Bill O'Reilly says Daily Kos is a "far left" hate site

Last night, Bill O'Reilly stated that Daily Kos (I would invite the reader to browse the site and judge for oneself if O'reilly's characterization is remotely within the ballpark of this universe) is a hate site no different from the Klu Klux Klan or the Nazis. He sent one of his producers out to ambush an executive from Jet Blue (because the company is sponsoring a Daily Kos event) as he was leaving his residence. The producer was asking the executive if the company approved of various statements that were supposed to be representative of Daily Kos (when in fact they were taken out of context and culled from the entirety of the site, including its comment sections).

From News Hounds

O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo tonight 7/16/07 targeted JetBlue and CEO David Barger for their sponsorship of "a hate site like DailyKos." Producer/stalker Jesse Watters accosted Barger leaving his apartment on his way to work and demanded that Barger explain his company's decision to do business with those "far left hatemongers." JetBlue gave a handful of tickets to principals of the convention and will get to hang banners and such in exchange.

In video within the TPM, Watters read or paraphrased four comments from readers or diarists at DailyKos, a site that gets (according to Wiki) between 14 and 24 MILLION visits a month, to illustrate for Barger (viewers, really) what a disgusting site it is, and asked Barger if he shared those views.

Don't you just love how O'Reilly is always complaining about how he's a victim of media smear merchants and about how he finds defamatory attacks so despicable, yet he goes and pulls a stunt like this.

Imagine this scenario: a reporter and camera crew ambush O'Reilly outside his home and ask him that if he considers Daily Kos a hate site, then what does he have to say about:

- A Fox News affiliate doing a fluff piece on Stormfront, a website that unlike Daily Kos, actually is a hate site.

- Why he works for and promotes a network that employs demogogue Sean Hannity; who on his Sunday program likes to equate celebrities he disagrees with to dictators, naming them "Enemy of the Week;" and has written a book in which he implicitly suggests that liberals are Evil that the United States needs to be delivered from

- Why he continues to have on Michelle Malkin as a guest and guest host despite her promotion of the nativist VDare website, her linking the genocidal blogger Misha as well as a number of other bloggers that have commenters calling for the death of politicians (e.g. a commenter at Right Wing News wishing for the hanging of "RINO" Chuck Hagel), and, more specifically, her promotion of Little Green Footballs, whose commenters have a proclivity for sounding like actual Nazis.

- If Daily Kos is a hate site no different than the KKK or Nazis for the comments O'Reilly cites, then what does O'Reilly's statement to the city of San Francisco that he's ok with Al Qaeda blowing them up make The O'Reilly Factor?

How do you think he'd handle it? First, he'd be outraged at being ambushed. He'd rant and rave about the despicable and rotten smear tactics (which he'd likely equate with brownshirt-ism or some such) of his "far left" "s-p" haters. What's good for the goose is not good for The Allmighty O'Reilly, Lord of the No Spin Zone. He'd rationalize away or deny the Stormfront fluff piece, Hannity's hate-mongering, Malkin's promotion of hate, and his own double standard . Or, if someone was to somehow manage to get O'Reilly to concede a point, he'd turn it right around into a non-concession concession.

Because that's the way Bill rolls. He seems to have developed a pathology around his inability to get ahead at CBS. That pathology consists in believing that this was due to "s-p" (read: liberal) bias and not the fact that he is a unprofessional hack with anger management issues. This has become the core of his identity ... he can't admit error because it would be unravel his sense of self. So he keeps building on top of this fantasy edifice ... if his failure at CBS was not his fault, his success at Fox and the failure of the network to impose professional standards on him are evidence of his demi-god like qualities. And anyone that fact checks O'Reilly, well, obviously, they're just more "s-p" haters ... a demi-god can't be wrong.

Unlike, say, Malkin or Hannity, O'Reilly is not a movement conservative ideologue. He's a Bill O'Reilly ideologue: his dogmatism is his narcisistic egoism.

At least, that's just my opinion.

Oh, and here's a sample of some of the e-mails that the founder of Daily Kos received after O'Reilly's anti-hate hate piece aired.

"U/R A DIRTY RECTUM LICKING COMMIE SLIME MAGGOT!
BORN FROM KARL MARX'S ROTTING FECES."

"Your Evil, Fascist Organization.
Fascist scum like your organization need to be removed and sent to another universe from this one. Evil prevails in your organization, and I hope you will receive the reckoning you deserve when all of you meet your Makers. A gentle riddance to thou in the interim."

"You...
...suck beyond belief. Hurry up and die.
I have never seen so much hate
I have never seen so much hate you would embarrassed Nazi’s
Why can’t people like you just make a living, instead of hating everyone else?
Are you all muslims?
I just say fuck you, asshole"

"Kos
I hope you all die a slow death. Much like you wish on good honest people like T. Snow, the Pope, etc. Liberal Fucks! I hope you choke on the smog & drown in the global warming waters caused by cows. You people are so stupid. ..."

Now, O'Reilly would object that he has no control over these e-mails, and that he doesn't condone them. But this misses the point, which is that this is the sort of response/audience that O'Reilly's faux populist demagoguery attracts. And it tends to blow a whole in the one of the fundamental operating premises/bogus memes of the conservative movement (which O'Reilly helps to propagate) that "the left" is disproportionately full of violent and hateful rhetoric.

Update: In a shocking surprise, Michelle Malkin jumps all over this story with the enthusiam (and wit) of an eight year old.

Congratulations, Bill. Mission accomplished. JetBlue is guaranteed to be bombarded with e-mails and protests from the mindless zombies who take their cues from Malkin, the same sort of zombies, I would guess, who in the past sent death threats to one of the groups Malkin sicked them on.