Bill O'Reilly controversies

Commentator Bill O'Reilly has been involved in numerous controversies.

Disputes of Accuracy

Malmedy massacre

On October 28 2005, O'Reilly falsely claimed, in an interview with Fox News Channel analyst General Wesley Clark, that U.S. troops committed the Malmedy massacre. O'Reilly stated "General, you need to look at the Malmedy massacre in World War Two, and the 82nd Airborne who did it." ^* This statement implied that American soldiers had massacred German prisoners of war in the Malmedy massacre. In actuality, it was the German Waffen-SS troops that massacred eighty-four surrendering American soldiers.

On May 30, 2006 O'Reilly again interviewed Wesley Clark. O'Reilly stated "In Malmedy, as you know, US Forces captured SS forces who had their hands in the air and they were unarmed and they shot them down. You know that. It's on the record and documented." Wesley Clark did not correct O'Reilly at any point during the interview. Fox News later edited the transcripts of the conversation inserting the word "Normandy" where O'Reilly had said "Malmedy." ^* This page contains what it describes as a 'partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," May 30, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.' There is also a link entitled "FREE FOX News Video: Watch this segment" under the tab "VIDEO". The transcript text contains the word "Normandy" three times, once spoken by O'Reilly, once by Clark, and finally by O'Reilly. The video linked to has audio of those words, and video of O'Reilly's and Clark's faces as they speak. The pronunciation used by O'Reilly sounds more like "Malmedy", while the pronunciation used by Clark sounds more like "Normandy".

In a later broadcast, O'Reilly responded to a viewer's attempt to correct his previous night's claim, stating In the heat of the debate with General Clark my statement wasn't clear enough... after Malmedy some German captives were executed by American troops". O'Reilly posted a column almost a year earlier on June 23, 2005 on his website, where he correctly described the Waffen-SS troops as the ones who massacred the surrendering US Army soldiers near Malmedy, and not the other way around. ^* In this column O'Reilly then used the example that the US Army's 11th Armored Division responded to the Malmedy massacre in the aftermath by carrying out revenged attacks on captured German soldiers.

University of Oregon Student Newspaper Controversy

On May 17, 2006 Bill O'Reilly incorrectly claimed that the University of Oregon's president Dave Frohnmayer had allowed the university's students to publish cartoons of Jesus that offended Christians in a newspaper funded "student fees", this has been shown to be untrue because the newspaper was in fact the student paper -- The Insurgent -- is not the official University of Oregon student paper but a private student-run newspaper, and, according to the university's president, the school has no editorial control over what it publishes. Moreover, in publishing the Jesus cartoons, The Insurgent was apparently responding to a rival paper's decision to publish controversial cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, which have sparked Muslim outrage and rioting in Europe, a fact that O'Reilly never mentioned in his coverage of the issue.[http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCampus.asp?Page=/Campus/archive/200605/CAM20060526a.html

False Profanity Allegations

On May 3, 2006 Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that public-school teachers in New York City "are instructed not to say a word" about students speaking profanity in school on his show The O'Reilly Factor. According to the New York City schools' discipline code, "profane, obscene, vulgar, lewd or abusive language or gestures" is a "Level 2 infraction" that is considered "disorderly disruptive behavior" and is punishable by a range of disciplinary actions, what led O'Reilly to report these false claims remain to be discovered.^*

Peabody Award

In a February 10, 2001 speech at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, O'Reilly incorrectly claimed that Inside Edition, a show he had previously anchored, had won a Peabody Award. After watching an airing of the speech a couple weeks later on C-SPAN, Al Franken stated that he performed a search on Nexis and found three previous occasions dating back to August 30, 1999 where O'Reilly had repeated the incorrect claim. Franken called O'Reilly for a statement and O'Reilly admitted he had made an error, correcting himself and stating that the show had won a George Polk Award and not a Peabody ^*." target="_blank" > Further research that Franken documented in his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them reveals that the Polk award was given one year after O'Reilly's tenure at Inside Edition and for work O'Reilly had not been involved with [http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/polk/prev/prev90.html) .

