Tuesday’s The O’Reilly Factor on FNC showed a pre-recorded interview with CNN founder Ted Turner, in which O’Reilly got Turner to admit that he and Jane Fonda, who both opposed America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, had ignored the slaughter of millions by the Khmer Rouge communists in Southeast Asia after America’s withdrawal from the region. Turner: "You got me. I didn’t really think about it. You know, it didn’t make the news very much at the time."
The CNN founder, who was appearing to promote his biography, "Call Me Ted," readily admitted to "admiring" Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and expressed doubt when O’Reilly argued that Castro had murdered many people. Turner: "Well, I admire certain things about him. He’s trained a lot of doctors, and they’ve got one of the best educational systems in the developing world, and, you know, he’s still popular with a lot of people down there. He’s unpopular with a lot of people, too." After O’Reilly injected, "But he’s a killer. He’s a killer," Turner responded: "He’s not, that has never, to my knowledge, that’s never been proven."
But Turner only reluctantly praised President Bush after O’Reilly argued that Bush "has saved more lives, sent more money, and provided more medical care for the citizens of all the countries of Africa than any human being that’s ever lived." Turner: "I think he made a lot of mistakes, too, but you can’t, he did some good things, but I think you basically, he’s got a good heart."
O’Reilly opened the interview by asking Turner about comments he made in 2005 in which he invoked Adolf Hitler’s popularity in 1930s Germany when he was asked about FNC’s popularity in America. A clip of Turner from 2005 was shown: "I’m not happy about [FNC beating CNN], but Adolf Hitler was more popular in Germany in the early 30s than people that were running against him, so just because you’re bigger, doesn’t mean you’re right."
Challenged by O’Reilly if he regretted his choice of words, he backed off a bit: "Well, maybe. It might have been a little strong."
The FNC host also got Turner to admit he thinks America is a "great country," but the CNN founder still used one of his standard lines in which he argued that people want to bomb America because America bombs other countries: "I think if we stop bombing people and send doctors and scientists and engineers around the world, that we’d make a lot more progress and we wouldn’t have near as much terrorism in the world as we do. I think bombing just makes people angry and they want to bomb you back."
O’Reilly soon brought up the aid President Bush has delivered to Africa, and the absence of any credit the President has received for doing so, including from Turner:
O’REILLY: There’s one man who has done more for the continent of Africa than any other man in the entire history of civilization. Do you know who that man is?
TURNER: Nelson Mandela?
O’REILLY: No. President Bush has saved more lives, sent more money, and provided more medical care for the citizens of all the countries of Africa than any human being that’s ever lived. Yet, you just said send the doctors, send this, send that, the world will like us better and won’t use terrorism. We’ve done that, and not only in Africa but around the world. But the world does not look upon George Bush as a hero, and neither do you.
TURNER: I think he made a lot of mistakes, too, but you can’t, he did some good things, but I think you basically, he’s got a good heart.
The FNC host soon brought up Castro:
O’REILLY: Fidel Castro, do you admire the man?
TURNER: Yes.
O’REILLY: Now, he has murdered people, he’s imprisoned people, people are political prisoners now. He won’t let his people use the Internet. Nobody can use that. And you admire the guy?
TURNER: Well, I admire certain things about him. He’s trained a lot of doctors, and they’ve got one of the best educational systems in the developing world, and, you know, he’s still popular with a lot of people down there. He’s unpopular with a lot of people, too.
O’REILLY: But he’s a killer. He’s a killer.
TURNER: He’s not, that has never, to my knowledge, that’s never been proven.
As he neared the end of the interview, O’Reilly brought up the holocaust that occurred in Southeast Asia after America abandoned the region to communist dictators, and pointed out that Turner did not use his media empire to shine any light on the roblem:
O’REILLY: I asked Ms. Fonda, "Didn’t it ever bother you that after all of your activism and getting America out of Vietnam which it subsequently did in the mid-70s, that three million human beings were slaughtered by the people that you were lionizing, the North Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge communists, who wouldn’t have been slaughtered if we’d stayed, and their skulls were stacked up on top of one another, and I never heard a word from you, Jane Fonda, and I never heard a word from Ted Turner about that," and that, to me, is a good question.
