Two days before the debate between FOX News Channel host and radio host Bill O'Reilly and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman had aired on CNBC's Tim Russert, O'Reilly gave his radio audience a preview on the August 5 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, The Radio Factor. O'Reilly said Krugman's use of Media Matters for America's research was “like me writing a historical dissertation on Chinese history and using Mao Zedong's point of view."

During the August 7 CNBC debate, O'Reilly resumed his criticism of Krugman -- this time in person -- for using MMFA research and compared MMFA to Fidel Castro and to the Ku Klux Klan.

On August 3, Krugman had written the following in his New York Times column, which was titled "Reading the Script": “A message to my fellow journalists: check out media watch sites like campaigndesk.org, mediamatters.org and dailyhowler.com."