Franken called Lloyd Grove, a reporter for The Washington Post, who called O'Reilly and asked him about his statements. O'Reilly offered an admission of error, saying "...So I got mixed up between a Peabody Award and a Polk Award...". Grove published the story on March 1, 2001 in his column "The Reliable Source".^*

On March 8, Robert Reno of Newsday reported "O'Reilly also has repeatedly boasted of his Peabody Awards... Actually, he has never won a Peabody...he got it confused with the Polk Award...which had been won by "Inside Edition" ..." ^*. O'Reilly rejected the characterization and stated that he was misquoted and had never made the attribution of having personally won the award. On the March 13th edition of The O'Reilly Factor, during a discussion on "attack journalism" O'Reilly says of the incident:

Guy says about me, couple weeks ago, "O’Reilly said he won a Peabody Award." Never said it. You can’t find a transcript where I said it. You—there is no one on earth you could bring in that would say I said it. Robert Reno in Newsday, a columnist, writes in his column, calls me a liar, all right? And it’s totally fabricated. That’s attack journalism. It’s dishonest, it’s disgusting, and it hurts reputations.

Controversy about boyhood home

O'Reilly has long claimed that his inspiration for speaking up for average Americans, or what he calls "the folks.", are his working-class roots. He often points to his boyhood home in lower-middle-class Levittown, New York as a credential. Based on a Washington Post interview, Al Frankenand others have asserted that O'Reilly did not grow up in Levittown, but instead in a marginally more affluent neighboring village, Westbury. The source the Post used for their assertion was O'Reilly's mother, who at the time a profile of O'Reilly was published in 2000 still lived in his boyhood home.[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62722-2000Dec12?language=printer The issue was originally brought up by Michael Kinsley in an Op-Ed piece.

O'Reilly has alleged that the Washington Post misquoted his mother though he is on the record saying his mother still lives in his boyhood home. O'Reilly placed a copy of the deed to the house on his website, which shows that the property had title and a postal address in Levittown ^*." target="_blank" >The date on the deed indicates his parents bought a new or nearly new home in 1951 in the Levittown development[http://lyingliar.com/lies/images/levittown.gif, a mass-produced housing development, constructed by William Levitt between 1947 and 1952, that was to become archetype for suburbia.

William Levitt typically bought open farmland for development and it is unlikely that that the Levittown development in Westbury resembled the older, westerly parts of the village. The Washington Post confirms that the O'Reilly family home was built by William Levitt^*^* to conform with the 11756 Zip Code. Zip codes were introduced in 1963. After this time the home was located in Westbury. The redrawing of political maps resulted in a similar controversy regarding musician Billy Joel's Levittown family home which was annexed by neighboring Hicksville.

"Shut up" line

On November 15, 2002, a viewer criticized O'Reilly's interruption of his guests telling them to "Shut Up". O'Reilly responded to this statement contending that the "Shut up line has happened only once in six years". Appearing on CBS's 60 Minutes, O'Reilly claimed that his research department reviewed every "Factor" episode since its 1996 debut and had come to the conclusion that he said "shut up" six times. Slate.com author Jack Shafer documented 30 different programs where O'Reilly used the "Shut up" line at least once, 13 of which occurred before O'Reilly's contention. One of the most notable "shut up" line was directed towards Jeremy Glick, a peace activist whose father was killed on 9/11. Shafer calculated that O'Reilly said the "shut up" line 200 times since his show premiered in 1996.^* However, most of the "shut-up" lines documented are not directed at guests on his show but are directed at his opponents or critics during his talking points memo.

Disputed claims involving the War on Christmas

In the wake of O'Reilly's promotion of an alleged "War on Christmas" (see section below), Media Matters for America posted several reports on their website with links to news articles from Michigan’s WNEM-TV5 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette^*," target="_blank" >as well as to one retraction by O’Reilly himself, noting that several of O'Reilly’s allegations to support his theory were either false or inaccurate .Media Matters and others have expressed doubts regarding the crediblity of O'Reilly's claims since one of O'Reilly's sources regarding the alleged War On Christmas was a skit on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart[http://mediamatters.org/items/200512060004.

