On June 22, FOX New Channel host Bill O'Reilly denied that he compared comedian and radio host Al Franken to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels and told Center for American Progress (CAP) CEO John Podesta, “You ... misstated what I said,” when Podesta confronted O'Reilly with his own remark.

On June 23, CAP urged visitors to its website: “E-mail Bill O'Reilly at oreilly@foxnews.com and tell him to correct the record on his show tonight lest he destroy the sanctity of the 'No Spin Zone.'"

As Media Matters for America previously reported, O'Reilly challenged Podesta on June 4: “Have I told any lies, sir? Why don't you [Podesta] come right on this program [The O'Reilly Factor] and produce some proof of that? And if you don't, you're a coward and a sleazy propagandist who deserves to be scorned.”

From the June 22 edition of FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: Can you give me one example of where I smeared someone?

PODESTA: How about referring to Al Franken as Josef Goebbels?

O'REILLY: I did not refer to him as Josef Goebbels. That was Michael Moore.

PODESTA: Come on, you do this --

O'REILLY: No, look, I do not. I asked you for one example of when I smeared someone. You just misstated what I said. I said that Michael Moore is a propagandist just as Josef Goebbels is a propagandist.

But as Media Matters for America reported on June 14, O'Reilly compared both Franken and Moore to Goebbels on the June 10 edition of O'Reilly's nationally syndicated radio program, The Radio Factor:

O'REILLY: Joseph Goebbels was the Minister of Propaganda for the Nazi regime and whose very famous quote was, “If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.” All right? “If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.”

And that's what Stuart Smalley [O'Reilly regularly refers to Franken as Stuart Smalley, a character Franken created on Saturday Night Live], and Michael Moore and all of these guys do. They just run around.