, that paper wouldn't be exercising the freedom to communicate to the folks? Would you say that?

HAM: No, no, no. No, I think -- I think, you know, on Arianna Huffington's site, to -- to be fair, she has a moderation policy where things do get some sort of vetting. And she has an extreme amount --

O'REILLY: Oh, I see. So Nancy Reagan, "We want her to suffer and die," that -- that's been vetted, and that's OK?

HAM: No, no, no. There are different rules for different posts. But there is a sort of a policy. But they want to allow, you know, as many comments as possible. But no, I agree with you that you need to -- you need to vet these things and watch out for your own site and take responsibility for what's going on. But there is, to some extent you're gonna --

O'REILLY: Yeah, because -- because if you go to that site, and you know I'm -- what I'm saying is true. There is hate from top to bottom on that site. There is defamation on that site. There is the worst possible stuff. So you don't tell me that's freedom of speech, because that isn't. That's irresponsible. And I'm standing by my comparison.

HAM: Well, I -- well, my only point is that when you're getting a lot of people involved in the electoral process and commenting like this, which I think is a good thing, you are going to get some bad apples in the bunch.

O'REILLY: No, you don't -- then you knock the bad apples down --

HAM: Right. You need to do your best to keep them out --

O'REILLY: -- just as we do on BillOReilly.com. Those people do not have a right to spread hatred around and -- and, you know, wish people die and all of that. That is not freedom of speech. That's irresponsible.

HAM: I -- I agree with that. And you need to do your best to -- to kick it out of there.

O'REILLY: Right. And she doesn't. She traffics in that. That's one of her marquee players. You can be as vile as you want.