Critics and Rivals

Media Matters for America

Media Matters is a web-based, non-profit organization that reports and archives what it describes as "conservative misinformation in the U.S. media" O'Reilly is often the subject of Media Matters' online reports, which often critizes O'Reilly for partisanship and selective coverage. O'Reilly has referred to Media Matters as "smear merchants," and "the most vile, despicable human beings on the planet," and also has expressed reservations toward them because he claims they are funded by George Soros. [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,171328,00.html

Al Franken

Franken book controversy

The comedian and liberal political commentator, Al Franken wrote a 2003 book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look At the Right, which included a picture of O'Reilly on the cover and a chapter devoted to him inside. The two men participated in a panel discussion at the 2003 BookExpoAmerica (which was televised on C-Span). Franken told a story about O'Reilly's denial of erroneous statements regarding receiving two Peabody Awards (see Peabody Award above). After Franken's story, the two men argued. The link to the video of the full discussion is provided at the following footnote .

Name calling

Franken refers to O'Reilly as "Bill O'Lielly" and O'Reilly refers to Franken as Stuart Smalley, after an effeminate character the comedian once portrayed on Saturday Night Live. Franken's Air America radio program, launched in 2004, was initially titled The O'Franken Factor. (Franken specifically named the program this way to provoke O'Reilly. The name was changed three months later to The Al Franken Show.)

On June 20, 2005, O'Reilly called for Franken and all of his colleagues at Air America Radio to be prosecuted as traitors: "Everybody got it? Dissent, fine; undermining, you're a traitor. Got it? So, all those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they're undermining everything and they don't care, couldn't care less"

In an interview with Ann Coulter in 2003, O'Reilly referred to Franken as "a vile human being" and Coulter agreed with him.

cite web url=http://mediamatters.org/items/200506220006 title=O'Reilly: FBI should arrest the "clowns" at Air America Radio for being traitors }}.

Franken alleges selective editing

In an Air America broadcast on the Sundance Channel, Franken alleged O'Reilly "selective edited" a June 5, 2005 interview of Senator Joseph Biden by George Stephanopoulos. In the interview Biden proposed the submission of legislation for an indepedent commission to look into wrongdoing in the U.S. Army's prison system at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. Franken alleged that when O'Reilly cited the same interview on The Factor, Biden's entire explanation of an independent commission policy was edited out and only Biden's call to shut down Guantanamo Bay was presented. O'Reilly then alleged that Biden was misusing the prison abuse story and presented his own opinion: "The Bush administration should set up an independent commission to investigate American detainee policy across the board. The president must take the offensive on this, or else the country's image will continue to suffer and the jihadists and their enablers will win another victory." Franken criticized this as a misrepresentation by O'Reilly and suggested that viewers would not know that O'Reilly was in apparent agreement with Biden's proposal.

Jeremy Glick

On his televised program on February 4, 2003, O'Reilly interviewed Jeremy Glick, a man whose father had been killed in the World Trade Center attacks. Glick had signed an anti-war ad that made comments relating the September 11 attacks to atrocities in Baghdad, Panama City and Vietnam. O'Reilly told Glick that he doubted that Glick's father would approve of his anti-war stance. After Glick accused O'Reilly of evoking "9/11 to rationalize everything from domestic plunder to imperialistic aggression worldwide", and also of evoking "sympathy with the 9/11 families" to do the same, O'Reilly became visibly angered with Glick, stating "That's a bunch of crap. I've done more for the 9/11 families by their own admission -- I've done more for them than you will ever hope to do" (see American Red Cross and the United Way section below.) Glick defended his opposition to the war in Afganistan by stating that "The people of Afghanistan didn't kill my father." O'Reilly yelled back "Sure they did!" The short and heated segment ended with O'Reilly giving the command to his staff to cut Glick's microphone.

O'Reilly has since maintained that Glick remarked during the interview that George W. Bush orchestrated or had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks claiming "Glick was saying without a shred of evidence that President Bush, and Bush the elder, were directly responsible for 9/11" and "He came on this program and accused President Bush of knowing about 9/11 and murdering his own father." ^*. Glick stated in the interview that "Our current president now inherited a legacy from his father and inherited a political legacy that's responsible for training militarily, economically, and situating geopolitically the parties involved in the alleged assassination and the murder of my father and countless of thousands of others."

Keith Olbermann

During a January 2006 "Talking Points Memo," O'Reilly claimed that NBC in general (and MSNBC) were "taking cheap shots at FOX News on a regular basis...for some time" and noted that NBC's "cable operations are dead last the ratings," saying "that is no excuse for unprofessional behavior." O'Reilly also claimed that FOX News has "good relationships with ABC News, CBS News, and generally CNN.".

