O’Reilly equates Arianna Huffington with Nazis, KKK

February 29, 2008

It’s as if Bill O’Reilly has never even heard of Godwin’s Law.

During the February 27 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly attacked Arianna Huffington — founder of The Huffington Post — over comments (since removed) that readers posted to an item on the website reporting the hospitalization of former first lady Nancy Reagan after a fall. O’Reilly asserted: “[Y]ou know, I’m not going to call her a name. Arianna Huffington, I have no respect for the woman. I think that she is hurting the country. I wish everybody felt the way I did.”

Townhall.com managing editor Mary Katherine Ham, a guest on the show, then stated: “[T]his happens frequently, unfortunately, on the left-wing blogs,” adding, “[E]very time a conservative gets injured, dies, has something threatening them — whether it’s [former White House press secretary] Tony Snow with cancer or Mrs. Reagan falling down — there is often on [the website] Democratic Underground or Huffington Post, a celebration thread. ” O’Reilly then called The Huffington Post a “sewer” and later asked: “[W]hat’s the difference between the Ku Klux Klan and Arianna Huffington? What’s the difference?”

When Ham replied: “I think there’s difference,” O’Reilly said: “I don’t see any difference between Huffington and the Nazis. … I don’t see any difference.” Ham responded: “[O]h, my gosh. I’m going to have to disagree with you on that one.” O’Reilly replied: “They both want people to die, Mary Katherine. Don’t they?” Ham noted that Huffington “was not the one making those comments” and later stated: “I still don’t think she’s a Nazi.” O’Reilly then said: “I didn’t say she was a Nazi. … I said there’s no difference between what the two do. I want everybody to know that.”

So, let’s review. Someone — not Arianna Huffington — made intemperate remarks about Nancy Reagan in a comments section. Someone on the Huffington staff removed the comments. In response, O’Reilly — who’s had some intemperate comments in his own online forum, not to mention what he says on the air — feels justified in comparing Huffington to the KKK, and insisting that there’s “no difference” between her and the Nazis.

There has to be some kind of medication available for this guy.

It’s worth noting, as Media Matters does, that the Nazi/KKK comparison seems to have become something of a default criticism for O’Reilly. Someone bothers him? Bingo, the object of his ire immediately reminds him of the Nazis and the KKK.

That obviously includes DailyKos…

During the July 18 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, while discussing JetBlue’s decision to sponsor the YearlyKos convention, host Bill O’Reilly asserted that the blog Daily Kos is a “hate website[]” and opined: “There’s no difference between the KKK and the Nazis, who have websites, than the Daily Kos. Because the Daily Kos is basically saying, ‘We’re allowing this kind of thing to come on.’ ” … O’Reilly previously compared Daily Kos to the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan on the July 16 edition of his program.

…not to mention Michael Moore, Al Franken, and Hollywood libs.

One week after right-wing radio host Michael Savage compared progressive financier, philanthropist, and political activist George Soros to Hitler’s minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, TV and radio host Bill O’Reilly compared both author/documentarian Michael Moore and radio host Al Franken to Goebbels. O’Reilly also likened a group of Hollywood celebrities who attended a recent premier of Moore’s new film, Fahrenheit 9/11, to the Nazi faithful.

If ever there was a clown in need of some new material, it’s O’Reilly.

Kevin Drum came up with the right term for getting bent out of shape over stupid blog comments: “Nutpicking”. Let’s use it more often.

  • Strictly speaking, Godwin’s Law is descriptive, not proscriptive. If it’s true that comparisons to Naziism become inevitable the longer a discussion runs (as the Law is formulated), then we can think of O’Reilly as a continous discussion which reached the Godwin point long ago.

    The new barrier O’Reilly has breached is the equation of wanting someone dead or injured with actually killing millions of people.

  • Bill O’Reilly and Jonah Goldberg both seem to think “Nazis/fascists” is a stand-in for “everyone I don’t like.”

