Bill O'Reilly

NPR doesn’t interview authors who find liberal bias in the news media. But it does interview its own contributors when they attack Fox News and media that feeds "fear and prejudice." On Thursday’s Talk of the Nation, host Neal Conan welcomed on Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times to discuss his new book for a half hour. It's titled "Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation."

Deggans opens the book by talking about his verbal battles with Bill O’Reilly, and explained his title “comes from the fact that Bill O'Reilly called me a race-baiter on his show years ago for the articles I've written criticizing the way he talks about race, and also talking about conservative voices like Rush Limbaugh and other people on Fox News Channel.” Conan began the segment by talking about America’s increasing racial prejudice (which they must think is Fox-based): 

In a bit of light-hearted segment on Thursday’s O’Reilly Factor, FNC’s Megyn Kelly described a recent run-in she had with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. 

Kelly described her encounter the following way:

When he saw me in the airport, he had no idea who I was. So I said it is Megyn Kelly with Fox News. And then he said, oh I didn't recognize you with your stringy hair.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.] 

The Associated Press has apologized for its rude picture of Romney with a young girl gaping from behind. That happened the morning after Bill O'Reilly trashed AP on Tuesday night and predicted they would apologize.

"Here is the photo the Associated Press took at the meet and greet, a foolish shot that makes Romney the butt of stupid jokes. Pardon the pun. The picture was taken by photographer Evan Vucci and never should have been published. The Governor doesn't know there is a child behind him. And the child is looking at something else. This is a cheap shot, literally.... So the person who did that at the Associated Press who put that picture out on the wire should be fired, and the Associated Press should put out an apology, in which they will by the way after tonight." Alan Colmes tried to make excuses for AP:

Feminist sensation Sandra Fluke had her 15 minutes of fame extended by a Washington Post puff piece by reporter David Fahrenthold on Tuesday. “Not done testifying” was the headline. Fluke aspires to be an "independent voice," despite the article displaying she was discovered earlier this year in a Google search by Democrats and has campaigned for Democrats ever since.

The official excuse for this extension of fame was “a debate between [no label!] Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and conservative Bill O’Reilly.” The Fox News star proclaimed Fluke should buy her own birth-control pills:

On the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the horrendously liberal website Salon published a piece with the truly absurd headline, "Fox News’ War on Muslims: Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity have stoked Islamophobia -- and encouraged right-wing ignorance."

The contents - excerpted from Nathan Lean's book “The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims” - were stocked with misinformation about America's leading cable news channel:

In an interview with Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer worried that the Republican National Convention was not appealing to a broad audience: "When you talk about the conservatives and we talk about the gender gap and how important women are...do you think this convention is reaching out to the people who are going to decide this election, independents, moderates and women?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Earlier in the show, Lauer hyped the same concern while talking to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, wondering if Paul Ryan's "staunchly conservative views on topics like abortion" created a "fear" among Republicans that female voters would be turned off.

On The August 13 broadcast of the O'Reilly Factor, Bill had regular guest Bernie Goldberg discuss Andrea Mitchell's absurd comment that Paul Ryan isn't a pick for "suburban moms."  This came after Ryan claimed that rights come from God, not government, but Mitchell seemed to think these two unrelated points, when combined, made a cogent argument.  Apparently Ms. Mitchell hasn't heard of an obscure statesman in American history known as Thomas Jefferson.

Mitchell's complaint exposes the disconnect liberal elites have with normal Americans as Goldberg articulated on the show:

At the top of Tuesday's O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, host Bill O'Reilly rightly observed "the American media overwhelmingly favoring Barack Obama over Mitt Romney" and predicted that the slanted news coverage "will give the President about 3% or 4% of the popular vote" in the general election.

O'Reilly cited numerous studies over several years that demonstrated the media predisposition that "clearly favors the more liberal candidate, and has for decades." In 2004, then-assistant managing editor of Newsweek magazine, Evan Thomas, made a prediction remarkably similar to O'Reilly's when he admitted that media bias in favor Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was "going to be worth maybe 15 points," a number he revised down to five points months later.

Bill O'Reilly and commentator Bernard Goldberg on Monday night touted a new Media Research Center study that found 86 percent of stories on Mitt Romney's international trip emphasized "diplomatic blunders." Goldberg derided the soft coverage Barack Obama receives, asserting, "...Journalists are Barack Obama's most loyal base. They will not abandon him." [See video below.]

He added that reporters have "too much invested in [Obama]." Describing the MRC's study, The O'Reilly Factor anchor marveled, "86 percent of all the media coverage on Mitt Romney's overseas trip was negative. Eighty-six percent."

During Tuesday night's edition of “The O'Reilly Factor,” the Fox News host got into a heated exchange with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) over the concept of Congress passing legislation that the FBI would be notified whenever anyone purchases “heavy weapons.”

Bill O’Reilly said it makes sense for Congress “to pass a new law that requires the sale of all heavy weapons to be reported to the FBI. In this age of terrorism, that law is badly needed.”