TURNER: You got me. I didn’t really think about it. You know, it didn’t make the news very much at the time.
O’REILLY: No, it didn’t. And you had a vehicle that you could have had. The revisionist history is what I’m worried about here. I think America is a noble nation. I think we’ve made mistakes. I think we tried to have freedom in Vietnam for the South Vietnamese. Unfortunately, the government was corrupt. I don’t think that was a venal, terrible thing to do. I think we were trying to protect people there. Maybe I’m wrong. But afterward, there’s no doubt three million human beings were slaughtered, Jane Fonda said not a word. And to this day, she blames America for everything, and I think it’s wrong.
Below is a transcript of the interview that aired on the Tuesday, December 9, The O’Reilly Factor on FNC:
BILL O’REILLY: "Impact Segment" tonight, Ted Turner. The 70-year-old businessman and creator of CNN is larger than life. You know that. A man of strong political beliefs, many of which reside on the left. Mr. Turner’s biography, "Call Me Ted," is a big bestseller. And last night, we spoke with the man. We begin the segment with a very painful experience for Mr. Turner. A few years ago, Fox News surpassed CNN in the ratings, and Turner reacted this way:
TED TURNER, DATED 2005: I’m not happy about it, but Adolf Hitler was more popular in Germany in the early 30s than people that were running against him, so just because you’re bigger, doesn’t mean you’re right.
O’REILLY: You were responding to Fox News surpassing CNN in the ratings, and then you bring in Hitler. Now, come on, Mr. Turner. Do you regret saying that?
TURNER: Well, maybe. It might have been a little strong.
O’REILLY: I mean, do I look like Hermann Goering out here? Come on.
TURNER: No, no, you look like Bill O’Reilly.
O’REILLY: Right. And I’m a nice guy. Well, maybe that’s overstating it. I’m an honest guy who’s just trying to do the best I can. But, you know, I think that you underestimate Fox News and its appeal to traditional Americans.
TURNER: That’s true. And I also said in there that I knew that that was our most vulnerable spot before I even went on the air with CNN, that a right wing network would pose a threat because not only was CNN pretty much in the middle, but so were CBS, NBC, and ABC. And you’re right, the far right did not have a voice.
O’REILLY: You can’t possibly think that Fox News is a far right operation? I mean, because it’s-
TURNER: I do. I don’t watch it that much.
O’REILLY: I mean, maybe coming from a Jane Fonda point of view it is. Come on.
TURNER: Well, I was married to Jane Fonda.
O’REILLY: I know. But how can you, I’m a far right guy? I mean, the far right hates me. Either you don’t watch or you’re so far left you can’t make-
TURNER: I don’t.
O’REILLY: Well, you should.
TURNER: I said that. I watch, I mostly watch CNN, and I’ve been watching a little bit of Bloomberg lately with the financial crisis.
O’REILLY: If that’s the case, then you shouldn’t be criticizing Fox News because you don’t know what you’re talking about.
TURNER: Well, that’s a good point. When I criticized it, it was a while back when I was sampling it a bit more than I am now. I watch it some. I do watch it some.
O’REILLY: But you became more liberal on your world view. A hallmark on the far left, not liberals, but the far left, is America brings a lot of problems on itself, we’re an exploitative country, that we cause a lot of the terrorism, that we don’t treat people like Fidel Castro fairly, that kind of thing. How much do you buy into that?
TURNER: To a large degree. I’d say it’s a little bit, a little bit over the edge, but I think we should normalize relations with Cuba.
O’REILLY: All right. Is America a good country?
TURNER: It’s a great country.
O’REILLY: Are we exploitative overseas? Is the war on terrorism largely our fault?
