Posted on 08/11/2007 1:46:22 PM PDT by kristinn
The Honorable Harold Ford, Jr.
Chairman
Democratic Leadership Council
600 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20003
Dear Rep. Ford,
I appeared with you on the O’Reilly Factor on July 31, 2007, in my capacity as spokesman for FreeRepublic.com to discuss politics on the Internet. The host, Bill O’Reilly, falsely accused FreeRepublic.com of having the following comments on its site: "Homosexuals are dogs," "I hate blacks," "Hillary Clinton should be assassinated," and "A stray bullet should kill her."
To be blunt, those comments were made up by the O’Reilly Factor.
The O’Reilly Factor was not able to provide documentation that those comments appeared on FreeRepublic.com. A request for an on air retraction and apology has been ignored.
Let me assure you that, contrary to how the O’Reilly Factor portrayed FreeRepublic.com to you and the viewing public, FreeRepublic.com is not a site where people feel comfortable posting a comment such as “I hate blacks.”
As I made clear on the broadcast, those alleged comments cited by Mr. O’Reilly would be in violation of our posting guidelines and would not be tolerated by our moderators.
It is unfortunate that the O’Reilly Factor stooped to making up comments to besmirch the reputation of FreeRepublic.com in order to appear ‘fair and balanced’ in its campaign against the Daily Kos. Being that the O’Reilly Factor has declined to correct the record, I am writing you personally so that any misconception you have of FreeRepublic.com is cleared up.
Sincerely,
Kristinn Taylor
Spokesman
FreeRepublic.com
Appealing to their better nature?
I’m not sure they have one...
O'Really. BumP!
O’Reilly is an embarrassment to himself, to Fox. If he thinks ignoring your contacts is going to benefit him, he’s wrong.
I used to watch The Factor 3-4 times a week. Now, after seeing what he has said and done to us without cause or proof...he has lost all credibility with me.
O’Reilly making things up?? Noooooooooooooooooooooooo.
My opinion of O'Reilly has been damaged beyond redemption by his refusal to correct his lies.
Well done.
Harold Ford Jr. and his politically corrupt family are the racist in this picture.
Bill O’Riley fits right in with them.
I’ve seen very occasional comments like that but they never last for more than a few minutes. Between the mods and we the FReeple we do a pretty good job of rooting out the filth.
O’Reilly has lost all credibility in this household. He will say anything to inflate his ratings. He plays both ends against the middle to avoid alienating good and evil alike. He stands for nothing. His moral compass has two negative poles. He calls himself an independent, but in reality he’s a registered charlatan. If he were a politician, he would have to change his last name to Clinton.
As a FOX News contributor, there’s nothing Ford can do. He merely gets paid to give the liberal talking points, and he’s not going to be inclined to help FR anyway. My advice would be to write directly to Andrea Mackris, O’Loud Mouth’s producer.
C'mon EEE, get it right!
I’m glad you wrote Ford because he was as uncomfortable as you just sitting there being used as a prop (as you also were) while BOR(E) blathered on and on trying to show how fair he is trashing KOS—but also FR—in an appearance of balance. I know you were unable to deny or refute BOR’s charges right there, but of course later we learned that he was wrong, citing out of context and being ignorance of idioms (what? making fun of idiots?).
Rush cautions about appearing on these set up shows. Maybe you should pass next time.
I stopped watching The O'Reilly Factor 2-3 years ago because he's too liberal, and because he's clearly become so enchanted with himself that he's lost his willingness to see reality.
I watched your interview on the show, and it appeared to me that O'Reilly was rapidly scanning information he'd been given by his staffers, and with which he hadn't familiarized himself before the show. I think he told his staffers to find any negative posts they could, so he could live up to his (false) "fair and balanced" reputation, and didn't bother to check to see if what they came up with was accurate.
Anyone who spends time on FR knows that statements like those attributed to us are in fact rare and never tolerated. We have integrity that O'Reilly should envy and to which he should aspire.
Roger that.
Well done.
My impression is that Ford is a decent man.
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