Bill O'Reilly is really riled over Media Matters. The Fox News host has called the watchdog media group "far-left" "paid assassins," "smear merchants," and "character assassins." He has compared Media Matters to Klansmen, Maoists, and Nazis. O'Reilly said Media Matters employees are "vile, despicable ankle-biters" who "listen to every word" of his program and then use his words "out of context" and "feeds stuff to the mainstream media to discredit me." O'Reilly even went so far as to proclaim that the "despicable weasels" at Media Matters are "the most vile, despicable human beings in the country." Those are very serious allegations that O'Reilly makes regarding Media Matters, a group that prides itself on objectivity and factuality as opposed to name calling and posturing.
In response, last December, the CEO of Media Matters, David Brock, wrote O'Reilly and reiterated his willingness to appear on Fox to address the allegations. Yet despite that and several other offers by the folks at Media Matters, O'Reilly continues to attack them but will not accept their repeated offers to respond live on television to his accusations.
Media Matter's Brock is the author of four political books, including "The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy." Brock wrote O'Reilly that O'Reilly is a coward by the definition O'Reilly had once offered his viewers: "If you attack someone publicly, as these men did to me, you have an obligation to face the person you are smearing. If you don't, you are a coward."
Which one is it? Is O'Reilly a coward or are the folks at Media Matters the most vile weasels in America? Brock wrote that if O'Reilly continues to refuse to face Media Matters then it proves not only is the pugnacious O'Reilly a coward but also a hypocrite. O'Reilly needs to follow his own advice given on 1/5/04:
"If you attack someone publicly, as these men did to me, you have an obligation to face the person you are smearing. If you don't, you are a coward. Wise up, sir."
So, given O'Reilly feels this way, and since he has been making strong - some might say libelous and slanderous - allegations about Media Matters, you would think that he would want the opportunity to have the ankle-biting weasels on his show in order to expose them as the vile, opinionated and undisciplined demagogues that he alleges they are. Do as I'm going to do and drop brother Bill a friendly email - not anything meanspirited or hateful, please - telling him how much you would enjoy watching a fair and rational debate between him and his critics at Media Matters. I'll let you know what I hear and you do the same.
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oreilly@foxnews.com
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href="http://technorati.com/tag/Bill+O%27Reilly">Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, Media Matters, David Brock
