Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Bill O'Reilly's Blogger Witch-hunt

O'Reilly, Fox, TerkelMaking fun of Bill O'Reilly on a blog might be a bad idea, unless you enjoy being stalked by his producers. I think it's safe to say the O'Reilly Factor won't be hunting me down, but they recently attacked a blogger over at Think Progress. (Image: Huffington Post) Earlier today, The Huffington Post reported on a confrontation between between a O'Reilly Factor reporter and a blogger. Bill O'Reilly's henchmen followed a Think Progress blogger around on her vacation following comments she posted on the blog.

Basically what happened was the blogger pointed out the irony of Bill O'Reilly speaking for a group that helps rape victims because he has placed blame on raped women on his show before. The following comments, via The Huffington Post, were said by O'Reilly on the subject:

"Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She's walking by herself on the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now she's out of her mind, drunk."


Here's a video of O'Reilly's response to the blooger, Amanda Terkel, during a recent show:



So let's summarize that clip; he says:
  • The blogger is evil
  • Attacking him was aimed at hurting the rape foundation
  • NBC is a lie-filled news broadcast
  • NBC controls the Blogosphere
  • He doesn't defend his statements, only that they were 3 years ago
This is so filled with hypocrisy it's beyond belief. This is FOX! What more? O'Reilly dispatched a producer to stalk a female blogger who questioned him on rape. The producer asks leading, weird questions.

If this distortion wasn't enough, he insists NBC is the heart of all evil. I don't know what to think about this conspiracy theory, but it's really over the top. O'Reilly should have owned up for his comments, played something to prove his comments were out of context, or offered some defense. But he didn't. Maybe that's because there is no defense for such comments as the one I posted earlier.

So why do you guys think O'Reilly targeted a small blogger and not the hosts at MSNBC or other major outlets reporting this? Maybe because he can't bully them on vacations and get away with it.