Did O’Reilly advocate terrorism against San Francisco?

November 14, 2005

I usually try to resist reporting on every nutty utterance from Bill O’Reilly and his ilk; there’s just too much material. But last week, O’Reilly apparently went too far, even by his standards.

O’Reilly went on a rather predictable tirade when a majority of San Francisco voters backed a ban on on-campus military recruiting at local high schools and colleges. But instead of just the usual harangue against the city, O’Reilly actually seemed to suggest a terrorist strike.

“Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I’m not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I’m the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, ‘Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you’re not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead.’

“And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.”

Perhaps realizing that O’Reilly exceeded reasonable standards for public discourse, Fox News hoped to hide his remarks, editing the transcript of the show to remove the part about his invitation to al Queda to kill Americans in San Francisco. The editing didn’t really make a difference — Media Matters has the tape and transcript — but the fact that FNC was embarrassed by this is telling.

Oddly enough, O’Reilly hasn’t backed down. On Friday, he appeared on a conservative San Francisco radio show. Asked if he stood by his remarks, O’Reilly said, “Of course I do,” adding, “What I said isn’t controversial. What I said needed to be said.”

There really isn’t a liberal equivalent of O’Reilly in the national media, but I wonder what the reaction might be if, say, Bill Maher suggested on the air that al Queda launch a terrorist attack against Americans in a conservative city. Would Maher keep his job? Would advertisers stand by him? Would public officials continue to appear on his program?

“… if, say, Bill Maher suggested on the air that al Queda launch a terrorist attack against Americans in a conservative city. Would Maher keep his job? Would advertisers stand by him? Would public officials continue to appear on his program?”

A very nice series of hypotheticals.

We all know the answers of course.

With a couple of slashes of your Zorro sword you’ve put to death the idea of the media’s liberal bias.

Case closed.
Next right wing urban legend please….

  • It seems Senor Scumbag was able to wriggle his way out of a sexual harrassment suit, but this kind of talk is just unconscionable. I think myself and others living in San Francisco need to bring a civil action against this idiot. I’ll be looking into it this afternoon.

  • I love San Francisco. Lived there (Haight-Ashbury) for eight wonderful years.

    Five times in the 19th century, criminals demanding “insurance money” burned the city to ground. Neither those nor the 1906 earthquake-fire could destroy that wonderful place. There’s a reason the phoenix appears atop the city-county’s official seal. San Francisco will be there, just as wonderful, long after O’Reilly is polluting the earth by rotting in the ground. I know this because I’ve seen Star Trek IV.

    O’Reilly is frequently made fun of on Air America. Stephanie Miller is particularly good at using his sound-clips for frolicsome hilarity and skewering.

  • Shouldn’t O’Reilly be sued for making terrorist threats against U.S. citizens? Seems to me there’s a law about that somewhere, and if there isn’t there ought to be.

  • The “if you vote against” line seems kind of resounding to me, is he against democracy too?

    The issue of military recruiting is serious and his comments sidestep it. SF voters don’t want military recruiting in HSs because of the sleazy scenes they saw in Fahrenheit 9/11. Military recruiting is not a bad thing on the whole and is a very necessary social tool to help raise people out of rough situations, however, if unmonitored these guys can use the sleaze to make their numbers. I think that’s the messages the voters of SF are trying to send. O’Reilly is taking that as “SF hates the military”, which is just par for the course in Republican obfuscation.

  • Some industrious journalist should locate a person who lived in New York on 9/11/01 and now lives in San Francisco, and interview them about this.

    I wonder what their opinion would be?

    Fox and O’Lielly’s advertisers should be boycotted.

  • O’Reilly is out of line here and he knows it…this is corrosive stuff. He just trivializes himself further by refusing to apologize, and if it’s one thing these guys fear it’s being perceived as inconsequential…the tape loop with his damning words will play forever…

  • People need to start equating O’Reilly’s ravings with that of the other nutbag, Pat Robertson.

    Pat called for assassinating a leader of another country, but O’Reilly called for Al Qaeda to destroy an American city….gee, which is the bigger threat to America???

    O’Reilly = Robertson = marginalized as a wackjob. Care to join in Mr. Hannity?

  • We should be happy that Bill can’t help but say incredibly silly things like this. He would be far more dangerous if anyone took him seriously, but thank God he, like Pat Robertson, are their own worst enemy. Don’t worry, eventually Bill’s 15 minutes of fame will be over and he’ll go back to playing lewdly with loofah sponges while making perverted phone calls.

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