O'Reilly Smears HuffPo with His Standard Jack-Boot Ignorance of Free Speech - Wants Arianna Scolded in the Public Square

What a surprise. Bill O'Reilly thinks the Huffington Post and Arianna Huffington have "no problem with publishing hate speech." I guess blaspheming the DailyKos was getting old.

In his weekly website column which will appear across the country in newspapers, like Sunday in the L.A. Daily News oped section along with my weekly column, O'Reilly took Arianna and HuffPo to task for allowing questionable statements concerning Nancy Reagan's injury.

As of today, 193 comments were posted to the Reagan story. There were some that were in bad taste, and there were plenty who wrote in to admonish the negative posters. They too were allowed by "Arianna and HuffPo" to be posted. Just like the negative comments.

But the fact is, Bill, you don't even know if the person posting is a lefty who hates Nancy Reagan or a right wing poster trying make Huff Post look bad. But it doesn't matter who is commenting, they have a perfect right to. It's called free speech, Bill.

But Bill writes to say that "freedom of speech... is a canard." A duck, you hear. "Hate speech is hate speech, whether it's being spewed by some nut wearing a Nazi armband, or some gnome hunched over a keyboard. People like Arianna Huffington should be taken out to the village square and publicly scolded."

Beautiful, Bill. In one sentence you say this kind of free speech is the same as what Nazis spewed and in the next sentence you put on your jackboots and call for Nazi abuse. Should we burn a number into Arianna's arm too?

You can question the judgment of those who posted the distasteful comments, but if you're going to claim fair and balancedness, you better make sure you rip into both sides with the same energy.

I know you won't because you never have. You've always said that the Right's smears are minuscule as compared to the Left's. What, you've never listened to talk radio? You've never gone through the tons of right wing sites? You've never watched your show?

When you first ripped into DailyKos you admitted you had never even heard of FreeRepublic.com, one of the largest right wing blog sites on the Net. Some crack research staff.

At best you'll say, "the right does it too." But to cover that with equal enthusiasm with which you attack the Left? Never. You might throw out an example but the odds are somewhere in the 1000 to 1 territory that you'll rarely, if ever, do a story about the right... unless they're actual Nazis. Hmmm.

As you say to back up any point you throw out there... "everyone knows." As in "everyone knows" you are anything but even handed.

Right wing sites are just as likely to have a poster place a repugnant remark as the Left.

What about mentioning the comment by Rounder99 that was in the same list of Nancy Reagan comments?

"You sick fuck liberal wing nuts always shame yourselves when someone is in crisis. I hope you all die screaming. ..you sick fuck you wouldn't know class if it bit you on the ass, class you mean like the most cheated on former 1st lady. Class you mean like president blow job, democrats can't have class it comes with the D tag"

Splendid.

Did a far left loon write that? Or was it just a loon? Fact is, we don't know. Either do you. But just like the comments of those who demeaned Reagan and her health problems, it's disgusting so why didn't you write about that one or the plenty others you can find on right wing sites? Need help? It won't take a crack research staff to find them. I mean, if you wanted them to.

How about the many like Mnmommy's Wishing her a speedy recovery? Or Cathexis's: For my part, Ms Reagan has my sympathies and I wish her a speedy recovery -- which is how I would feel for anyone who had suffered such a setback.
Did Bill see fit to mention those comments? Nah. Wouldn't suit his agenda.

But Bill, you ole dog, you saved the best for last...

"In order for a country to be truly free, people must be responsible and fair-minded. Right now, I believe the Internet is taking us in the opposite direction. And there are few voices speaking up against it."

Wrong again, Bill! Who's trying to take us in the wrong direction?

Being truly free means that we must allow for irresponsible and unfair speech. For if not, how would the Factor ever stay on the air?

Steve Young is the author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" (www.greatfailure.com) and his weekly column truly does end up every Sunday in the same LA Daily News OPEDs as Bill's.

Comments

[jood42]

Hornbeck, Mackris, Malmedy.

Repeat.

[surfcitysteven]

Saying bad things about a former first lady? How about threatening a lynching party for a future one?

[JimReed]

"Being truly free means that we must allow for irresponsible and unfair speech. For if not, how would the Factor ever stay on the air?"

