KO: O'Reilly's "real anger and real fear rests in the dread that someone is quoting him correctly"

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200704260003

Olbermann: O'Reilly's "real anger and real fear rests in the dread that someone is quoting him correctly"

During the April 25 broadcast of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann noted that Fox News host Bill O'Reilly attacked Media Matters for America during the April 23 edition of his television show. Olbermann stated: "Bill O'Reilly has issued another fatwa -- this time against the journalism watchdog website, Media Matters, proving, without the slightest fear of contradiction, that he has a flow chart and the access to the color red." Olbermann observed: "Nothing Media Matters has ever posted about Bill O'Reilly has failed to withstand independent vetting -- not a missing comma, not a missing context." He added: "In an age in which we rightly fear being inaccurately quoted or misinterpreted, it would seem that Bill-O's real anger and real fear rests in the dread that someone is quoting him correctly."

During his show, Olbermann displayed the flow chart O'Reilly had used on his April 23 show -- as Media Matters documented -- to accuse progressive financier George Soros of, in O'Reilly's words, influencing "the political process" by funneling money through his "complicated political operation" to Media Matters, which then "feeds its propaganda to some mainstream media people." Olbermann asserted: "In the Fox News 'Noise' investigation, Media Matters is some sort of major cog in an evil liberal spider web -- one of his guests describing it as part of 'an incredibly well-oiled machine.' " In fact, as previously noted, Soros has never given money to Media Matters, either directly or through another organization. If Soros wanted to fund Media Matters, he or Open Society Institute (OSI) -- a grant-making foundation he established in 1993 to conduct his philanthropy -- could simply write a check directly to Media Matters, as he and OSI do with numerous entities.

Olbermann also noted O'Reilly's April 13 appearance on the Irish network RTÉ One's The Late Late Show, stating: "Thanks to Media Matters, you can watch Mr. Orally confronted last Friday the 13th by his own words during an interview on Irish television." Olbermann then played a video clip of the conversation taken from the Media Matters website, which showed Late Late Show host Pat Kenny asking O'Reilly about his reference to the poor as "irresponsible and lazy" and the Iraqis as "prehistoric." O'Reilly replied that he "d remember saying that" and challenged Kenny about where he had gleaned that information. When Kenny answered that he "got it off the website," O'Reilly responded by calling Media Matters "an assassination website." He later claimed that Media Matters frequently takes him "out of context." As Olbermann noted, however, Media Matters documented O'Reilly's references to the poor as "irresponsible and lazy" and the Iraqi people as "prehistoric."

Also, despite numerous requests to appear on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly still has not extended an invitation to Media Matters President and CEO David Brock to discuss O'Reilly's accusations and ad hominem attacks, nor has O'Reilly offered any evidence for his claims that Media Matters has "distorted comments" made by him or any other media figure.

[Cabcere]

1. O'Reilly....

is a coward and a bully. End of story.

[juno jones]

2. And the irish, at least,

are pissed he keeps that o' before his patrinomic name. Kudos to the Irish who interviewed him. Fuck you asshat. We Irish have had to overcome much to be 'just another ethnicity' here in America. You aren't anything. Just another fat white guy who wants a monarchy. Bhuh-bye!