TURNER: No, I wouldn’t say "largely," but I think if we stop bombing people and send doctors and scientists and engineers around the world, that we’d make a lot more progress and we wouldn’t have near as much terrorism in the world as we do. I think bombing just makes people angry and they want to bomb you back.
O’REILLY: Well, I think they bombed us first, but, you know-
TURNER: Who did?
O’REILLY: You know, the terrorists on 9/11. They turned a weapon into a bomb.
TURNER: They didn’t in Vietnam. In Vietnam we bombed them first.
O’REILLY: All right, look, you can argue the Vietnam War, and I think there are two legitimate sides, but I want to keep it current because, you know, there’s one man who has done more for the continent of Africa than any other man in the entire history of civilization. Do you know who that man is?
TURNER: Nelson Mandela?
O’REILLY: No. President Bush has saved more lives, sent more money, and provided more medical care for the citizens of all the countries of Africa than any human being that’s ever lived. Yet, you just said send the doctors, send this, send that, the world will like us better and won’t use terrorism. We’ve done that, and not only in Africa but around the world. But the world does not look upon George Bush as a hero, and neither do you.
TURNER: I think he made a lot of mistakes, too, but you can’t, he did some good things, but I think you basically, he’s got a good heart.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O’REILLY: Continuing now with Ted Turner. His new book, "Call Me Ted," is a big bestseller. Perhaps the boldest move Mr. Turner ever made, business or personal, was hooking up with Jane Fonda. Your association with Jane Fonda, now, Ms. Fonda is a very far-left individual. And affairs of the heart aside, I don’t think anybody could be compatible with Jane Fonda, you were married to her for 10 years, unless you have and share some of the same world outlook. You see what I’m saying here?
TURNER: I’m not apologizing for my political views. I’ve come to it after a lot of careful thought and study and research. And I consider myself a progressive, not a, not a liberal.
O’REILLY: Fidel Castro, do you admire the man?
TURNER: Yes.
O’REILLY: Now, he has murdered people, he’s imprisoned people, people are political prisoners now. He won’t let his people use the Internet. Nobody can use that. And you admire the guy?
TURNER: Well, I admire certain things about him. He’s trained a lot of doctors, and they’ve got one of the best educational systems in the developing world, and, you know, he’s still popular with a lot of people down there. He’s unpopular with a lot of people, too.
O’REILLY: But he’s a killer. He’s a killer.
TURNER: He’s not, that has never, to my knowledge, that’s never been proven.
O’REILLY: He’s executed political prisoners. I mean, he enslaves people who don’t see it the way he sees it. Come on, he’s a dictatorship. If you admire him, then why wouldn’t you admire Mussolini? I mean, what’s the difference? Mussolini put people back to work, he was ordered. The educational system was fine. See, I’m not getting this. This is what I don’t understand about it.
TURNER: Okay, well, if you don’t see a difference between Castro and Mussolini, you know, then, you know, I likened some aspects of Fox News to the Nazis, so, I mean, you know, it works both ways.
O’REILLY: But you just admitted to me that that wasn’t a very good thing to do and wasn’t accurate.
TURNER: Hey, listen, I didn’t say I wanted to live in Cuba. I didn’t say that I was buddy buddies with Fidel Castro. I just said that I respected certain things that he’s done. What’s wrong with that?
O’REILLY: Well, you said you respect the man, and I just don’t, I can’t possibly see how you could do that.
TURNER: Of course not.
O’REILLY: Now, I asked this question through one of my producers to Ms. Fonda, and I’m going to ask it to you because by reading your book, it struck me that the Vietnam experience changed you. I’m saying to myself, "You know, Turner comes into the Vietnam era a conservative guy, pretty much a traditional guy."
TURNER: Yes.
