On the December 7 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly stated, “Fox News turns down blatantly anti-American ads. We just turned one down recently. I understand that.” As Media Matters for America documented , Fox News recently refused to air an advertisement produced by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) that claims the Bush administration is “destroying the Constitution” through its use of renditions, torture, and other tactics. However, in an email provided to Media Matters by CCR, Fox account executive Erin Kelly told Owen Henkel, CCR's e-communications manager, that Fox News would not run the ad “with it being [narrator] Danny Glover's opinion that the Bush Administration is destroying the Constitution. If you have documentation that it is indeed being destroyed, we can look at that.” The ad, “Rescue the Constitution,” which is narrated by actor Danny Glover, can be viewed here.

The blog Think Progress has also noted O'Reilly's comments about Fox News' ad policy.

A December 7 Associated Press article reported that “Fox senior vice president for advertising, Paul Rittenberg, said the network asked the group to provide backup information from news accounts or legal scholars supporting Glover's claim that acts by the Bush administration threatened the Constitution.” The article added: " 'In this case, saying the president is destroying the Constitution frankly sounds like a claim that is fairly extreme,' Rittenberg said. 'Who else thinks this? Of course Danny Glover can say that, but does anyone else say that?' " The AP article did not quote anyone from Fox News saying that the ad was anti-American.

O'Reilly was discussing advertisements from the group Freedom's Watch, which NBC had refused to air. The same December 7 AP article reported that NBC “said it declined the ad, not because of its message, but because it invites viewers to go to Freedom's Watch's Web site, which advocates support for the war. NBC has a policy against airing controversial issue ads.” NBC subsequently decided to air the Freedom's Watch advertisement, as the AP reported on December 8.

During the discussion with Bradley A. Blakeman, president and CEO of Freedom's Watch, O'Reilly also asserted, “Our reporting on NBC indicates that they are, you know, certainly not supporting the U.S. military. That's for sure.” This is not the first time that O'Reilly has suggested that NBC does not support U.S. troops or the military, as Media Matters has documented here and here.

From the December 7 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: In addition to CNN and Fox News, Freedom's Watch ads will be placed in The Washington Post, The New York Times -- actually today we saw that on page A-19 -- and USA Today, among others. So, when you -- NBC rejected the ad, what did they tell you, Mr. Blakeman, about why they did it?

BLAKEMAN: Well, Bill, they said they liked the content, but we couldn't put our Web address because somehow that would be political.

In fact, our Web address is integral to the ad itself because it directs the American people to nonprofit sites, 20 of which, where they can go and thank the troops in their own way. We, in addition, Freedom's Watch, if they click on that will send a holiday card to the troops. So our Web ad is not political. We're a 501(c)4, a nonprofit under the tax law. And we must be bipartisan. And we are.

O'REILLY: But you are a conservative website that takes conservative positions. And I guess NBC is saying that if you're an ideological website of any kind, we're not going to accept your advertising. I don't know if that's historically what they've done, but I guess that's their position.

BLAKEMAN: Well, it's a position that's flawed because I think any viewer who saw the ad that you just played would come away with the fact that Freedom's Watch is doing nothing more than thanking those men and women who keep us safe and are in harm's way and who protect America.

O'REILLY: Have you -- are you aware of any ad that NBC did accept that had a website attached to it?

BLAKEMAN: I am aware of sites that -- that have had websites attached to it. Certainly the Web rules the day today. And it was -- it would be unusual.

O'REILLY: Can you point us to one? Or did you -- because we haven't researched this as thoroughly as we will, but can you point us to a --

BLAKEMAN: Well -

O'REILLY: Go ahead.

BLAKEMAN: Bill, when they rejected our first set of ads, we pointed out that there were issue ads that they did run. And that I'm sure that those ads contained websites. You know, they didn't give us this excuse the first time they refused to air our ads when we were trying to support General [David] Petraeus this fall.

O'REILLY: All right, so you wanted to take out an ad supporting General Petraeus and the surge after the MoveOn situation, I assume?

BLAKEMAN: That's correct.

O'REILLY: And they wouldn't take your ad and they said what?

BLAKEMAN: They said that they don't take political ads. And again, a fair reading of that ad comes away with the fact that we gave ordinary Americans a voice to tell the American people as to why the surge would -- should at least give the benefit of the doubt.

O'REILLY: Yes, but I understand why -- Fox News turns down blatantly anti-American ads. We just turned one down recently. I understand that. If -- but we have to do a little bit more research to find out if NBC has taken any website advertising that has a point of view. And then we'll report back next week. I think it's a fine ad, Mr. Blakeman.

BLAKEMAN: Thank you.

O'REILLY: I applaud what you did. Our reporting on NBC indicates that they are, you know, certainly not supporting the U.S. military. That's for sure. Thank you, Mr. Blakeman.