O’Reilly claimed that his staff found posts on FR staying stuff like “I hate blacks”, “gays are dogs”, etc. He recommended that every message on FreeRepublic should be pre-screened before publication. He also said that Daily Kos had an even greater volume of outrageous comments.
Kristinn reponded that those posts O’Reilly claimed to find represent only a tiny fraction of the messages posted here, that they violate the posting guidelines, they don’t represent the official position of the website, and that a staff of volunteer moderators remove those posts when they are reported.
Anyone who has spent enough time here has probably seen those posts on rare occasions, and they should be rightly condemned. But O’Reilly was trying to portray FR has a hate site by grossly exaggerating the number of hateful posts.
O’Reilly fails to understand that this site is not advertiser-supported - and moreover, he lacks a fundamental understanding of the Internet culture or technology. This site relies solely on member contributions, and operates on a modest budget that cannot afford to hire professional moderators to pre-screen each message. Furthermore, many large commercial web companies like Yahoo have no pre-screening function, and probably have a much greater number of vile posts. As disturbing as some of the occasional posts are, it would be more disturbing to totally shut down the free exchange of information and opinions - even the reprehensible and deplorable ones.
I quit watching O’Reilly a few years ago after it emerged in court papers that he was running around the Fox News offices telling his co-workers about his wife’s vibrator. A guy who would betray the most intimate secrets of his marriage doesn’t deserve any respect.
(Having said all of that, it would probably be a good idea to crack down more aggressively on rule violations - especially with a big election coming up.)
o’Really is a idiot trying to be relevent. You never can trust anything he says.
What does he think about Hillary’s attempt to bypass the CONSTITUTION just so Richard Nixon would be sent to Prison. Forget a trial etc etc.
Or her Star chamber health care plan. Then recently, musing that the right wing conspiracy (radio) needed to be equalized with the filth of Alfranken and KOS.
It all sounds pretty fascist to me.
The posts in this thread that say that BillO doesn’t understand internet culture are exactly right. The thing is that neither do most of his viewers- the vast majority of them are over the age of 50.
What this is all about is simple: O’Reilly has found an opening to attack the democrats - the fact that they are going to the YearlyKos convention. For the last 2 weeks he has demonized that site as some sort of vile, kkk and Nazi-esque hate site. See here for more:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016025.php
But BillO is also concerned about appearances, so he wants to be “fair and balanced”. How does he do that? He attacks freerepublic, distorting what people find there in much the same way he distorted the Kos ste, figuring it is an inconsequential community of people.
He has no idea what he is getting himself into.
I have several videos up there, more than one of Ann Coulter on Hardball and The O’Reilly Fracture.
I have had to delete over ONE HUNDRED comments because of vile filthy despicable comments about Ann and Conservatives. Posted by good Liberals about the You Tube clips.
FR Rocks. It's nothing like what BO tried to spin it as.
He's jealous.
Sounds like O'Reilly's not going to let himself get confused by the facts.
You know that Jim in the very beginning had to fight everyday to keep the Neo-Nazi’s, Klan types, and other really bizaro people in check. The thing about it, most people that have been around for a while can spot them a hundred post away. I have been gone for a while, but looking at some of the postings recently, the Kos types are getting much better at disquising themselves.
“..telling his co-workers about his wife’s vibrator.”
What does it say about him?