O'Reilly's “liberal radio talk-show host” guest lauded Bush, bashed Kerry

Written by Gabe Wildau

Published

Here's how FOX News Channel host Bill O'Reilly introduced a guest on the October 21 edition of The O'Reilly Factor: “Joining us now from Seattle is liberal radio talk-show host Mike Siegel, the author of the book Power Talk! [The Influence of Talk Radio]."

Here are some of the statements the “liberal” Mike Siegel made during his Factor interview, in which he and O'Reilly discussed the political views of Siegel's radio audience and the Kerry-Edwards '04 campaign's recent criticism of Vice President Dick Cheney's decision to receive a flu vaccination in spite of the nationwide shortage of vaccines:

SIEGEL: I've become very disenchanted with the Democratic Party for the very reason that they've walked away from their roots, which goes back, in my case, to [former President] John [F.] Kennedy and those years. I think he'd be a conservative today. I've said that before on your program. And this [criticizing Cheney] is typical of what they're doing. ... I guess the Kerry campaign wants to find anything it can, and I think it's a matter of desperation on their part.

[...]

[F]rankly, people are amazed at the level to which the Kerry campaign has gone with this. It's demeaning. They find it unbecoming a presidential campaign. ... They think this is desperation. They're very -- really upset about it, and they think it goes to the character of the campaign and, therefore, to the character of the candidate, [Senator] John Kerry.

[...]

They're [Siegel's radio audience] very strongly supportive of the president [George W. Bush] about what he did in Iraq.

O'REILLY: When you take calls, do you get a lot of balance of calls?

[...]

SIEGEL: I get a lot of support for the president. We get people calling in support of John Kerry, and those people, of course, we challenge them. I challenge some of the things they're saying about John Kerry. I find it disheartening that John Kerry has been on all sides of issues. You've covered that on TV and radio, and people are beginning to realize that. And my audience, quite frankly, Bill, has been very supportive of the president, and we've gotten calls -- and when I get calls from people who are not supportive of the president.

Siegel, who O'Reilly described as a “liberal,” was a columnist for the right-wing website NewsMax.com from 1999-2002. He expressed similarly pro-Bush views during an appearance on the September 22, 2004, edition of The O'Reilly Factor:

SIEGEL: I had a conversation this morning with a guy who is a liberal, is voting for Kerry, and thinks that the Texas Air National Guard story about George W. Bush is very important, so we debated that.

[...]

Today, the Democratic Party has moved so far to the left, the Democratic Leadership Council is all that's left of the mainstream. John Kennedy would be outed from the Democratic Party, Bill.

Siegel's book, Power Talk! The Influence of Talk Radio, is a memoir in which Siegel describes how the span of his career has encompassed the transformation of talk radio into a potent force in public discourse.