While O'Reilly gave no specific examples of MSNBC bashing FOX News, it is understood by most that he is referring to Keith Olbermann, the host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann (and could have also been referring to parodies of him on Saturday Night Live, performed by Darrell Hammond). Countdown is a news program airing opposite of the The O'Reilly Factor and frequently targets O'Reilly in the "Worst Person in the World" segment of the program. On Countdown Olbermann had also previously initiated an unsuccessful campaign to "Save the Tapes". This campaign aimed to purchase taped phone conversations in which O'Reilly was accused of sexual harassment. Olbermann often references the sexual harassment suit, leading him to the name for O'Reilly's statements as "The Falafel Guy Fatwa" and running jokes about loofahs, referring to the terminology O'Reilly allegedly used in his taped conversations with former Fox News producer Andrea Mackris.

Olbermann responded to O'Reilly's attack on MSNBC by saying that FOX News is more likely to engage in the activities O'Reilly said MSNBC and NBC were neck-deep in (for example, on O'Reilly's claim that FOX News had a "generally good" relationship with CNN, Olbermann pointed out that FOX News set up a billboard across the street from CNN Center in Atlanta teasing them about ratings that FOX News spokeswoman Tracey Spector compared CNN to the Titanic Ted Turner "lost his mind" ^*," target="_blank" >that Fox's Rob Zimmerman compared Paula Zahn to an outhouse Roger Ailes himself compared her to a dead raccoon. [http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/roger_ailes_paula_zahn_22642.asp" target="_blank" >^*)

On February 22, 2006 O'Reilly initiated an online petition to have MSNBC's 8 p.m. EST timeslot host replaced. The petition is in the form of a letter addressed to NBC chairman Robert Wright saying, "We, the undersigned, are becoming increasingly concerned about the well-being of MSNBC and, in particular, note the continuing ratings failure of the program currently airing weeknights on that network at 8:00 p.m. EST" ^*. Olbermann responded two days later on his Countdown program by playing O'Reilly's greatest hits and mocked the whole affair by joining MSNBC staffers in signing the petition to have himself removed.

Since that time "Countdown" has gained ground, holding a steady second place in the ratings. On June 30th, 2006, in a contest pitting a months-old O'Reilly show rebroadcast against a new show by Keith Olbermann, Olbermann surpassed O'Reilly in the key 25-54 year old demographic for the first time, for the last fifteen minutes of their time slot.^*

Fox News Security controversy

O'Reilly's complaints towards MSNBC continue to not mention Keith Olbermann or his Countdown program. However, when a caller mentioned Olbermann's name on O'Reilly's radio show March 2, 2006, O'Reilly promptly disconnected him and responded "we have your phone number, and we're going to turn it over to FOX security, and you'll be getting a little visit". O'Reilly then stated "When you call us ladies and gentleman, just so you know we do have your phone number and if you say anything untoward, obscene, or anything like that Fox Security will then contact your local authorites and you will be held accountable".^* The exact comment that prompted O'Reilly's threat is not known because all calls to live radio programs are screened in advance and aired at the discretion of the call screeners, and the station has not released the caller's comments in full. At least two callers have received a callback from somebody identifying himself as the director of FOX News security. The legality of O'Reilly's threat is disputed. For example, according to Susan Filan, a former Connecticut state prosecutor: ´´The only person that's going to get in trouble here is Bill O'Reilly. He's lost the plot entirely. To think that you can commandeer local law enforcement to be your personal henchman because you don't like something a caller said on the air is absolutely outrageous and absurd. It's an abuse of the media, it's an abuse of law enforcement, and he's now the one engaging in threatening behavior. You can't do that. He's crossed the line.´´ [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11698322/

Cindy Sheehan

Over a year after her son Casey died, grieving mother turned anti-Iraq War activist Cindy Sheehan began a protest outside of Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush was spending time at his Prairie Chapel Ranch. O'Reilly has made repeated derogatory comments about Sheehan's motives and intelligence. Early on, O'Reilly stated that Sheehan's behavior may make some believe it borders on being treasonous. http://mediamatters.org/items/200508120006 He later stated: "So it's obvious Cindy Sheehan has become a political player, whose primary concern is embarrassing the president. She is no longer just a protester. I don't think she ever has been, by the way." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165862,00.html In an interview with Phil Donahue on September 23, 2005, O'Reilly referred to Cindy Sheehan as "clueless". http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170195,00.html He included her on his October, 2005 "Cowards List", which he described as comprised of "people who will not stand up and answer questions about their bomb-throwing statements." http://mediamatters.org/items/200510270013 On January 4, 2006, he remarked, "She's run by far-left elements who are using her, and she's dumb enough to allow it to happen. It's not a vilification, it's a fact" http://mediamatters.org/items/200601060009

