I sent Fox News this...
You have a serious case of dishonesty and hypocrisy from one of your team.
On Tuesday night, Bill O’Reilly, who has been waging a one man war against the dishonesty of the left wing media, did exactly what he has been accusing the rest of the media of doing, he distorted and fabricated in order to carry out a smear.
In accusing FreeRepublic.com of being a “hate site” he illustrated his point with three quotes which he claimed on air that HE personally had found on FreeRepublic.com.
NONE of the quotes actually existed!
The first quote – “Homosexuals are dogs”, as he claimed it to be, turned out to actually be “Homosexuals are the modern day dogs in the manger”.
This was a comment about the homosexual lobby and referred to “dog in the manger” – a term derived from Aesop’s Fables for someone who is nuisance for no good reason. Clearly, Mr O’Reilly’s education is not up to the standards of Free Republic’s posters.
O’Reilly edited this quote to completely change it’s context and then presented it as hate speech.
The second quote - “”Hillary Clinton should be assassinated.” “A stray bullet should kill her” was also inaccurate and out of context.
The actual posting he referenced was a poor piece of satire painting a scenario where many disasters were happening simultaneously including hillary clinton being accidently shot.
Poor taste possibly; but the poster was merely painting a bizarre scenario in the same vein as the recent Hollywood film depicting Bush’s assassination.
The word “assassination” was NEVER used in the posting, nor the phrase “A stray bullet SHOULD kill her” – once again, O’Reilly is distorting the truth to make a point that isn’t true.
The third quote – “I hate Blacks” just flat out doesn’t exist!
It’s a total fabrication, or should I just call it what it is – A LIE. O’Reilly’s producer could not provide a link to such a comment.
The only instance of the phrase to be found anywhere on the forum was in the body of a news ARTICLE that was posted to be commented upon, it was NOT a comment from a Freeper.
FreeRepublic.com has a proud track record of unmasking lies and distortion; it was Freepers that exposed Dan Rather’s “fake but accurate” forgeries that ultimately led to his disgrace and downfall. Mr O’Reilly is setting himself on course for a similar unmasking if he relies on such shoddy work.
Mr O’Reilly owes FreeRepublic.com an ON AIR apology. NONE of his quotes were accurate, and none of the items he misquoted, when taken in context and read accurately, were hate speech.
In fact he gave a classic demonstration of precisely that which he has been crusading against.
He should be ashamed of himself.
How did Dodd speak the truth?
I do believe that O’Reilly is trying to stir things up about this thing called freedom in the Internet. There is a undercurrent of hatred about the electronic age from the use of cell phones to telephones with caller I.D. I suspect much of it comes from the Baby Boom Generation who would love it if things went back to the analog age with Jimmy Hendricks records and rotary telephones. O’Reilly is playing to a segment of Americans who hate the idea that people text message and can vote in an American Idol with the punching in of a phone number. And these Americans are nanny state Americans who ask what more they can get the government to do for them—all on our ticket, of course.