On his Fox News show tonight, Bill O'Reilly criticized NBC's David Gregory for wasting “valuable airtime” during the February 13 edition of Meet The Press by pushing Boehner on his refusal to condemn those who claim Obama is Muslim. O'Reilly said of Gregory: “We've got a country that's just about bankrupt. We may be selling furniture on Capitol Hill pretty soon. And he's back to the birth certificate Muslim stuff.” According to O'Reilly, the issue is settled and stupid, and he can't figure out why NBC would be talking about it.

O'Reilly suggested that Gregory brought up the issue out of nowhere. But O'Reilly's video of the exchange cropped out the part showing that Gregory was talking about this issue because a Frank Luntz focus group broadcast on Fox News the week before showed that a large portion of the participants said they believed Obama is a Muslim.

Furthermore, Bill O'Reilly fails to note the role Fox News itself has played a hand in both originating and bolstering misinformation about Obama's religious faith and his birth certificate. In 2009, Ann Coulter fed Bill O'Reilly's audience the myth that Obama attended madrassas. The same myth had been pushed by Fox and Friends in 2007. Fox's primetime news program Special Report also promoted questions about Obama's links to Islam.

In addition, the Fox News website Fox Nation repeatedly promoted birther stories using a picture of Obama in Somali clothing. And Sean Hannity said as recently as January 27: “I don't have a problem with people asking to see the birth certificate.”