Lame Anti-O'Reilly Stunt, Malkin, ABC, Super Bowl Anger

CHILDISH PLOY

O'Reilly Darfur Fund, Santa Cruz Hate, What Now For ABC?




Why exactly should Bill O'Reilly travel to Darfur?

The "answer" speaks volumes on just how petty and childish his left-wing critics have become.

Going so far as to take up a cyber collection, they insist he could easily host his shows from Sudan to bring attention to the region's plight.

Do these people really care about Sudan, the virtually obliterated peoples of Darfur, or human rights as a whole? Of course not.

And don't take the Radio Equalizer's word for it, here's the real story (excerpted) from Editor & Publisher:

NEW YORK TV and radio talk show host Bill O'Reilly fired back at New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof Tuesday night as their two-month-old feud continued.

O'Reilly called Kristof's column this morning, in which he announced a "pledge drive" to collect money to send the Fox News personality to Darfur, "simply a gimmick, a ploy, to bring my name to his passion."

He said he didn't really mind this, except that Kristof is "wrong" in focusing on Americans when the Sudanese are the "villains" for the mass killing in Darfur, and the United Nations holds the major blame for letting it go on.

The "feud" began last December when O'Reilly denounced Kristof as a "left-wing ideologue." Kristof replied by calling him a "bully" and challenging O'Reilly to show truly "traditional values" by joining him on a visit to Darfur to assess the death and devastation there, thereby "using your talents for an important cause."

Kristof in his Tuesday column revealed that a few days ago he got this answer to his earlier offer to take O'Reilly to Darfur: "I do three hours of daily news analysis on TV and radio. There's no way I can go to Africa."

But Kristof observed that with a satellite phone, "you can do your show from anywhere."

Of course, the truth is there's no realistic way O'Reilly could host shows from such a remote region, via video or satellite phones. Quality and reliability would be far too uncertain.

Beyond that, the Radio Equalizer has a laundry list of sobering holiday destinations for these liberal commentators to visit, including Zimbabwe, a number of other African countries, the slums of Venezuela, Brazil, and the starving cities of North Korea.

After all, these are the very same people turning a blind eye to the daily abuses and suffering in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, still stuck with the colonial-era mindset that this brutal dictator is a "freedom fighter".


For talk radio fans, what does ABC Radio's merger with Citadel Communications mean? Until more details emerge, our complete analysis is on hold.

So far, we've learned so little about who will be running ABC's stations, it's best to wait. Insiders don't seem to know much more than the rest of us.

Instead, we do have these tidbits from the Chicago Sun-Times and Radio & Records. When enough details are revealed, watch for a full fallout assessment here.


Did you have trouble reaching Michelle Malkin's site Tuesday evening? It seemed to take at least ten attempts to successfully get to it.

Between the huge interest in the Danish cartoons story, her Hannity & Colmes visit (video from Expose The Left here) and the subsequent website traffic surge, it may have simply been too much for the servers to handle.

As people from around the world seek the Danish cartoons censored from so many newspapers, including here in America, we've been tracking the huge increase in visitors to Malkin's site. Through Tuesday evening, this chart shows her website's visitor totals.

On a related note, Blog For Books captured an interesting segment on the cartoon controversy with Charles Gibson. And, NRO's Media Blog says newspapers are finally waking up and reporting how foreign govenments are working to incite these riots.

UPDATE: Michelle ran into trouble by attempting to show the cartoons during her TV interview segment. After reviewing it, the Radio Equalizer concludes Malkin is right: the camera quickly cut away as she tried to let viewers see them.

This may turn into a big controversy in itself. Did producers for Hannity & Colmes do this intentionally? Her debate opponent, a UC-Irvine professor, came across as an idiot.


Especially in Seattle, a number of Super Bowl viewers are still hopping mad about what they consider very sloppy calls. Did they change the game's outcome?

Pull On Superman's Cape has the latest play-by-play (very detailed, we might add).


Overlooked story department: from my Hometown Shame file.

Via the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

SANTA CRUZ — Vandals struck five Santa Cruz churches, a Christian bookstore and the historic Santa Cruz Mission Adobe on Saturday night in what police are calling a hate crime.

The vandals used a stencil to leave specially crafted messages and images about a half-foot across. One depicted a cross with an equal sign followed by a swastika. Church leaders said another stated "Abort Christ," a message one minister called "stunning and distressing."

The targeted churches included Holy Cross, Messiah Lutheran, High Street Community, First Congregational and Calvary Episcopalian. Also struck was the Agnus Dei Christian bookstore on Cedar Street and the Santa Cruz Mission Adobe park, which is near Holy Cross.

The Rev. Mark Stetz of Holy Cross said the messages seemed so general that it is not clear what the person or people were upset about. He said the church reaches out to all members of the community and tries to promote social justice.

"There is nothing constructive about what they did," he said. "It's just damaging and destructive, and the resources needed to repair those things could have been used to help people in other ways."

Santa Cruz police Lt. Rick Martinez called it a calculated act that included designing stencils.

"We're very concerned," he said. "We're definitely investigating this as a hate crime, and it is definitely prioritized as such."

The Rev. Nancy Miller, interim pastor at Calvary Episcopalian Church, called the "Abort Christ" message "awful."

"I rather presume it was a stupid prank, but I'm fearful it might be something else. I just don't know," she said. "I'm grateful it was found before the first service. It's very stunning and distressing."

Both the historic adobe and Holy Cross were tagged with similar graffiti in October, and Stetz is concerned it's becoming "habitualized." In the earlier incidents, however, the words were drawn using marker and spray paint.

Restoration of the lime-washed mud walls of the historic adobe is costly and time-consuming, State Parks officials said; October's damaged wall remains covered with white fabric, as does Saturday's vandalism on at least one additional wall.

I went to school at Holy Cross, the adobe is immediately behind it. As you may already know, Santa Cruz has long been a haven for deranged, hate-filled leftists who rarely seem to have a coherent cause. The city's sad deterioration began with the establishment of the UC-Santa Cruz campus.

As a result, it's not a terribly safe place to live and work. Sad, but unfortunately true.

Thanks for your continued Radio Equalizer support, via Amazon orders that begin with clicks here. In the spotlight: Robert Ferrigno's new thriller Prayers For The Assassin.

Mission Santa Cruz view from Holy Cross Church: Hubert A Lowman, O'Reilly: CBS, Darfur woman: europa.eu