On the January 22 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly “predict[ed]” that "[i]f [Sen. Barack] Obama [D-IL] is going to make a serious run for [the presidency] and he's got Soros money behind him, it's going to get nasty." O'Reilly frequently attacks philanthropist George Soros, who recently contributed $2,100 to Obama. Fox News analyst Kirsten Powers then mused about whether Obama will be able to anonymously attack Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), a fellow presidential hopeful, or whether Obama will have to “take the hit for it.” O'Reilly responded that Obama will not “take the hit for it” because such attacks will be conducted by “Soros-funded smear sites,” which “don't operate that way. They just go after you. And you know that. You know what they do.”
O'Reilly has often referred to Media Matters for America as a “smear site” (including here, here, and here).
From the January 22 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: All right. So, this is what I can't predict. If Obama is going to make a serious run for it and he's got Soros money behind him, it's going to get pretty vicious. If history follows itself. And, you know, they're going to go after her. That's going to damage her in the major run, will it not?
POWERS: Well, I don't think -- it's pretty dangerous to get vicious in a primary, in a Democratic primary. It doesn't mean that it's not going to happen.
O'REILLY: Look, [Former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry] McAuliffe pointed out the [George W.] Bush-[John] McCain thing [in the 2000 Republican presidential primary in South Carolina].
POWERS: I know, we just heard Terry say that it was going to happen. We just heard it. But you know, if it's -- the question is who -- whether or not you can do it without actually having it come back to you. If you can do it anonymously, or if Obama has to take the hit for it, that's going to hurt his image. Because --
O'REILLY: He's not gonna have to take the hit for it because --
POWERS: -- you know what? Everybody likes him. They think he's a nice guy. And --
O'REILLY: I know that. But he won't have to take the hit for it, because the Soros-funded smear sites don't operate that way. They just go after you. And you know that. You know what they do. And if they crank up to go after Hillary Clinton, that's going to get nasty.
POWERS: Well, I'm just expecting -- I agree with what Terry said earlier. I'm expecting Hillary to be attacked constantly. And it's not just going to come from other --
O'REILLY: Even in the Democratic primaries.
POWERS: Well, I think, in the Democratic primaries. But she's going to get it from -- you know, the Republicans are still going to be attacking her because they see her as a major threat, you know, if she gets through the primaries.
O'REILLY: But that's a given.
POWERS: And they will be attacking her. And I think it's going to be ugly. You know, she really -- she brings out the worst in a lot of people.