|
|
| All content taken from The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel. Each weeknight by 6 PM EST a preview of that evening's show will be posted and then updated with additional information the following weekday by noon EST.
|
|
|
"On this Martin Luther King Day, where we honor the peace-loving civil rights legend, we are still experiencing hatred on the left. During an appearance on CNN, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen asked, 'how much time do we have left to talk about how stupid Sarah Palin is?' Talking Points wonders what the editors of the Washington Post think about one of their veteran columnists saying stuff like that a few days after President Obama's speech in Arizona. Then we slide down a bit to left-wing entertainers. Bill Maher told tea partiers 'the Founding Fathers would have hated your guts.' I don't hold Mr. Maher to the same standard as the Washington Post because he's a comedian, but apparently he is not embracing the President's call for more civility. Also, I've gotten a lot of mail asking why I don't come down on right-wing talk radio, and it's the same thing - talk radio is entertainment, not a news forum. But when a paper like the Washington Post continues to feature columnists who flat-out hate conservatives, you have to wonder why. There is big money in the hate industry and it's easy for a guy like Cohen to call Governor Palin 'stupid.' That statement in itself is stupid and lazy, but Cohen's game is attacking conservatives, and if you take that away from him, what does he have left?"
The Factor asked Fox News analyst Brit Hume to evaluate the "hate industry" that is prominent in the media and on the Internet. "It's interesting that people on the left," Hume began, "are fond of accusing people on the right of 'hate,' but you just showed a couple of examples of how harsh their attacks can be, and there are plenty of other examples. That kind of speech has a real following on talk radio and on cable TV talk shows." Hume tried to explain the rage of many liberal-left pundits. "There has been a growing frustration on the American left that this country has basically turned to conservatism since about 1980 and it's been a very long time since a president has had a successful run trying to govern as a pure liberal. It has led to the level of anger we are now seeing, and there is clearly a market where people want to hear their political opponents described in the harshest terms." |
|
|
| NPR aired a commentary by Daisy Hernandez, who said there was "a sigh of brown relief when the Tucson killer turned out to be a gringo." FNC's Juan Williams, himself a former NPR analyst, assessed that commentary. "Race had no part in this story," Williams declared, "so she had to speculate about it to bring race into this story, and she did it because she's so angry about people who have a problem with the high rate of illegal immigration. NPR didn't allow a conservative counterpoint." Mary Katharine Ham questioned Hernandez' priorities. "She said she 'couldn't think about the victims' until after she had figured out the race of the shooter, which is a crazy callousness. This is yet another level of fabrication where you get to bash people for this imagined connection to a mass murder." The Factor criticized NPR's judgment: "Any news operation, and NPR reports to be one, has to be responsible. They have to ask Daisy Hernandez why she's injecting race into a mass murder when race was not involved." |
|
|
| A chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has advised Muslim Americans to avoid cooperating with the FBI. CAIR spokesman Corey Saylor entered the No Spin Zone to set the record straight. "This was on the web site of one of our affiliate chapters in San Francisco," Saylor explained, "but it is not in line with CAIR's policy. We asked the chapter to remove this and they did, so this is a minor story of a small group making a mistake. CAIR has had a consistent policy of cooperating with law enforcement." The Factor advised CAIR to keep a closer watch on its affiliates: "What troubles me is that there are branches of CAIR that are more militant than others and you can't control them all." |
|
|
| One year after Haiti's devastating earthquake and worldwide pledges of billions of dollars in aid, the nation remains a disaster area. Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan, just back from Haiti, reported on the dire situation. "The U.S. contributed $1.5 billion," Harrigan said, "but one year later, it really looks like the earthquake happened yesterday. And it's quiet - you don't hear cranes or bulldozers or cement being mixed; what you see are tent cities on every free spot of ground. It's really maddening for the donors and for the Haitians - there's a limit on how much patience you can ask people to have." The Factor contended that corruption and thievery are at least partly to blame: "Money has gone in but nothing is getting better, and I submit that money has been stolen." |
|
|
| Not only did Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen call Sarah Palin "stupid," but his Post colleague Dana Milbank blamed Palin and Glenn Beck for "inciting people." FNC's Bernie Goldberg analyzed the Post's anti-Palin barrage. "Dana Milbank lecturing us on civility," Goldberg said, "is like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lecturing us on human rights. Milbank and Cohen are really not talking about civility - if their goal was civility, they would lash out at their fellow liberals who spew hate for a living. Their real goal is to stifle the kind of opinions they detest by people like you, Beck, Palin and Limbaugh because you have big audiences. The left has lost power and they're trying to shut down other opinions and poison the well." |
|
|
| Prior to his rampage, suspected Tucson killer Jared Loughner created a bizarre YouTube video in which he described his community college as "my genocide school." The Factor's Check: "After seeing that video, school officials suspended Loughner, but state officials were still not flagged." Meanwhile, director Spike Lee called the United States "the most violent country in the history of civilization." The Factor's Check: "If he thinks America is more violent than Hitler's Germany, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Mao's China, or Stalin's Russia, he is sadly misguided. The truth is that violent crime in the USA has been going down dramatically for more than a decade." In his new book, Ron Reagan Jr. claims his father's Alzheimer's began while he was president. The Factor's Check: "That's not sitting well with Michael Reagan, Ron's half-brother, who says Ron was an embarrassment to his father. Michael Reagan says his father did not have Alzheimer's while he was president." |
|
|
Kathleen Busby, Visalia, CA: "There is nothing accidental about firing bullets into a crowd of people. Shame on Nancy Pelosi for calling this horrendous crime 'accidental.' Let's hope she misspoke."
Steve Krohn, Sheboygan, WI: "Politicians say thousands of words each day. I believe Mrs. Pelosi meant to say 'incident' not 'accident.'"
Dale Walker, Mt. Airy, SC: "Bill, why on earth are you paying attention to Nancy Pelosi?" |
|
|
| Monday's Patriot or Pinhead: Comic Ricky Gervais, who nastily skewered some Hollywood folks while hosting the Golden Globes. Was Gervais a Patriot or a Pinhead? You can make the call by voting here on BillOReilly.com. Friday's P or P asked whether cartoonist Nate Beeler's depiction of the left as vultures was drawn too soon after the Tucson massacre. By a slim margin of 57% to 43%, most of you called the cartoon pinheaded. |
|
|