Media Matters for America, the organization referenced above (see Media Matters), has harshly criticized O'Reilly for what it believes is a double-standard on his treatment of Cindy Sheehan in comparison to his treatment of the family of Terri Schiavo. Media Matters argues that while he repeatedly attacked Sheehan's association with leftist groups whose rhetoric, at times, has been extreme, he gave a free pass to the family of Terri Schiavo, who allied themselves with Randall Terry during their campaign to keep their daughter alive. Randall Terry has at various times called for the execution of judges, abortion doctors, homosexuals and Democratic politicians, as well as for Michael Schiavo himself. http://mediamatters.org/items/200503220001

Terry Gross

On October 8, 2003 O'Reilly appeared on the show Fresh Air hosted by Terry Gross.^* O'Reilly walked out of the show mid-taping after he complained that she was asking him tough questions, but didn't ask tough questions of Al Franken, who had criticized O'Reilly in an interview two weeks earlier.

While NPR's ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin criticised O'Reilly's manner and response during the interview, he agreed with O'Reilly that the interview had been biased: "...it felt as though Terry Gross was indeed "carrying Al Franken's water," as some listeners say. It was not about O'Reilly's ideas, or his attitudes or even about his book. It was about O'Reilly as political media phenomenon. That's a legitimate subject for discussion, but in this case, it was an interview that was, in the end, unfair to O'Reilly."^*

Despite the incident, Gross honored a prior agreement and appeared on the The O'Reilly Factor on September 21, 2004 to promote her book.

Controversial topics discussed by O'Reilly

Alleged liberal bias in the media

O'Reilly regularly accuses the New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, BBC, CBC and other major press outlets of leaning to the "political far-left" in their reporting. It is his view that these networks and publications undermine the Bush administration's war on terror. Also very critical of what he describes as "far-left" columnists, which has resulted in frequent back-and-forth debates between his show and their columns. In one such exchange O'Reilly stated that columnist Bob Herbert of the New York Times is "most likely helping the terrorists" because of his refusal to condemn the ACLU for demanding that photographs of prisoners at Abu Ghraib be released.

Most recently, O'Reilly has begun posting the names of various media outlets that he considers to be "defamatory" on a "Hall of Shame" page on his own website; this list includes:

Citizen boycott of French goods

In March 2003, O'Reilly called for a boycott of French products and services sold in the United States, due to President Jacques Chirac's stance on the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In April 2004, O'Reilly claimed “they’ve lost billions of dollars in France” as a direct result of his boycott, referring to The Paris Business Review as his source, a publication that does not exist. On Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, October 18, 2005, O'Reilly confirmed that the boycott is still in place, referring to the French as "our enemies". As late as February 2006 Bill O'Reilly said in his show that "those who supported us, like Britain and Denmark, should be rewarded. Those who did not, like France and Spain, must be held accountable".

A survey conducted by Weber Shandwick in May 2003 found that 43% of U.S. citizens reported they were "less likely" to buy French products because of France's opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq (Drummond, Gillian, "New Yorkers Shun French Restaurants." Caterer and Hotelkeeper, May 15th 2003). An O'Dwyer's PR Services Report article of June, 2003 notes that "French sales in the United States represent $ 28 billion a year, making the United States the most important commercial partner of France after the EU." (McCauley, Kevin, "Political Consumers Punish/Support Brands," O'Dwyer's PR Services Report, June 2003). The U.S. census reveals the amount spent on French imports, categorized by type of import, to the United States before and during the period of O'Reilly's boycott.

