O'Reilly on NewsMax.com: “a good website ... for conservative listeners”

Written by Nicole Casta

Published

On the November 11 edition of The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, host Bill O'Reilly decried the impact that false information on the Internet had on the presidential election. In addition to touting his own website, he promoted NewsMax.com, which he described as “a good website, I think, for conservative listeners.” O'Reilly is a NewsMax.com-sponsored columnist; his column is published in NewsMax Magazine.

Media Matters for America has documented numerous examples of misinformation published on this “good website ... for conservative listeners”:

  • On October 14, NewsMax.com wrongly asserted that during the October 13 presidential debate, Senator John Kerry “outed” Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter as a lesbian.
  • On October 4, subscribers to NewsMax.com's email-only “Insider Report” received an article that baselessly claimed: “Democrats and their supporters may be laying the groundwork for a massive effort to 'steal' the election come Election Day.”
  • On August 13, NewsMax.com falsely claimed that as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, “Kerry authored an executive order that said the state of Massachusetts would refuse to take part in any civil defense efforts in response to a nuclear attack on America.”
  • On July 7, NewsMax.com helped the Republican National Committee spread an unsourced anecdote that smeared Senator John Edwards (D-NC) as inexperienced. The NewsMax.com article claimed that “Edwards has so little foreign policy experience that he reportedly couldn't identify the name Yitzhak Rabin as belonging to the late Israeli prime minister.” NewsMax.com credited radio host Rush Limbaugh with “unearth[ing]” this report.
  • On May 31, NewsMax.com published the unfounded rumor that during Memorial Day ceremonies at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Kerry “flipped off” Ted Sampley, a Vietnam veteran and leader of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry. Limbaugh spread this rumor on June 1 and The Washington Times reported it on June 2.
  • On October 24, NewsMax.com falsely claimed that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) had registered illegal alien and accused terrorist Nuradin Abdi to vote in Ohio.
  • On September 15, NewsMax.com distorted the words of Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, stating that she called her critics “scumbags.”

In 1998, NewsMax.com published an article claiming that then-President Bill Clinton had a “secret son” with a Little Rock, Arkansas, prostitute. Other NewsMax.com articles on Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton include: "Arkansas' Murderous Ways," which alleged that Bill Clinton is the “product of an Arkansas political machine that has long been corrupt and tied to organized crime”; "Clinton-Connected Bribes, Break-ins, Beatings, Death Threats"; and "[Clinton Commerce Secretary] Ron Brown's Death: 'Blunt Force' ... or Bullet?"