O’REILLY: "That changes it, that changes it, and now he’s a very liberal
guy." So I asked Ms. Fonda, "Didn’t it ever bother you that after all of your activism and getting America out of Vietnam which it subsequently did in the mid-70s, that three million human beings were slaughtered by the people that you were lionizing, the North Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge communists, who wouldn’t have been slaughtered if we’d stayed, and their skulls were stacked up on top of one another, and I never heard a word from you, Jane Fonda, and I never heard a word from Ted Turner about that," and that, to me, is a good question.
TURNER: You got me. I didn’t really think about it. You know, it didn’t make the news very much at the time.
O’REILLY: No, it didn’t. And you had a vehicle that you could have had. The revisionist history is what I’m worried about here. I think America is a noble nation. I think we’ve made mistakes. I think we tried to have freedom in Vietnam for the South Vietnamese. Unfortunately, the government was corrupt. I don’t think that was a venal, terrible thing to do. I think we were trying to protect people there. Maybe I’m wrong. But afterward, there’s no doubt three million human beings were slaughtered, Jane Fonda said not a word. And to this day, she blames America for everything, and I think it’s wrong. But you’re not Jane Fonda, and it’s a pleasure to talk with you, and I’m going to give you the last word. You can say whatever you want. Go.
TURNER: I’d like to have this conversation in greater length about global warming, which, I understand, you and I agree about.
O’REILLY: We do?
TURNER: And ridding the world of nuclear weapons, looking forward, not backward. We could have a lot of fun and maybe enlighten the audience.
O’REILLY: All right, Mr. Turner. We will definitely do that.
TURNER: Did you like the book? I just got to ask you that.
O’REILLY: Listen, I think you’re a fascinating character. I really do.
TURNER: Well, I think you are, too, Bill.
O’REILLY: I think you are a maverick and a guy who’s done an amazing amount with his life. And any book that tells me how that happened, I’m going to like. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, sir. Thanks for coming on the program.
TURNER: Same to you.
—Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
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Comments Policy
OK
December 15, 2008 - 13:54 ET by MES41067You got me. I didn’t really think about it. You know, it didn’t make the news very much at the time."The more things change the more things stay the same.What a turd this man is.
This is like Clinton saying
December 15, 2008 - 16:39 ET by mattmThis is like Clinton saying he was ambivalent about the Vietnam War. - It's bull!
Commie-lovers like Turner don't give a crap about how many innocents are killed as long as the world-wide march of socialism continues on (and they get to be the powerful elite)... This is why they think 1000 abortions a day is perfectly fine, but if you burn an ounce of coal you're a planet-murderer and an enemy of humanity.
Teddy is insane - like all Liberals eventually become. You cannot hold illogical and self-contradictory views for too long and avoid lunacy. Ted is a classic example of this.
Turner
December 15, 2008 - 14:38 ET by east tennessee johnIn typical tin hat liberal fashion, old Ted didn't let the facts interfer with liberal dogma. Besides, Fidel had nothing to do with the executions, it was all Che. Cuba's such a great workers paridise that the people trying to make the 90 mile swim are just training for the revolution's olympic swim team. How dense does clinging to leftist dogma make you?
Reminds me of what I read or heard somewhere
December 15, 2008 - 15:05 ET by ahusserabout Hitler's regime. When depredations were committed on the populace by the Gestapo or other Nazi "Forces" the people would say "If only the fuhrer knew about this he would... (I guess stop, fix, or punish those responsible etc.). Never placing the blame on 'der fuhrer' but only on his ignorant or misguided henchmen.
I guess a couple of million people being killed didn't make the news. It may be true in one sense, there was no internet and the big 3 networks along with the AP UPI had a monopoly on the news and we know how balanced they are because their 'stars' were calling for the end of the war and we wouldn't want to embarrass anyone. It may have been downplayed because Pol Pot's regime and the subsequent slaughter was a direct result of our abandoning the region the same goes with the thousands of people killed, re-educated, and imprisoned in South Vietnam including those Vietnamese killed trying to flee the country in boats. All can be laid at the feet of the runocratic party, which controlled congress, and a complacent protective press and a go along get along opportunistic president. (As an aside why would anyone really want to be our ally, sure they get a lot of goodies but then when things get a little dicey they are thrown under the bus)
Change: When the winds of change blow hard enough, the most trivial of things can become deadly projectiles. From a Poster
Wow...
