Bill O'Reilly and some of his Fox News fans should take their own advice to heart

by Mike Thompson

For the past week, Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly and his colleagues at Fox News have been bending over backwards to defend former National Public Radio news analyst and current Fox commentator Juan Wiliams, who was fired from his NPR gig for making disparaging remarks about Muslims. A journalist should not be fired for speaking his mind, according to O’Reilly. No, apparently a journalist who speaks his mind should have his e-mail inbox crammed with threatening, disparaging e-mails, according to O’Reilly.


Last Sunday I drew a cartoon about Fox News and the Juan Wiliams affair. O’Reilly apparently took offense to my cartoon and showed it on the air Monday evening. He then gave out my work e-mail address and instructed his viewers to “let him know what you think.” O’Reilly stressed that his viewers should take the high road in their e-mails to me, which is a little like placing a bowl of Halloween candy in front of kids and telling them not to gorge themselves. O’Reilly’s smart enough to know what would happen.


And e-mail me they did, more than 2,500 e-mails, many of them unsuitable to publish here, clogged my inbox. I bring this up not because I’m upset; I’ve grown pretty much immune to insults after 20 years in my profession and realize that I forefit the right to complain about getting bopped in the nose when I voluntarily step into a boxing ring. Besides, I’d like to thank O’Reilly for the significant bump in traffic to my blog. No, I bring this up because I find it strange that O’Reilly and some of his followers followers fail to grasp the irony of their actions.


While defending Williams’ right to free speech, O'Reilly and a number of his viewers tried and failed to bully me for exercising my right to free speech. What it all boils down to for people who behave like this isn’t defending the concept of free speech, rather defending free speech that agrees with their partisan point of view. Many of them decry Williams losing his job because, in their view, he was too conservative. But then want to defund NPR and cause everyone else at the broadcasting company to lose their jobs because, in their view, NPR employees are too liberal. Many of them would stand silently next to people carrying “Obama = Hitler” signs at Tea Party rallies that O'Reilly encourages and promotes, but scream foul when I put the slogan on his shirt in a cartoon. These same people decry what they see as a journalist being punished because of political correctness, then turn around and exercise their own form of political correctness by sending torrents of disparaging, and threatening e-mails in a failed attempt to intimidate a journalist who doesn’t agree with their worldview

more

http://www.freep.com/article/20101026/BLOG24/101026001/

"What it all boils down to for people who behave like this isn’t defending the concept of free speech, rather defending free speech that agrees with their partisan point of view."

He insulted the wrong religion!

So close, Rick! Next time, say something stupid about Muslims, and you'll get that primetime Fox spot no problem!

But when Billo and the rest of his Fox Nitwit Brigade are spouting off about censorship and their "outrage," they're not talking to themselves or their usual audience. They mean that liberals and progressives need to just take whatever they dish out. They're less inclined to take their own advice or medicine.