More than six weeks after FOX News Channel host Bill O'Reilly falsely labeled author and syndicated columnist Molly Ivins a “socialist” during the April 20 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, as Media Matters for America reported, O'Reilly apologized to Ivins on the air.

From the June 4 edition of FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: And finally I got a letter from writer Molly Ivins who lives in Austin, Texas. I called Ms. Ivins a socialist recently which doesn't mean she's a bad person: “Bill, I've never been a socialist. Hearing you describe me as one left me whomper-jawed. I'm a great supporter of regulated capitalism. I think the history of our country proves we need this from the era of the Robber Barons to Enron.”

Well, I believe you, Ms. Ivins. I'm sorry I called you a socialist. I don't want you to have a whomper-jaw.