O'Reilly compares Kos to Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan
Last night, talk show host and noted crank Bill O'Reilly likened blogger Markos Moulitsas to David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and felon:
And Newsweek magazine, by the way, has legitimized [Moulitsas] by giving him a columnist position. I talked to the editor by email, and I said I can’t believe that you’re — that’s like hiring David Duke. Again, I use Duke too much, but I have to — the level of hatred coming out of that website is unprecedented. Isn’t it?
This is the second time in as many years that O'Reilly has compared the popular liberal blogger to David Duke.
1) You guys shouldn't obsess about Fox and O'Reilly so much. Sometimes I think that all of their viewers are liberals, as they talk about Fox 24/7
2) I wouldn't compare Markos Moulitsas to the grand poobah of the Klan. He's a get-a-life political guy whio come a dime a dozen. I don't find his site particularly interesting. Its the usual "Republicans are the devil, porgressives are so wonderful" bla bla bla.
Posted by: The Phantom | May 16, 2008 at 09:10 AM
again
Far more anger and bias in one minute of Keith Olbermann than in a year of O'Reilly and Hannity or whatever they are.
The main criticism to be made about Fox is not "bias" --those who make that charge are blind to lefty biases in virtually all other media--its that Fox does not cover the news, esp international news.
Posted by: The Phantom | May 16, 2008 at 09:20 AM
C'mon, Phantom. Can't you summon a little outrage when Bill O'Reilly compares a mild mannered website builder to a racial-motivated terrorist?
I'd say that not covering the news is a lethal bias is a lethal bias for an outfit that calls itself "Fox News."
Posted by: Lindsay Beyerstein | May 16, 2008 at 09:53 AM
It's not a bias that they focus on missing blondes in Aruba stories--its just delivering a product that's no good (other than some of their weekend opinion shows, which are good )
By the way, the US version of CNN doesn't report the news much either. I recommend that anyone here tries to access BBC World, which sets the standard. CNN International is better than the US version of CNN, but is not so widely available in the US.
The Duke reference is bullshit, but Moulitsas is a little creep who adds no value to the floundering Newsweek. And again, if you want a weekly newsmagazine of quality , you don't go to Time or Newsweek, you go to the Economist.
Posted by: The Phantom | May 16, 2008 at 10:01 AM
But what about poor David Duke...he is known as the markos moulitsos of the right!
Posted by: madmatt | May 16, 2008 at 10:08 AM
Or the Rev. Wright of the right?
Posted by: The Phantom | May 16, 2008 at 10:09 AM
Bill O'Reilly is too stupid to distinguish between hating someone (such as a Republican politician or political appointee) for his behavior, as opposed to hating someone for his ethnicity.
Or Bill O'Reilly is a fraud who pretends he's too stupid to make that distinction.
Posted by: Eric Jaffa | May 16, 2008 at 10:41 AM
O'Reilly is like a cranky guy at a bar. And I don't subscribe to satellite to listen to people like that.
Posted by: The Phantom | May 16, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Bill O'Reilly is the #1 cable news host in the US in terms of ratings.
That makes him worthy of coverage on a political blog.
Posted by: Eric Jaffa | May 16, 2008 at 11:02 AM
If the liberals/progressives stopped watching him, his ratings would plummet. I bet they're his best demographic.
Posted by: The Phantom | May 16, 2008 at 11:08 AM
And why no comment on the Keith Olbermann train wreck that goes on every night?
Posted by: The Phantom | May 16, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Phantom - you shouldn't obsess about LB and us, and our opinion so much.
Posted by: mudkitty | May 16, 2008 at 11:34 AM
mudkitty
I only obsess about you
Posted by: The Phantom | May 16, 2008 at 11:36 AM
I only obsess about you
Strangers in the nite, exchanging glances...
Posted by: Count Zero | May 16, 2008 at 04:58 PM
Liberals dominate the media....this has been announced by Rush Limbaugh. And Thomas Sowell. And Ann Coulter. And Rich Lowry. Bill O'Reilly. And Robert Novak. And George Will.
And John Gibson. And Michelle Malkin. And David Brooks. And Tony Snow. And Tony Blankely. And Fred Barnes. And Britt Hume. And Larry Kudlow. And Sean Hannity. And David Horowitz. And William Kristol. And Hugh Hewitt. And William Buckley.
And Oliver North. And Joe Scarborough. And Pat Buchanan. And John McLaughlin. And Cal Thomas. And Joe Klein. And James Kilpatrick. And Tucker Carlson. And Deroy Murdock. And Michael Savage. And Charles Krauthammer. And Stephen Moore. And Alan Keyes.
And Gary Bauer. And Mort Kondracke. And Andrew Sullivan. And Nicholas von Hoffman. And Neil Cavuto. And Matt Drudge. And Mike Rosen. And Dave Kopel. And John Caldara. And Deborah Howell. And Richard Morin. And John Harris. And Gordon Liddy. And laura Ingraham.
And Larry Elder. And Tammy Bruce. And Neal Boortz. And FOX DJ ManPal. And Rusty Humphrey. And Laura Schlessinger. And Melanie Morgan.
...and every single other right-wing media huckster out there running the Great American Victim Show.
Posted by: Interrobang | May 16, 2008 at 10:00 PM
Allegedly, O'Reilly's best demographic is not liberal blog readers but jurassic bitter coots. I am sorry, I meant alienated elderly viewers who think like Archie Bunker.
But the Phantom has a point. I have had my issues with Kos but he's neither a hate-monger nor a hero to me, just a highly successful blogger with a readership of hundreds of thousands. Whatever "hate" you can find at DKos is anger about conservative and Republican policies and public figures. The language on a typical day at DKos is milder than what one could have read in the early U.S./late colonial press regarding controversial figures like Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, etc. It's not comparable, even after a long drag off of high quality BC Bud, to the Nazi and later Klansman, federal convict and supporter of authoritarian regimes David Duke whom I wrote about in the 6th grade (1981).
Posted by: Bruce the Yank | May 17, 2008 at 07:00 AM
Meanwhile, from the Conser- no, I can't use that word- Republican humor department...
http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/05/16/huck-jokes-about-gunman-aiming-at-obama/
Now, what was that about the Klan again?
Posted by: Cass | May 17, 2008 at 11:29 AM
--Interrobang--
Hope you had fun making that list, not that it means much. You dragged in some B and C list people who I will take for granted are real people and who are indeed conservative. Along with some who are not conservative ( Matt Drudge an equal opportunity muckraker, David Brooks is middle of the road- it you think he's any right winger that says a lot about you )
The fact is that until the creation of Fox News (and all its flaws ) there were essentially no conservative voices in American news / opionion shows, apart from William F Buckley's brilliant firing line.
Americans got their news from the national nightly news shows, and all those guys were liberal. Dan Rather, with his biases, and his smirks, might still be on the news had he not been busted in a scandal.
The balance is better than it was, but big media other than Fox is still dominated by liberals.
And PBS, who wallows on the taxpayers teat, is overwhelmingly liberal with your Bill Moyers and his kissyfest with the Racist Rev some weeks ago and Tavis Smiley and no real conservative voices, not in any desirable timeframe anyway.
Talk radio IS overwhelmingly conservative as I can tell. But for some reason the conservative shows flourish, while Air America/Pacifica/the rest have about two listeners between them. You can put Rachel Maddow and Thom Hartmann on the radio, but you can't force anyone to listen to them.
Posted by: The Phantom | May 17, 2008 at 05:17 PM
I would imagine, Bill'O's reader reaction to his rant...
"what's a blog?"
"It's that internet thing"
Posted by: Phil | May 18, 2008 at 08:24 AM