On the December 8 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly again attacked the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), calling the organization “grossly irresponsible” and accusing it of “going out of its way to help Al Qaeda” and “aiding and abetting the enemy.” Media Matters for America has documented several of O'Reilly's previous attacks on the ACLU (here, here, here, here, here, and here). When O'Reilly asked Fox News contributor and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) if he agreed with his characterization of the ACLU, Gingrich replied, “Yes,” and asserted that “the ACLU has been taken over by a group of people whose vision of America is so weird and so contrary to the overwhelming values of over 95 percent of the American people.” Gingrich added, "[I]t's almost as though they were into destruction for its own sake and weakening and undermining America for its own sake." He also labeled the ACLU “a consistently destructive organization that is opposed to and undermines the values of most Americans, and takes positions that are consistently weakening the security of the United States.”

O'Reilly and Gingrich's comments came during a segment that also focused on whether ABC News should have reported the locations of secret CIA detention facilities in Poland and Romania.

From the December 8 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: All right, and that brings us to the other group. And you know, certainly ABC News is a responsible organization. They made a decision. And the folks can decide for themselves whether -- who they agree with. The ACLU, I think, is a grossly irresponsible, irresponsible organization that is going out of its way to help Al Qaeda, that I don't think ABC News is in that category at all. I mean, I think they're doing what they think is best for the country. The ACLU is doing what they think is best for the country they envision, not the country we have now, but certainly is aiding and abetting the enemy. Do you agree?

GINGRICH: Yes. I think the ACLU has been taken over by a group of people whose vision of America is so weird and so contrary to the overwhelming values of over 95 percent of the American people. And they are so aggressive in pushing some of the most extreme cases that one has to wonder what their underlying core values are. I mean, it's almost as though they were into destruction for its own sake and weakening and undermining America for its own sake. And certainly in a free society, you have to put up with a certain amount of this kind of behavior. But I do think there's a point to which it's legitimate to say that the ACLU is a consistently destructive organization that is opposed to and undermines the values of most Americans, and takes positions that are consistently weakening the security of the United States.