Recalling the controversy surrounding his December 3, 2004, comment that a Jewish caller who objected to “Christmas going into schools” should “go to Israel” if he is “really offended,” Fox News host Bill O'Reilly once again used his radio show to attack Media Matters for America and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) national director Abraham H. Foxman. On the August 23 broadcast of The Radio Factor, O'Reilly accused Media Matters, which first documented his December comments, of being “a left-wing website [that] couldn't care less about, you know, Israel or the Christians, but ... wanted to get me.” O'Reilly referred to the ADL, which had condemned O'Reilly's “go to Israel” comment, as a “pressure group.” He then stated, “I know the evil that the pressure groups will resort to.” He added that Foxman “played right into them [Media Matters], you know, because he wanted publicity.”
This is not the first time O'Reilly has attacked Media Matters for documenting his “go to Israel” comment. On his December 9, 2004, radio show, O'Reilly complained: “The left-wing websites who are responsible for all of this kind of stuff, and the journalists in the newspapers who print it without any context -- are the worst element -- non-criminal element in the country. The worst. All right? They undermine freedom of speech. They undermine all fair play. They are despicable, vile human beings -- ankle biters.” On the same show, O'Reilly responded to Foxman's criticisms by calling the ADL “an extremist group that finds offense in pretty much everything.” O'Reilly also said that “Foxman is just a nut.”
On his December 14, 2004, radio show, O'Reilly falsely accused Media Matters of taking his “go to Israel” comment out of context. He then called Media Matters “despicable weasels” and warned that American Jewish groups -- including the ADL, which he referred to as “a militant organization” -- were being used, apparently by Media Matters.
From the August 23 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
O'REILLY: Well, sure. I mean, you may remember some -- in fact, our listeners were talking last Christmas about the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] trying to knock out the Christian symbols all over the country, and I made an analogy with a caller from Los Angeles who said, “Well, look, I don't want to see Christmas symbols.” The person called up and said, “I don't want to see them.” And I said, “Look, sir, if you don't want to see Christian symbols, then you've got to go to someplace like Israel or China -- someplace like that, where they just don't have them.” Now, a left-wing website then contacted a far -- you know, a Jewish group. I don't know how to describe it, but it's a pressure group -- and said “Look, O'Reilly is being anti-Semitic here. Says you have to go back to Israel.” You remember all that.
E.D. HILL (co-host): Yeah, I do.
O'REILLY: OK.
HILL: It was crazy.
O'REILLY: Now, they tried as hard as they could try to make it a national issue. And they got Abraham Foxman. They got all of that. And we had the tape on the website. We played it ad infinitum for everybody to hear what I said. And -- but they tried really, really hard to sink me on radio with that. So I know the evil that the pressure groups will resort to. I understand it. Now, the left-wing website, they couldn't care less about, you know, Israel or the Christian symbols, but they wanted to get me. And they felt that this was a way to do it, and Foxman played right into them, you know, because he wanted publicity. And so, it's a dangerous, dangerous game, which is why we're having this discussion today. And I want to know what you think about it.