On the October 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, The Radio Factor, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly berated a caller for asking why O'Reilly has not invited Media Matters for America to appear on his show, identifying the caller as a “weasel,” a “dishonest person,” and “one of these little Kool-Aid-drinking, left-wing idiots.” “You want me to legitimize a website that is 100 percent dishonest,” O'Reilly said.
Referring to an October 15 Dallas Morning News column (registration required) by Macarena Hernandez that cited an exchange between O'Reilly and a caller as an example of the kind of rhetoric that she said blames immigrants as “the birth of all America's ills,” O'Reilly baselessly asserted that Media Matters “takes things out of context, feeds them to fanatical people like Macarena Hernandez, which is where she got her garbage.” In fact, Media Matters documented the comments cited by Hernandez. On the April 15 edition of The Radio Factor, a caller asserted that illegal immigrants are a “biological weapon,” adding that “that illegal immigration is -- equals and surpasses the impact of 9-11.” O'Reilly agreed, opining, “you might be right,” and that “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.”
O'Reilly's comment is the latest in his series of attacks on Media Matters. Numerous requests by Media Matters to appear on his show have, without exception, been denied or ignored.
From the October 21 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
CALLER: But the point that I want to make today is, you've been talking a lot about far-left smearing websites. I actually went to one of those websites a couple of days ago. They have your audio, they have your video. And I'm kind of surprised that you're still challenging them on their material. So why don't you invite them, like Media Matters, to your show and debate the issues?
O'REILLY: OK. Number one, [caller], you're a dishonest person. Because you're not a big fan of mine. You're not anything, OK? What you are is one of these little Kool-Aid-drinking, left-wing idiots who calls up and under the guise of “Hey, you know, Bill, I like you, I listen to The Factor” -- yeah, yeah, yeah. You're a liar. You want me to legitimize a website that is 100 percent dishonest, that takes things out of context, that feeds them to fanatical people like Macarena Hernandez, which is where she got her garbage. You want me to put them on and legitimize them. All right? Give them notoriety and all of that. See, look, I know your game. You're a weasel, and you're in with other weasels. You're exactly where you should be. Those people will never, ever -- I don't deal with dishonest people. Don't call here again.