During the “Talking Points Memo” segment of the June 19 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, responding to the coverage by network newscasts of the deaths of seven Afghan children in a recent air strike in eastern Afghanistan, host Bill O'Reilly said “last night, all three network newscasts reported seven Afghan children were killed in fighting between the Taliban and U.S. forces. ABC News spent 15 seconds on the story, just told you about it. CBS News, 10 seconds. But NBC News gave it a full two minutes.” O'Reilly continued: “Dead Afghan kids killed in an American air strike, NBC News is jazzed. But why? You make the call.” He later asserted that “we don't censor the news on The Factor; we tell you the truth about Iraq and everywhere else. But we don't help the terrorists either, and that separates us from some in the anti-war press.”

Also, remarking on a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism -- which found that Fox News spent far less time covering the conflict than CNN and MSNBC -- O'Reilly said: “The liberal press has made a big deal about the fact that Fox News devotes less time to Iraq than our competitors at CNN and MSNBC. The question is what kind of coverage are you getting from them and others who show carnage without context.” O'Reilly continued: “Again, 'Talking Points' asserts that showing pictures of terrorist activity, purely for the visual, helps the terrorists and doesn't advance the Iraq story.” He later concluded: “But we don't help the terrorists either, and that separates us from some in the anti-war press.”

A week before, on the June 12 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, O'Reilly also attacked NBC and stated: “This is ridiculous. NBC News has imploded. I was talking to an NBC News pretty high up guy yesterday, and he admits it. I'm not gonna tell you who it was, but he says, 'It's chaos.' ” O'Reilly continued: “I mean, they have no standards at all over there. Everything has collapsed.” O'Reilly's assertion came after he aired a clip of NBC chief foreign correspondent Andrea Mitchell's statement during the June 12 edition of NBC's Today that “immigration reform is a critical test” for “this lame duck president.” He asserted: “You can't be saying 'lame duck president.' Even if you think it, you don't say it if you're a reporter.” (O'Reilly seems to have overlooked examples of Fox News' anchors and reporters referring to President Bush and former President Bill Clinton as lame ducks. For instance, during the January 1 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News White House correspondent Wendell Goler said of Bush: “As a lame duck, he can afford to ask the Democrats for the immigration reforms that Republicans rejected, perhaps in exchange for Social Security reforms most Democrats say are too much like privatization.”)

O'Reilly's attacks on Mitchell and NBC are O'Reilly's latest salvos in an ongoing feud between Fox News and NBC/MSNBC, a conflict Media Matters for America has extensively documented (here, here, here, and here). Examples include:

• During the June 12 broadcast of O'Reilly's radio show, the same edition during which he attacked Mitchell, O'Reilly asserted, responding to the PEJ study: “In my opinion, CNN and especially MSNBC delight in showing Iraqi violence because they want Americans to think badly of President Bush. And that strategy has succeeded.”

• On the March 8 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly complained that, in his coverage of the Iraq war, NBC News Middle East correspondent Richard Engel didn't report that violence had decreased in Baghdad, saying: "[W]hat Richard Engel and [Nightly News anchor] Brian Williams did not report...is that violence has dropped about 80 percent in Baghdad singe the surge, according to the army." In fact, on the March 5 edition of Nightly News, Engle did report the Army's claim that “in the past few weeks, violence in the Sadr City area [of Baghdad] is way down. In December, there were 254 murders, 440 attacks. In February, just 19 murders, 91 total attacks.”

From the June 19 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight.

Surging in Iraq, that's the subject of this evening's “Talking Points Memo.” American troops are aggressively seeking out terrorists in Iraq right now. It is impossible to know how successful the operation is at this point, but I hope -- I hope -- our forces are successful. I want the USA to stabilize that country and deal a huge blow to terrorism worldwide. But not everybody in the media feels that way.

A good outcome in Iraq might be impossible, however, because many Iraqis are not helping coalition forces, and the USA can't pacify Iraq without the majority of Iraqis on our side, which they are not. So if the Iraqis don't wise up soon, U.S. forces will pull back. So now you're up to date on Iraq, and I didn't have to show you any terror bombings to make my points.

But last night, all three network newscasts reported seven Afghan children were killed in fighting between the Taliban and U.S. forces. ABC News spent 15 seconds on the story, just told you about it. CBS News, 10 seconds. But NBC News gave it a full two minutes. Dead Afghan kids killed in an American air strike, NBC News is jazzed. But why? You make the call.

The liberal press has made a big deal out of the fact that Fox News devotes less time to Iraq than our competitors at CNN and MSNBC. The question is, what kind of coverage are you getting from them and others who show carnage without context?

Again, “Talking Points” asserts that showing pictures of terrorist activity, purely for the visual, helps the terrorists and doesn't advance the Iraq story. But some don't agree, including [Washington Post media writer and CNN Reliable Sources host] Howard Kurtz.

KURTZ (video clip): It's certainly hard for me to believe the argument during World War II that we shouldn't cover every bombing in London because that's what the Germans want.

O'REILLY: Ooh, interesting. Well, what about President [Franklin D.] Roosevelt setting up the Office of War Infromation in 1942, which censored among other things the results of enemy action and American casualty lists? Roosevelt did that to prevent the erosion of morale here in America.

Now, we don't censor the news on The Factor; we tell you the truth about what's happening in Iraq and everywhere else. But we don't help the terrorists either, and that separates us from some in the anti-war press. And that's the “Memo.”

From the June 12 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: All right, we got two sound bites I want to play you. We hit Andrea Mitchell pretty hard last night on the TV side, saying, look, she's an NBC hard news reporter and chief foreign correspondent, and she's running around saying all kinds of things that are pro-Democrat/anti-Republican. Now, if she's a commentator, fine, but if she's a reporter, she's not supposed to do that, and then she did it again. Roll the tape.

MITCHELL (audio clip): The president's last-ditch effort today to save immigration reform is a critical test of whether this lame duck president can still pass a major domestic priority for his administration.

O'REILLY: “This lame duck president”? I mean, come on. This is ridiculous. NBC News has imploded. I was talking to an NBC News pretty high-up guy yesterday, and he admits it. I'm not gonna tell you who it was, but he says, “It's chaos.” I mean, they have no standards at all over there. Everything has collapsed. You can't be saying “lame duck president.” Even if you think it, you don't say it if you're a reporter.

From the January 1 edition Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

GOLER: Meanwhile, Mr. Bush will have to work with a Democratic Congress determined to use its power of oversight and to question his decisions. Analysts note Iraq isn't the only foreign policy problem.

KURT CAMPBELL (Center for Strategic and International Studies): Iran, clearly emboldened and empowered and on the road to trying to create nuclear weapons, very dangerous. A situation in Lebanon and between Israelis and Palestinians, all reaching the boiling point.

GOLER: Not to mention North Korea with a tested nuclear weapon. Domestically, the president thinks he can compromise with Democrats on a hike in the minimum wage if they extend some of his tax cuts. As a lame duck, he can afford to ask the Democrats for the immigration reforms that Republicans rejected, perhaps in exchange for Social Security reforms most Democrats say are too much like privatization.