  • Are they really too stupid to see the irony in their accusations, or are *we* too stupid to see that they’re simply using a classic “Rovian” strategy of putting the other guy on the defensive before these same comparisons inevitably get applied to those who really deserve them?

    This is a very effective and insidious tactic that has been perfected in the corporate/advertising world that produced these people. I first noticed this is advertising in the 1970s.

    Marketing strategists sit around and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their new widgets.

    Marketing Expert #1: What’s the worst thing about our widget?

    Marketing Expert #2: Well, our widget breaks at the drop of a hat.

    Marketing Expert #87: Let’s call it “Durawidget” and offer a money back guarantee if it doesn’t outlast the leading widget.

    Problem solved. And it sure beats putting all those advertising (propaganda) dollars into R&D and coming up with a better widget, eh?

  • As more and more moderate people become tired of the red-meat garbage the right wing morons use to keep their base fed, the wingnut media will do one thing: increase the volume of garbage.

    This is a good thing.

    What we need to do is remind everyone that anonymous comments can be left by anyone, and it is certainly possible that a wingnut left those comments, because the only people who benefitted are the O’Lielly’s out there. There have been plenty of examples of wingnuts using false-flag tactics, and this could well be just another one. But no matter who left the comments, the thing to remember is that Huffington removed the comments, and if that is done in a timely manner then the moderate observer can easily see who’s being reasonable and who’s just trying to boost his flaccid ratings.

  • There has to be some kind of medication available for this guy.

    I could tell you what medication I would prescribe, but then I would be accused of making an intemperate comment and Bill will label Steve as a Nazi/KKK/Fascist/Commie.

  • #3 “Didn’t Drum have a contest?”

    For “nutpicking”? I have a vague recollection that it was I, Grumpy, who coined that term in a comment on Drum’s blog. Memory may be playing tricks, though. Or simply a case of great minds thinking alike.

    I believe Atrios coined the term “Nitpicklering” for a certain AP reporter’s habit of balancing GOP outrages with Democratic molehills.

  • O’Reilly is obviously trying to paint his critics and other people he doesn’t like with the ugliest brushes he can find, that being calling them Nazis or KKK, but aren’t white supremacists, racists and other hate-filled people a good part of his base? I’d think a large portion of his audience would revere those groups and wince every time Bill mentions them in connection with someone from the left.

  • Speaking of Nazi’s….

    “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over” – Joseph Goebbels

    A few points, repeated over and over, hmmm…. Would like be like comparing liberals to the KKK and Nazis over and over ??

    “I didn’t say BillO was a Nazi. … I said there’s no difference between what the two do. I want everybody to know that.” – ScotW

  • Rabid O’Reilly and FoxNews viewers don’t know the difference between what’s posted on a blog and what some lame-ass idiots put in the comments section. The smear machine always makes it a point to blur that line between blog posts and comments when condemning a left-leaning blog.

  • All I have to say is that if the people at Townhall.com are telling you to dial it down, then you got some problems.

  • Hmm, I always equated Arianna with smart, educated, attractive women who have lived in different parts of the world and have a perspective that American conservatives will never have.

  • Say now, isn’t O’Reilly a Catholic?
    Perhaps he wants to suck all the oxygen out of the room so no one can mention the McCain & Hagee affair.

  • Just let him keep ranting and publicize it everytime he makes an a$$ of himself. Link him to the Republicans any way you can. Highlight it. Let him keep ranting.

    He’s just giving us more ammunition all the time. Considering how he and his wingnut ilk are melting down, they’re going to make a Democratic victory almost assured.

  • The Huffy-puffy post?
    That bland, overrated tripe?
    THAT is what O’Fu*kFace sees as extreme left wing?
    AhhhHAAAa…

  • Steve Benen: “There has to be some kind of medication available for this guy.”

    There is. It’s called hemlock.

  • Speaking of nutpicking, I hope that CB doesn’t get in trouble for some of the stuff that Seaberry posts here.

    Never mind. The likes of O’Reilly would agree with our visiting troll. And the other lefty blogs would understand the difference between a blogger and his intemperate commenters.

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