I'm not going to call Bill O'Reilly a liar... yet, but...

[Jim Robinson]

I'm not going to call Bill O'Reilly a liar... yet, but... on his TV show today, he read off a laundry list of ridiculous "hate" statements like "I hate blacks," "Hillary should be assassinated" and "homosexuals are dogs" that he said he personally found on Free Republic and claims that they were posted here today. I do not believe that. I doubt that he personally logged on to FR and I doubt he found any such thing posted here today.

Who knows what we may have missed and is buried deep in our archives of millions of posts, but our readers do a pretty good job of alerting us to anything out of bounds that is posted and we pull it. Also, one of our readers found a couple of the quotes he alleges, and if they are the ones O'Reilly is complaining about, he took them way out of context. They were simply quotes in the articles posted not statements posted by FReepers.

As soon as he provides me a list of the alleged posts and their URLs, I'll believe him. If he doesn't... then... well, guess he'll deserve to be known as what he is.

[pissant]

Savage also bashes Levin,Rush, Coulter, etc.

[IslandJeff]

Oh FGS - my apologies, Left Coasters - Greta van MissingPerson still has half an hour left.

In case you missed her tonight, I don’t blame you.

[Steve Van Doorn]

wikipedia uses an example of hate by a poster that was banned years ago on the same day that it was posted

This is the article that is linked at Wikipedia:
“If he keeps on he's going to make me come up there. There is only one solution to the Klintons, two 45 rounds and a nice little spot in Marcy Park”

[mysterio]

The site specific search brings up posts that are very recent. O’Reilly’s segment is available now on the Fox website. I have searched for each of the comments he claims are on the site, and none are on FR according to google. He not only claims that the comments are on the site. He also implies that the comments might have been made today. I am reasonably confident that O’Reilly didn’t fully research his assertions.

[Rudder]

I've been a FReeper for 8 1/2 years and I have never seen any of the statements reported by O'Reilly authored by any FReeper. Nor have seen any statements similar in kind as described by him that were authored by any FReeper.

So, what's that make O'Reilly? I'd say: an ill-informed, instigating, sensationalist, liar.

[vigilante2]

To try and use the argument that a choice word may have slipped by over the years does not justify calling FR a hate or racist site

If somebody breaks into your house you don’t consider them a guest

Trolls are banned on Free Republic

[flaglady47]

Had this comment on another thread, but it fits here too:

I just sent this epic (had a lot to say) e-mail to BOR Factor show. Will be surprised if I ever get a reply. Here is my lengthy tome:

Mr. O, it is obvious to me that you do not visit nor read the comments on the Free Republic web site, and you probably don’t even know it’s not a blog, it is a news bulletin board, where articles from all over the world are posted. Then Freepers make comments on those articles and exchange ideas and debate with other Freepers regarding what they read.

The site is primarily self-monitored, and also policed by a group of “Admin Monitors” who delete offensive comments when they find them. If a given Freeper makes too many offensive remarks, he/she is banned from the FR web site.

The reason you are seeing negative comments about yourself on some threads is because you smeared Free Republic as if it was on the same plane as The Daily Kos. That is so far from the truth that you managed to irritate most of us. Nice going. I have been a Freeper since 1998. I have yet to see any blatantly racist comments on the threads I have visited. It is absolutely not the norm. If one slips through, the comment is removed as soon as it is spotted. Sometimes leftists visit our site and post comments in order to try to sabotage our site. We call them “trolls”. We usually can pick a troll out in but a few moments, and then heckle said troll off a thread in short order.

This is a conservative web site, not a liberal one. Most Freepers voted for Bush twice. That is not the definition of an extreme right wing web site, is it? No, it is very mainstream, however very conservative. If your definition of a hateful right winger is a conservative person, then I guess we would fit your stereotype, even though a false one. In comparison, on The Daily Kos web site, do you find, as you do on FR, prayer threads for fellow Freepers who are ill, dying, or for their relatives who are sick? Do you find an everyday thread called the “Canteen” devoted to military folks and supporting our troops everywhere they are stationed? How about recipe threads, music threads, history threads, archeology threads, fine art threads, threads on wine, those devoted to cartoons, or religious philosophy threads? Sounds ever so hatefully right wing, yes? Hardly. Please have your staffers or better yet, yourself, do some homework before spouting off about a web site you so obviously know little about and then maybe you’ll see less hostility towards you based on your very obvious lack of knowledge about the contents of the site.

Now, knowing your ego, which does not appear small, I suspect you will dismiss this e-mail (if you ever even read it) out of hand, and will continue to, without any basis, make a moral equivalence between the web sites Free Republic and Daily Kos because it suits the TV persona you have established as being fair to both sides of an argument, even if you base your comments on faulty knowledge in order to make your point. There IS no moral equivalence between FR and Kos. One, frankly, with the exception of the occasional whacko, is a moral and good web site, the other is vile, demeaning, and vulgar. It’s unfortunate you can’t seem to, nor want to, find the differences between the two sites.

