How Bill O'Reilly Lied to Me About High-Profile Conservative Hatred of Barack Obama

On October 29, 2008, I called in to "The Radio Factor" to express my concerns about high-profile conservatives hatefully attacking Barack Obama's patriotism. Bill O'Reilly said that such individuals never appeared on his program and do not exist. Those are bald-faced lies.

Honesty has always been very important to me. One would think that it would be even more important to Bill O'Reilly, who has staked his entire career on straight talking to "the folks."

I take no pleasure in writing this article. In fact, I do it with a heavy heart. I have listened to Bill O'Reilly on radio and television for many years. Although I didn't always agree with him, I found him to be fair and honest. That is no longer the case.

"Lie" is a harsh term, and I do not use it lightly. However, after careful reflection, and for the reasons stated below, I believe that it is appropriate in this case. Here's the text of the relevant portion of an email I sent to Mr. O'Reilly shortly after my brief, on-air conversation with him:

"Bill:

When I called in to "The Radio Factor" today to challenge you for not being hard enough on supposedly mainstream conservatives who throw around adjectives like "anti-American," "un-American," and "Marxist" in relation to Barack Obama, you said that they have no influence. When I pointed out that some of them--like Laura Ingraham and Monica Crowley--have audiences in the millions and appear on your program, you said that I wasn't telling the truth.

That's dishonest, and you know it. Laura Ingraham is a regular on "The Factor" and has strongly suggested that Obama is "Marxist." Clips of her using that word are readily available on YouTube. A couple of weeks ago, on "The McLaughlin Group," nationally syndicated radio host Monica Crowley slammed Obama's tax policy as "anti-American." As you well know, Crowley has appeared numerous times on "The Factor." And last week you had Rep. Michele Bachmann on "The Factor" to explain her "anti-American" comments.

Congratulations. You've probably lost some listeners, including this one. Have a nice day.

Stuart Ellison

Brooklyn, New York"

I invite anyone who is capable of legally retrieving and publishing a tape of my exchange with Bill O'Reilly to do so. My only concern is that O'Reilly's producer may not have put all of my comments on the air. In any case, I stand by my comments. All of them.

There is no evidence that Mr. O'Reilly misunderstood my statements. He asked for no clarification and quickly dismissed my remarks as "false." That characterization is untrue.

According to spring 2008 data from Talkers Magazine, Laura Ingraham's nationally syndicated radio program has a weekly audience of 5.5 million listeners, a radio following considerably larger than Bill O'Reilly's. In addition, Ms. Ingraham has a weekly segment entitled "The Ingraham Angle" on Mr. O'Reilly's television program, "The O'Reilly Factor."

In a recent appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor," Laura Ingraham said: "Frankly, you can make a plausible argument that a lot of his [Obama's] associations are Marxist outlooks, on how we should overthrow capitalism." This quote can be heard at about the four-minute mark of a six-minute and fifteen-second tape available on YouTube.

Bill O'Reilly is an intellectually agile man. It is inconceivable that he would not remember the recent comments Laura Ingraham made on his own program.

Monica Crowley is a nationally syndicated radio host who has appeared numerous times on "The O'Reilly Factor." She is also a regular panelist on "The McLaughlin Group." During an October 19, 2008 broadcast of "The McLaughlin Group," Ms. Crowley slammed Barack Obama's economic policies as "anti-American." A transcript of the broadcast is available on "The McLaughlin Group" website.

Bill O'Reilly follows the media more than anyone on the planet. His staff scours transcripts of all major broadcasts. It is virtually impossible that Mr. O'Reilly was unaware of Monica Crowley's remark.

On a recent broadcast of Chris Matthews's "Harball" program, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said: "I'm very concerned that he [Obama] may have anti-American views." During the same broadcast, she added: "The people that Barack Obama has been associating with are anti-American, by and large."

Let's keep things in perspective, Michele. National politicians like Barack Obama associate with many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people. Although Obama's associations with unsavory characters are deeply disturbing, they number only a handful.

On a subsequent appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor," Rep. Bachmann claimed that Matthews baited her into using the term "anti-American." Michele Bachmann is like the woman at the bar who has a couple of drinks, wakes up in bed with a strange man the next morning, and then claims that she didn't know what she was doing.

Michele Bachmann is no fool. According to her official online biography, Ms. Bachmann was elected to Congress in 2006 and is a member of the House Financial Services Committee. Prior to her election to the House, Ms. Bachmann was a Minnesota state senator for six years and a federal tax litigation attorney for five years. She owns a business with her husband that employs 42 people.