As NewsBusters previously reported, in the wake of the tragic shootings in Aurora, Colorado, last week, PBS's Bill Moyers posted an online video essay excoriating the National Rifle Association as "enabler of death -- paranoid, delusional, and as venomous as a scorpion."

Fox News's Bill O'Reilly began his program Monday blasting Moyers for his remarks calling them "so dumb it hurts" and saying, "You're a genius, Bill. PBS is very lucky to have you" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

Appearing as a guest in a pre-recorded interview aired on Wednesday's The O'Reilly Factor on FNC, actor Jimmie Walker explained why he believes President Barack Obama "is not the guy" for the job of President and declared that, "You just can't blindly vote for somebody just because they are [your race]. Sometimes, even a brother, you have to let him go when he's not doing the gig."

On Tuesday, New York’s Daily News carried the headline “Bill O’Reilly admits he ‘may be an idiot’ for wrongly predicting Supreme Court’s health care decision.” Meena Hart Duerson began with snark: “Bill O'Reilly and his critics may finally have something to agree on: the talk show host admitted Monday he ‘may be an idiot’ for wrongly predicting the Supreme Court’s decision on Obamacare.”

But O’Reilly’s guess on March 26 – 5 to 4 to overturn – was exactly where many pundits would have placed their bets. Has the Daily News ever noticed CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin predicting it might have gone eight to one in Obama’s favor on The Situation Room March 23, with even Scalia and Alito joining with Kennedy and Roberts in siding with Obama? No.

Cathy Areu, a contributing editor for the Washington Post Magazine, said Monday, "It’s a tough time to be a white man in America where the minorities are really taking over."

This oddly surfaced on Fox News's O'Reilly Factor during a discussion about New York Times columnist Charles Blow comparing Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich to the kids that bullied a grandmother on a school bus last week (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Two separate Fox News anchors on Wednesday took NBC and MSNBC to task for liberal media bias and outright deception. Bill O'Reilly slammed the egregious actions of Andrea Mitchell and her selective editing of Republican Mitt Romney.

O'Reilly played MSNBC's version of Romney mentioning the fast food outlet Wawa and the one that conforms to reality. The host mocked the liberal cable outlet for "doctoring" the tape. Video of both can be found below:

NewsBusters reported Saturday that ABC's former White House correspondent Sam Donaldson said a lot of conservatives oppose Barack Obama simply because he's black.

On Fox News's O'Reilly Factor Monday, political commentator Bernie Goldberg thoroughly debunked Donaldson's claim with an inconvenient truth liberal media members dishonestly ignore: people on the Right "would love" a conservative black president. "They'd love him" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Fox News's Brit Hume on Monday said leaders of Congress "might want to think twice" about voting in favor of contempt charges against Eric Holder, "the first African-American Attorney General."

Appearing on The O'Reilly Factor, Hume added, "Everybody will be saying, ‘He wouldn’t do this, they wouldn’t do this to him if he were white.’ You know that’s coming."

Tuesday night's edition of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News featured one of the latest videos from Dan Joseph of MRCTV from the streets of Madison. Joseph tried to interview an angry aging hippie as he held up leftist signs, including one with Gov. Scott Walker's face in a pile of elephant dung.

Joseph turned to a group of middle-school-aged children who said the protester was scary. O'Reilly said "Those kids are getting quite a political education." O'Reilly also featured what a generous person might call the "soul stylings" of liberal Congresswoman Gwen Moore of Milwaukee as she tried to sing "Hit the Road, Scott."

Former Clinton operative George Stephanopoulos threw Bill Clinton's recent attack on Republicans at guest Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday's Good Morning America, but O'Reilly would have none of it. "He [Clinton] says it’s Romney and the Republicans are going to bring European economics to America," Stephanopoulos revealed.

O'Reilly laughed off the remark. "How many drinks did he have? I mean this is insane," he blurted out. Stephanopoulos pressed on, though, correcting his guest that Clinton meant austerity measures and not European socialism. O'Reilly still didn't take that claim seriously. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

NewsBusters senior editor and Media Research Center director of media analysis Tim Graham appeared on the June 4 O'Reilly Factor to discuss the role that the broadcast network morning shows play in influencing the electorate with their liberal-leaning narratives about the issues this election season.

The morning shows have strong ratings, "have become the profit centers for [broadcast networks'] news divisions and they reach a lot of female voters in particular," Graham noted. "[O]ne of the reasons we pay so much attention to the morning shows... is just a dramatic bias in terms of favoring Obama, favoring the Democrats." [you can watch the full segment in the video embedded below the page break]

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly cited the Culture and Media Institute’s research into the network coverage of the Live Action sex-selection videos on his May 31 show.

O’Reilly noted: “The Media Research Center looked at the news this week on the nightly newscasts and CNN. Zero reporting. Nothing. Silence. Blackout.” (O’Reilly was mistaken in that CMI’s analysis didn’t cover CNN – just ABC, CBS and NBC.)

Video after the jump.