Opposing the ACLU

O'Reilly has stated that the ACLU is "the most dangerous organization in the United States of America right now," especially in their challenging of the Justice Department and the Department of Defense regarding the War on terror. He has also highlighted their pro-bono defense of NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, which is currently being tried for responsibility in the rape and murder of a young boy. The ACLU's defends NAMBLA's freedom of speech surrounding their publications and has said that the legal blame in the rape/murder should go to who committed it.The ACLU has said that they sometimes have to defend "unpopular" speech or speech that they don't agree with, including the KKK's.[http://www.aclufl.org/take_action/students/case_of_the_month/1999/faqs1099.cfm

Penalties on child sex offenders

Another recurring theme in his work has been the implementation of harsher penalties on child sex offenders. O'Reilly has frequently pointed out poor judicial handling of some cases. Named in memory of Jessica Lunsford, who was abducted and raped before being brutally murdered, "Jessica's Law" refers to the Jessica Lunsford Act passed in Florida that mandates a minimum sentence of 25 years and a maximum of life in prison for first-time child sex offenders. O'Reilly believes that this law will save lives and has called on constituents to write the governors of those states lacking these laws.

In March 2006, O'Reilly criticized a judge in Ohio for giving a sentence of five years probation to a sexual predator who admitted to molesting children, calling for that judge to be thrown off the bench. O'Reilly was joined by the state's governor and attorney general. In an editorial, Jeff Bruce, editor of the Dayton Daily News, stressed that while the light sentence shouldn't be ignored, that O'Reilly, the governor, and the attorney general, who Bruce claims in the article had each been the subject of scandal, shouldn't make a rush to judgment about the judge. That night, O'Reilly appeared on the Factor charging Bruce with endorsing the judge's sentence, even though Bruce had not endorsed the judge's sentence in the editorial of Bruce's that O'Reilly was discussing.

"War on Christmas"

Main Article: Secularization of Christmas

Since 2002, O'Reilly has been one of the chief proponents of the existence of a "War on Christmas" allegedly launched by secularists in America, who, he claims, are trying to strip the holiday of its religious meaning. He makes reference to lawsuits against public displays of traditional Christian symbols, such as nativity scenes, on public property, the alleged exclusion of Christian groups from public celebrations , and the use of the words "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" as official company policy of some national retailers . Additionally, he was critical of the substitution of the greeting "Merry Christmas" with the more generic, "Happy Holidays" .

O'Reilly also took to the airwaves after Fox News revealed a poll showing 42% of the public believed that the War on Christmas was real , and stated: "And the secular progressives made great inroads over the past five years in demanding that stores, other commercial enterprises, towns, villages not say 'Merry Christmas' or permit Christmas displays of any kind. And look, if you don't know that, if you don't believe that, don't listen to this program. You're a moron, and I don't say it with all due respect". .

Weapons of mass destruction

On ABC's Good Morning America on 18 March, 2003, O'Reilly said "If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again." On February 10, 2004, during a Good Morning America broadcast, O'Reilly said, "My analysis was wrong and I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'm not pleased about it at all...I am much more skeptical of the Bush administration now than I was at that time" . While he continues to support the U.S. presence in Iraq, he remains critical of how the Bush administration is handling some aspects of policy. He believes the U.S. is not relying enough on Iraqi military support and is critical of the administration's failure to secure Iraqi borders. He has also criticized the time it takes to train Iraqi security forces, as compared to U.S recruit training.

Military recruitment in San Francisco schools

On November 8, 2005, the voters of San Francisco approved Proposition I/College Not Combat, a ballot measure that declared the city's opposition to "the federal government's use of public schools to recruit students for service in the military" In response, O'Reilly stated on his radio show, "You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right in to Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it....We're going to say, “Look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead”" . San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly responded, calling for O'Reilly's termination . O'Reilly refused to apologize, and claimed that his comments had been "obviously satirical" The proposition's author, Todd Chretien, appeared on The O'Reilly Factor in response and stated that to the people of San Francisco, the issue was "no laughing matter."

American Red Cross and the United Way

In the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, O'Reilly devoted substantial time on his television show and wrote pieces alleging that the United Way and American Red Cross failed to deliver millions of dollars in donated money, raised by the organizations in the name of the disaster, to the families of those killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.^*^*. O'Reilly asserted that the organizations misrepresented their intentions for the money being raised by not distributing all of the 9/11 relief fund to the victims. ^* After Congressional hearings were called on the matter and an investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the president of the Red Cross was forced to resign for her role in the situation, and the organization pledged that all funds would go to directly benefit the victims of the September 11 attacks. In sworn testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee in November 2001, Congressman J.D. Hayworth asserted that media pressure, most notably from O'Reilly, helped cause the Red Cross to increase payments to affected people and helped cause other charities to participate in an oversight database established by Spitzer ^*.