If Rep. Bachmann didn't want to use the term "anti-American" in relation to Barack Obama, she wouldn't have done so. She knew exactly what she was doing. However, she miscalculated the intensity of the ensuing backlash and therefore had to go on the national talk show circuit for damage control. Bill O'Reilly was only too happy to oblige.

Mr. O'Reilly treated Michele Bachmann with kid gloves. If Barney Frank had questioned John McCain's patriotism, O'Reilly would have pounded Frank's head against the wall. Verbally, of course. And he would have been right--no pun intended--to do so.

Notice that neither Laura Ingraham, Monica Crowley, nor Michele Bachmann called Barack Obama "anti-American" or "Marxist." Nor did I say that they did. They didn't have to. With the possible exception of clairvoyants, nobody can definitively say what John McCain or Barack Obama actually believes. We make informed judgments based upon their policy statements, past actions, and present behavior. So when Laura Ingraham says that Barack Obama's associations might be Marxist; when Monica Crowley says that Obama's tax policies are anti-American; and when Michele Bachmann says that she's concerned that Mr. Obama may hold anti-American views, they aren't fooling anyone. People understand that Ingraham, Crowley, and Bachmann are strongly suggesting that Obama is anti-American and/or Marxist, and that they want their audiences to believe he has those characteristics.

Laura Ingraham, Monica Crowley, and Michele Bachmann aren't a few whackos blogging from their basements in their underwear. They are very smart, influential women. And that's what makes them so dangerous. If you believe that Barack Obama is anti-American and/or Marxist, it is not unreasonable to conclude that he is a clear and present danger to the United States. A nut with lethal capability, pushed over the edge by the Ingraham-Crowley-Bachmann brand of rhetoric, can produce a national tragedy. A group of such crazies can create civil unrest.

Is this likely to happen? No, but in an election season that is the most vitriolic since the Jefferson-Adams hate-fest of 1800, the chances of such an occurrence are more than negligible. A recent neo-Nazi plot to kill Barack Obama has been disrupted by federal authorities. A McCain supporter caused considerable uproar when she perpetrated a hoax about an Obama supporter's carving a "B" into her cheek.

Shame on Laura Ingraham, Monica Crowley, and Michele Bachmann for tempting fate in such an environment. They have fanned pernicious flames.

I'm not carrying water for anyone in this election. If you want to criticize Barack Obama, go right ahead. That's what America is all about. But please do it with reasoned arguments instead of vile epithets. Your positions will be more convincing and create less animus.

No matter who is elected president, he will be reviled by about half the population. America in 2008 remains a divided country, exactly the opposite of what it should be. At a time of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and a multi-front war on terror, it is critical that the American people rally behind the next president. That, unfortunately, is unlikely to happen.

Given the constraints of current events, the next president will be unable to engage in radical social experimentation. He'll be too busy shepherding the country through unprecedented peril. A President Obama would govern from the center left, a President McCain from the center right. There are no other viable alternatives.

Barack Obama and John McCain are very decent, patriotic men. Both are potentially excellent presidents. Unfortunately, they are also potentially disastrous presidents. But there is no record of Obama expressing anti-American views. In fact, his public pronouncements have been staunchly pro-American. American icons such as Colin Powell and Warren Buffet have endorsed him. Although his now-infamous "spread the wealth around" comment was ill advised, it was not Marxist.

Regarding the charge that a President Obama would foster creeping socialism, I've got news: socialistic elements have existed in the United States for at least the last 100 years. They include everything from Worker's Compensation to Medicaid and other forms of public assistance. The so-called financial "rescue package" recently enacted by Congress at President Bush's urging, with its quasi-nationalization of major financial institutions, has done more to push America towards socialism than anything since George Washington.

Many conservatives have scornfully labeled Barack Obama as a "redistributor of wealth." But raising taxes is not socialism. If it were, then Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, both of whom raised taxes during their presidencies, would be considered socialists. By definition, any progressive income tax system redistributes wealth. Kirsten Powers has a good column on this topic in the October 29, 2008 edition of The New York Post.

Will Obama's tax policies hurt America's economy? Maybe, maybe not. It all depends upon whether Obama's proposed tax increases are overly burdensome and whether any increased taxes are sufficiently offset by investment incentives.

In addition to the vitriol from the right, there has been much hatred on the left during this election season. Much of that hatred has been directed towards Sarah Palin. People who make porno movies about her or hang her in effigy are repulsive, but their influence is limited. Unlike Ingraham, Crowley, Bachmann and their ilk, they aren't national figures watched by millions of people.

Bill O'Reilly is a smart guy. He understands all of this. He just refuses to admit the obvious. O'Reilly has lost both his objectivity and integrity. And that is a great loss to America.

I'd love to publicly revisit this subject with Bill O'Reilly. I'm calling you out, O'Reilly. Are you gonna answer, or what?