December 15, 2008 - 15:02 ET by andophiroxiaO'Reilly asked him about his connections and after all that Turner asks him if he liked the book.
Wow.
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” ~ Winston Churchill
I stared in disbelief at the tv during this segment the other
December 15, 2008 - 15:04 ET by JTPnight while watching this. I could not believe what I was hearing out of this guy's mouth. The first thing that came to mind was how in the hell did this guy ever start any empire let alone a "news" empire. I thought news people had some knowledge of current events and history when allowed to graduate from news school.
dupe
December 15, 2008 - 15:04 ET by JTPdupe
Turner and CNN are trying
December 15, 2008 - 15:05 ET by Scuba DudeTurner and CNN are trying to find a way to blame Pres. Bush for the killings done by the Khmer Rouge and how the Allmighty Shahinshah coke-head Obama did his best to thwart the genocide that was going on.
Hmm...
December 15, 2008 - 15:06 ET by inquiringmindI watched this and thought he was very nonconfrontational. He still said some stupid things as noted but he had no fight in him. I wonderd if he wasn't there just to plug his book so he took the shots that Bill was throwing at him. Either that or he was medicated.
Ted and Jane lied....Americans died.
December 15, 2008 - 16:21 ET by SaluteTed and Jane lied....Americans died. Ted Turner, Jane "I love the communists" Fonda, Ted Kennedy, who is in the Senate for all his miserable life have all supported our enemies. Their undermining of the U.S. is not only horrific, they got a lot of my fellow soldiers and my generation killed. Who asked this guy anything? Did he serve? Yes, he serves himself.
I yam what I yam....Popeye.
Turner and me
December 15, 2008 - 18:37 ET by Kirk TurnerI live in the south and have put up with Ted Turner all my life--we call him "the Mouth of the South." Ted has said more idiotic things than I care to remember. You could fill every day of the year in a desktop calendar with stupid Turnerisms. Ted is SO insecure around his northeast liberal and internationalist buddies that he has spouted their ideology for years so they'll think he's one of them and not a stupid Georgian. If you can imagine, he's like Jimmy Carter after a gallon of Chivas Regal.
Have you ever known a guy that roots against all the home teams, thinks his neighors are stupid and trashes his own people because he thinks it makes him better than his home town rabble? That's Ted.
Ted is a Howard Hughes type who started a few very good businesses rolling in his youth when his brain was less pickled and has let better people manage them to stupendous success while he travels the world reveling in the profits in a drunken stupor while calling Americans, Christians, ect., ect. every derogatory name in the book. The drunken stupor is Ted's signature, and he has been in it since the Carter Administration.
I think he's like that
December 15, 2008 - 18:43 ET by RR GOPI think he's like that Washington reporter who said she didn't know anybody who voted for Nixon.
My impression is that he's wrapped himself up in this Leftist crap so much that he can't see outside of the Commie box he's painted himself into. The basic tenets of Socialism are flawed economically. Politically, it's a disastrous ideology because it always attracts the same egomaniacal kooks regardless of race or nationality.
O'Reilly has his flaws, but he really knows how to put some great points out there. Amazing to see someone actually stick up for President Bush and his positive accomplishments and bring up the fact that the Commies in Southeast Asia killed millions after the U.S. and our allies abandoned South Vietnam.
He could have brought up the shelling of retreating South Vietnamese civilians just before Saigon was taken, and the persecution of the Montagnards, but that's asking a bit much from any talking head. O'Reilly also admitted that the Saigon government was corrupt, which is an important issue in discussing the prosecution of that war.
One of the 24% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 89% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.