While discussing the “dishonesty” of “the far left,” Fox News' Bill O'Reilly called progressive talk radio network Air America Radio “disgusting” and “despicable,” stating that “all they do” is “personal attacks.” O'Reilly continued, stating: “If you don't agree with them, then they come after you personally.” After twice repeating, “I despise them,” O'Reilly further claimed that there “isn't any comparison” on the “far-right websites.” But his protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, O'Reilly has a history of making “personal attacks” against those who disagree with him, including Air America Radio. O'Reilly's comments came during the March 17 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio program, The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly.

Most recently, on the March 17 edition of his cable television program, Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly attacked St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Sylvester Brown Jr., falsely claiming that Brown's March 16 column “took information from a far-left smear website, which routinely distorts comments from anyone the site doesn't like.” O'Reilly added that Brown “knows that, but prints the dishonest garbage anyway.” O'Reilly also attacked Brown on that day's broadcast of The Radio Factor, repeating charges that “another nutty, far-left website ... takes everything we say out of context.” He called Brown a “fanatical left-wing guy” and “dishonest.”

In fact, as Media Matters for America has previously noted, in his column, Brown referred to a Media Matters montage of clips from both The O'Reilly Factor and The Radio Factor demonstrating that O'Reilly routinely engages in personal attacks. Brown pointed out that even though Media Matters “relies on transcripts from his own programs to refute his outrageous claims, O'Reilly still insists the group blatantly uses his words 'out of context,' then 'feeds stuff to the mainstream media to discredit me.' ”

Further, O'Reilly himself has previously attacked Air America Radio, as Media Matters has noted (here and here). For instance, on the June 20, 2005, broadcast of his radio program, O'Reilly called on the FBI to “incarcerate ... all those clowns” at Air America “immediately.” He said: “Send over the FBI and just put them in chains” because they are, according to O'Reilly, traitors who “undermin[e] everything.” Also, during the August 25, 2005, broadcast of his radio program, O'Reilly labeled Air America “the Joseph Goebbels network,” a reference to the Nazi propagandist.

From the March 17 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: All right, we're talking about the far left in America feeling their oats because the Bush poll numbers are down, and they are demanding that the Democratic Party -- which is, you know, a fairly wide range of opinion inside the Democratic Party; I'd say more so than inside the Republican Party -- all move to the left. And if they don't, then they're, you know, traitors and whatever. I don't know what -- you know, depends.

Now, let me give you an example of how dishonest the far left is. There's a guy that writes for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. His name is Sylvester Brown. He's a fanatical left-wing guy. He's been writing a column there for quite some time.

Brown yesterday writes, quote, “Bill O'Reilly insulted cities, countries, and even an entire continent. 'Madison, Wisconsin residents commune with Satan,' he said. Iraqis are a prehistoric group. Poor Hurricane Katrina victims were drug-addicted thugs. And according to O'Reilly, all Europe is soft and afraid.”

OK, now that's what Sylvester Brown writes in his column. Now, where he got this was from another nutty, far-left website, which listens to this radio show and takes everything we say out of context. So, say we -- say we have a joke. So, we're, you know, talking with some of you on the radio -- ah, they all commune with Satan. And we're all laughing or whatever. They write it down as serious, and then they kick it out to Brown who writes it in his column as serious.

Now, they do that all day, every day, 24/7, and dishonest people like Sylvester Brown present it as serious. This is the kind of stuff that the far left is notorious for. This is what they do. They're a dishonest bunch. They have no scruples at all. Personal attacks all day long.

Just listen to Air America. You want personal attacks, put that on. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. That's all they do. All right. If you don't agree with them, then they come after you personally. Disgusting, despicable. I despise them. I despise them.

Now you say, what about the far right? We -- believe me, we look at the far-right websites, and there isn't any comparison, none, at this juncture in history. Now, you can go back to the Clinton era years -- it got pretty rough. But now, no comparison.