As the video at Hot Air illustrates, Bill O’Reilly smears that entire site because one random commenter referred to President Obama as “Hussein.” Allahpundit writes:
Ah, there’s nothing like yanking out a comment out of context and using it to smear the entire site, even though neither Ed nor I have ever referred to Obama as “Hussein.” Bonus points to O’R for referring to the comment in question as a “blog posting” even though it’s anything but. And before our lefty commenters ask, yes, I have defended Kos from similar charges.
Ed Morrissey adds:
I put Bill O’Reilly in the same category as Alan Colmes, when he accused us of being a Birther site, even though we kept criticizing the people pushing it. Bottom line for me: if the O’Reilly Factor can’t figure out the difference between a blog post and a comment, they have no business opining about the Internet at all.
This is a fair common attack in the legacy media, even those whose publishers increasingly have blogs and comment sections of their own, and I can understand O’Reilly himself not getting the basics of the Internet, (there are plenty of otherwise savvy old media pros who are clueless when it comes to the Web), but what about his production staff? Is there anybody there who could have told him the difference between a blog’s authors and its commenters — who can be anybody?
Related: Michelle Malkin writes, “Jawa Report blogger receives Muslim death threat online. Attention, cable TV Internet cops…”
Bill O’Reilly overall does more good than harm. He sometimes, though, go out of his way to be “fair and balanced.” He unfortunately interprets this as a sort of obligation to occasionally crap on conservatives—whether fairly or not. O’Reilly kept referring to Barack Obama as a moderate politician long after the evidence indicated otherwise. Also, why is he upset when anyone refers to the president’s middle name? Obama’s own people do so when they think it to be beneficial.
O’Reilly is supposedly a friend of Michelle Malkin—or at least I thought so. Doesn’t he realize the extent of her relationship with the Hot Air blog? O’Reilly will probably invite her on his show to explain the situation. He owes her and Ed Morrissey minimally that much.
So once again, the Left modifies GOP behavior and the Right goes along with it.
1. What is wrong with calling him Hussein? It’s his name.
2. What’s wrong with being a Birther? They did it to us with Palin. There are genuine concerns about the fact that he hasn’t produced a real birth certificate. I think the point is meaningless now, but some don’t.
Screw BOR, BHO, the Democrats and their propaganda ministry. If you think acting the way the press wants us to is going to make them play by the rules, you’re deluded. That’s how we’ve lost elections.