Bill O'Reilly, Randi Rhodes, Ann Coulter

O'REILLY BLASTS RHODES

In Coverage Of Coulter Controversy, Hypocrisy Seen





Why is considerably more extreme rhetoric from Air America Radio's liberal talk show hosts almost always ignored, while press outlets and others skewer Ann Coulter over her words?

That's what Bill O'Reilly would like to know.

In his most recent column and during an "O'Reilly Factor" segment on the FOX News Channel, the radio and television host cites particular examples, such as this Randi Rhodes Show excerpt:

RANDI RHODES, AIR AMERICA RADIO: Even the White House press secretary says this today at the press briefing. He says if you look at some of the Al Qaeda memos to Zarqawi, where you had direct pleas — will you please top beheading people? It's bad P.R. I think you have to say to yourself, my God, Al Qaeda is telling Zarqawi to cut the crap with the killing of the Iraqis. And yet, we haven't cut the crap with the killing of the Iraqis.

For O'Reilly, this kind of rhetoric is far more inflammatory than author Ann Coulter's now infamous slam of three "9/11 widows" for their recent left-wing political activism. In his column, Bill writes:

There is hypocrisy running wild in the Coulter controversy. The same media voices that embrace the smear tactics routinely used by the far-left Air America radio network and displayed daily on the nutty political blogs are all huffy about Ms. Coulter attacking a group of 9/11 widows called the "Jersey Girls."

I mean, give me a break, the vicious Al Franken- Michael Moore crowd is now appalled by Coulter? That's like Hulk Hogan being offended by Barry Bonds.

However, bad behavior does not justify other bad behavior, and if conservatives support the personal attacks that Ann Coulter trades in, then they must accept them from the "Bush lied" crew.

Bill, that's a fair point, except for one problem: conservatives, especially bloggers and talk show hosts, have been tripping over each other to see who can denounce Coulter the loudest. In fact, very few on the right are defending her these days.

While speaking out against extremism is a noble cause, the Radio Equalizer continues to object to the annoying practice by some conservatives who slam Coulter only so they can seem more "reasonable" than the next guy. It's a very transparent technique that does nothing for the movement.

What the right isn't doing is paying enough attention to the fringe rantings of these lefty activists. That's right, not enough attention. More recently, the trend has been to ignore much of what they say, a serious mistake.

And, we've seen almost no criticism of far- left websites and activists from supposedly "mainstream" liberals.

Why is O'Reilly the only one who thought to connect Coulter to Rhodes? With Rhodes making far more irresponsible statements, why doesn't she deserve at least as much scorn from both liberals and conservatives?


In his "Talking Points Memo", Bill continues the thought process:

Now, most Americans reject that kind of radicalism and will not vote for anyone associated with it. Why, then, do people like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry, Ed Rendell and others associate themselves with those kinds of people? I just don't get it.

Even though most Americans believe the country's not in good shape right now, most Americans do not hate President Bush. But the "Take Back the America" crowd is full of Bush haters and people who routinely reject all but far-left thought.

For the leftist media, however, it seems that Coulter provides an excellent punching bag and diversionary tactic to avoid addressing extremism on its own side of the fence.

ELSEWHERE: the transcript of Coulter's interesting interview with Sean Hannity is now available here.

--- From Expose The Left: O'Reilly visits the Today Show.

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Small Book: David A Lunde