Steve,
That might be true, but you don't have to say it. The right benefits from the converstation decaying into hate speech, and it normally does on both sides, but not everyone on the left HAS to follow. There is the possibility on the left of fighting the battle through just a respectful recounting of facts without getting into any of the garbage. The right has taken a record national surplus and turned it into a record defecit, turned the most respected nation into one of the most hated, and rightly so, and filled the world with enemies who we must struggle to kill faster than they can recruit more to hate us for our killing, and everyone knows we are doing this for greed.

Meanwhile, Bush has trashed Christianity. We can see the results here every day on huffingtonpost. Christianity is lost and they don't know how to back down. The few Christians who see the problem come here and try to tell us not all of Christianity is that bad, rather than going to their churches to witness to their fellow Christians.

The right, both fiscal and social conservatives, are in a mess and the best they can hope for is a national conversation that just degrades to a stalemate of hatreds. They don't want anyone to give a rational accounting of where we stand today. Don't fall for their tricks. Just be respectful and tell them what they need to hear.

[Silpat]

O'Reilly labels any expression or opinion that he disagrees with as "hate speech". I may not always agree with the nuts on HuffPost, but I respect their right to responsibly express their opinions. I say "responsibly" because I don't think anyone should be allowed to make veiled threats or use the power of suggestion to incite violence against people, as O'Reilly did with Mrs Obama.

[sjpeyote]

Now O'Reilly has Tony Snow on his radio show,
and his sidekick Dennis Miller has a new game show on NBC called Amnesia, don't know if it is any good, will never watch it. I don't watch game shows to begin with, but I would never support any of these people by watching or listening to them. Everyone needs to send NBC an email telling them of your disappointment in them hiring an O'Reilly mouthpiece which means NBC condones the disinformation they spew, NBC needs to get rid of Dennis Miller to send a message to all of these people who align themselves with O'Reilly.

[CraigR]

Great post, Steve. I rarely can stand to even watch O'Falafel any more. One of the many reasons is in fact how unfair and unbalanced he is re: the fringes on the left and right. According to O'Blotchy, there are zillions of far left liberal nitwit pinheads but only two or three far right bloggers.

[SandWitch]

"Being truly free means that we must allow for irresponsible and unfair speech. For if not, how would the Factor ever stay on the air?"

Indeed, how would O'Reilly stay on the air?

Maybe he's not destined to stay on the air. Rumors keep flying that his radio days are numbered. The "lyn'h" remark was deliberate, and his repeating it the following day was to keep it alive.

Bad press is better than no press at all if it keeps him on the air, even if it eminates from KO or SY.

[dbusch72]

Bill O is a right-wing crazy. More people are think of him this way every day.

[dbusch72]

Bill O is a right-wing crazy. More people are think of him this way every day.

[protagonia]

Bill O should not be fired for this gaffe.

Leave him in the light where we can see and hear him. Leave him lit for now, while he implodes.

Let America see the mask slip.

Also, then the neo's would have the self imposed right to get Keith off for speaking his mind at all.

It will escalate in a poor manner, you can be assured.

[MzTexas]

I guess his remarks regarding lynching Michelle Obama wouldn't qualify, huh? That's REAL, actionable hate speech.

[sarge]

Please, MzTexas, be fair. He said he wouldn't "go on a lynching party" unless he had evidence of something heinous, like discontent.

[surfcitysteven]

I think that if anyone says he might be on a lynching party against a candidates wife who happens to be black, and then horror of horrors, his stupid comments get put on the INTERNET!, that person should be arrested and sent to a chain gang in Alabama.

[Mickeleh]

This from the guy who wouldn't ""I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts..."

Imus got fired, Shuster got suspended, and O'Reilly still has a job?

[sarge]

Isn't it curious that Arianna's punishment is "public scolding", where Michelle Obama's punishment is a "lynching party" (only if there is evidence, mind you!).

[rovezaleeker]

"Where are the falafels? Where's my loofah? Somebody's gonna hang for this!"

[LeftRight]

Okay, first the people who wrote stuff like that really need to go back to kindergarten and learn about how to deal with other people. Second, Billo really needs to stop trying to claim that he's balanced in any way shape or form. Third, to Mrs. Reagan, I hope that you get better soon. and finally Fourth, To all those who wished Mrs. Reagan well, Good on ya!