Ludacris

On August 27, 2002 O'Reilly started a boycott against Pepsi over their endorsement of a popular rapper named Ludacris. O'Reilly's reasons for starting the boycott was due to the fact that Ludacris' lyrics have been known to degrade women and support the use of drugs. Pepsi adhered to O'Reilly's message and dropped Ludacris from their company. During the following year's superbowl, Pepsi signed the Osbourne Family which some have accused of engaging in the type of conduct which had prompted O'Reilly to urge Pepsi to drop Ludacris.

Furthering the controversy, in response to the signing of the Osbourne family, popular music hip-hop mogul, Russell Simmons, organized a boycott against the company. Simmons demanded an apology from Pepsi to Ludacris and a five million dollar donation to one of Ludacris' charities. Eventually Simmons and Pepsi settled on an agreement to stop the boycott, right before it was to officially begin-- while Pepsi did not formally apologise to Ludacris, they did agree to donate millions of dollars over years to Russel Simmon Hop-Hop Summit Action Network.

O'Reilly remained silent over Pepsi's endorsement of the Osbourne family, which some critics described as "racial hypocrisy". ^* ^* ^* Further, O'Reilly denied calling for a boycott of Pepsi on February 4, 2003.

Ludacris' song "Blow It Out" (from the Chicken & Beer album), acted as a scathing response to his critics, namely O'Reilly, who is mentioned by name in the following lyrics:

''Shout out to Bill O'Reilly, I'm'a throw you a curve

''You mad cause I'm a thief and got away with words

''I'm'a start my own beverage, it'll calm your nerves

''Pepsi's the New Generation—Blow it out ya ass!

Other

Hubcaps incident

In April 2003, O'Reilly hosted a fundraiser for Best Friends, a charity benefiting inner-city schoolchildren. O'Reilly was trying to fill time before an African-American singing group called the Best Men was set to perform, and quipped "Does anyone know where the Best Men are? I hope they're not in the parking lot stealing our hubcaps." Some in the audience felt that it was a racially insensitive comment. O'Reilly claims the remarks were a reference to a common prank in the 1950s, and the event had a 50s theme .

On a later episode of The O'Reilly Factor in a heated interview with Neal Boortz regarding the whites-only prom that was held in Georgia, O'Reilly called Boortz a "vicious son of a bitch" after Boortz had insinuated that the only reason O'Reilly had condemned the prom was that he was trying to win sympathy after the hubcaps incident.

Jane Fonda

O'Reilly continued to promote a discredited story that while she was visiting Hanoi during the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda passed secret notes from American prisoners of war to their Vietnamese captors, resulting in the POWs' torture and murder. O'Reilly pressed his case even as his guest, Reason magazine editor-in-chief Nick Gillespie, noted that "the story has been debunked." ^*

However, after one of his guests urged him to investigate the matter at snopes.com, O'Reilly admitted that the claim had, in fact, been debunked, and admitted he was wrong for assuming otherwise. //mediamatters.org/items/200505190009

David Letterman

On January 4, 2006, O'Reilly appeared on David Letterman's late night program, which he had previously praised as "the toughest interview show on television.". When O'Reilly began a discussion on the alleged War on Christmas, Letterman replied, "I think that this is something that happened here, and it happened there, and so people like you are trying to make us think that it's a threat." Letterman accused O'Reilly of making up some of his claims on particular points on the Iraq War, and O'Reilly replied with, "Then I could write for your show." When O'Reilly attacked the motivations of Cindy Sheehan, Letterman took exception, saying O'Reilly had never lost a family member in a war, and therefore O'Reilly could not speak for Sheehan's motivations. O'Reilly then asked how would those who did lose a member in the war, feel about Sheehan calling terrorists "freedom fighters". Letterman eventually said, "I'm not smart enough to debate you point-for-point on this, but I have the feeling that about 60 percent of what you say is crap." (video). When asked by O'Reilly to give examples, Letterman stated that he never watched his show. The next day on his television program, O'Reilly criticized Letterman and called him "a card-carrying member of the secular progressive movement."

References

Controversies

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