More than two months after FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor denied a request by Media Matters for America President and CEO David Brock to appear on The Factor to discuss host Bill O'Reilly's dishonest attacks on financier and philanthropist George Soros, O'Reilly expressed dismay that many critics of O'Reilly and of FOX News Channel were unwilling to appear on The Factor to defend their criticisms. “We have called and called and called,” he said. Arguing that “defamatory charges” against FOX News Channel “must be confronted,” O'Reilly sneered, “These people are hiding.”

From the August 5 edition of FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: In addition to The New York Times, the Daytona Beach News-Journal calls the FOX News Channel “closer to propaganda or parody than news.” We called them up. These people are hiding.

A columnist in The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, accuses me of being unfair to France of all places. A writer in the Dallas Morning News, Chris Vognar, outright lies about my interview with the son of a 9-11 victim. And The Miami Herald printed a column by Edward Wasserman, a professor of journalism, that is blatantly dishonest.

None of the above people would defend their work on this program. We have called and called and called.

Brock's request to appear on O'Reilly still stands.