(co-blogged with Logan Murphy)
O'Reilly's hypocrisy and shamelessness knows no bounds. On Tuesday's "Factor," BillO exploited the tragedy at Virginia Tech to attack Rosie O'Donnell and paint Americans who think it illustrates the need for stricter gun laws as far left loons. O'Reilly just knew the "far-left" would use this to make a political point about gun control. (Ya know, kinda like how he used a drunk driving accident to make a cheap point about immigration.) The conversation then meanders into a comparison between the radical extremist left and the responsible mainstream right. Who better to discuss that than Bernard Goldberg, author of such "fair and balanced" and enlightening screeds as 110 People Who Are Screwing Up America: (and Al Franken Is #37). Maybe we'll see Ann Coulter on tomorrow for a lecture about civility.
Download 
Download Conflating fringe actors on the left (see: Ward Churchill) with the entire Democratic party or "liberals" in general is a common tactic of the right. Another practice they -- along with Beltway pundits -- usually engage in is to attribute their own fringe and minority views to those of "average Americans" (aka non-"far-left" people). For instance, Bill O'Reilly puts no stock in the FACT that 56% of Americans support tougher gun laws while simultaneoulsy grossly exaggerating the views and influence of people like O'Donnell who "represent the entire left." To watch him and Goldberg talk about what is mainstream and what is radical is truly a sight to behold, simply because it is all predicated on dishonest and downright false assertions.
This quote illustrates perfectly how distorted O'Reilly's left-right spectrum analysis is. Granted it was said tongue-in-cheek, but O'Reilly really doesn't think he's a right-winger. How sad.