It is a leftist tactic, as expressed by Lanny Davis on your show last night, to put forth the moral equivalence argument as a debating point to take the onus off of the topic at hand if negative about “progressives”. You fell for it because you don’t know a thing about our web site, as evidenced by your not knowing how to reply to Lanny’s smear about FR. Instead, you had your “researcher” go to our site shortly thereafter, I’m sure, to try to find a few negative comments to defend a moral equivalence stance on your next night’s program. I’m sure this was in reaction to a flood of e-mails from angry Freepers to your show shortly after Lanny Davis made his comments about FR, and your lack of a cogent reply to his attack on it. This occurred because you knew nothing about the Free Republic web site beforehand, and thus had nothing to say other than you would attack “right wing” hate web sites also. It then became necessary, it appears, for you to justify what you said by making Free Republic into the right wing hate web site du jour, whether we are or not, in order for you to appear “fair” in going after web sites on both political sides.

As to your comment about hiring a full-time moderator of the site, that would cost a lot of money, and we have volunteer moderators to do the same. They are all very intelligent people, as are most Freepers, and can discern when someone is going over the edge in their commentary. The comment is then removed from a thread if an improper one, and if the commentator persists, that person is banned. Also, the owner of the web site often monitors threads himself. He has banned many a Freeper who got out of line. The web site’s existence is based on free-will donations by those that visit the site. We have donor drives at various times, soliciting contributions. It is expensive for a private web site as large as Free Republic to be maintained, with no corporate backing such as your web site has.

This web site is one of the top conservative web sites for “hits”. (At one time we were number 2; maybe we still are, but we are definitely in the top few.) We are heavily trafficked. You cannot get to all unwanted comments immediately, as I am sure you know from those monitoring your own web site. When you do find them, then you delete them ASAP, as does Free Republic. Daily Kos does not remove the majority of inappropriate comments made, and the constant and literal vulgarity of so many of their posters is amazing to behold.

I hope you will find it in your heart, in spite of some of the nasty comments from some Freepers about you on our site (they are very angry about what they perceive are blatant misstatements as to what this site is all about), and just look at the Free Republic web site objectively. Actually read FR to find out what the site’s mission is, rather than make uninformed statements without researching it for a period of time before discussing it. Thank you, and I hope at least one honest, unbiased person on your staff, or preferably yourself, reads my e-mail so that all of this typing isn’t going for naught. A non-canned reply would be appreciated.

Pithily yours,long-time (and therefore knowledgeable) proud Freeper.

(I might add I am a long-time BOR Factor watcher also. Please do not disappoint. Do not be a Popinjay.)

[cherry]

I’ve been coming here for many years...since before Quidam....I can’t say I’ve ever read any “I hate blacks” postings and to be sure, if anyone tried, they would be beaten down like a wild mad dog....

[Greenpees]

If FR was the worst he could find regarding conservative websites, and even then he had to embelish or remove the context of the statements, we’re doing OK.

He was clearly looking for a counter to the KOS, and we came to mind. We definitely are their polar opposite. That is, we perform the function of upholding our very correct views, with decency and humor. They upohold their very screwed up views, with absurdity and wishes of death.

His piece was about “hate speach” on the internet. He just couldn’t find enough authentic hate on the well reasoned conservative side, so he pulled a Dan Rather.

Shame on Bill.

[California Desert Rat]

O’Reilly is detestable. He blows with the wind. I hope this undoes him.

[Balata]

Jim, he’s a liar. Call him on it.

[familyop]

pissant wrote:
"He probably saw the Hunter-Fred war and got scared."

That possibility crossed my mind, too. There will be a lot of money riding on some power, money and social issues. Quite a few corporate heads and investors are related to even more government employees and special interest groups. That's one of the reasons for the bureaucratic situation we see today.

[kitchen]

If this bogus meme is allowed to stand, unopposed, it will metastasize into concretized "truth" into the minds of virtually everyone...

You are correct. Davis baited the hook and BOR swallowed hook, line and sinker. The left's goal is to marginalize FreeRepublic for the 2008 election cycle. "Oh them? They're just a far right hate site. That's old news." Is BOR just a tool, or is he willing to do anything to get an interview with the Hillary! (Questions submitted in advance, of course.)

[Prokopton]

I was very calm in my telling of the facts. I used no profanity. I simply told the truth. Are you afraid his feelings are going to get hurt?

No, I'm afraid FreeRepublic will get hurt. It does us no good to get in a pissing contest with BO if it can be avoided. It would be much better if, after realizing his serious mistake, BO would give some positive PR to FR. I would start with this approach, you can always get nasty later.

[taxesareforever]

I said it before and I’ll say it again in case Bill sneaks a peek at FR. “HEY BILL OREILLY, YOU ARE GRETA VAN SUSTERN LITE.”

[do the dhue]

I am

I don't believe I have been to hateful (maybe I have been a bit hateful toward liberal traitors). I have said that I would like to have traitors exiled to Iran. and then nuked with an ICBM That is probably not very politically correct. I just aint PC. It is not me.

I want this to be known though: I am a Christian. I have been taught since I was a kid to hate sin (actions) and not people. I don't hate gays, but I don't like what they do. I don't hate the liberal person, but I sure do hate their actions. I mean I hate their actions deeply. But I still love them as my brother. I love my enemy in Iraq. Since some of them will not live in peace with the people, we have to send some to judgment. And Bin Laden falls in this category too. God loves him, but I am sure that God hates his actions.

And I want it to be known that I love FR. And like I said, I am proudly politically incorrect. I don't want to make FR look bad. If my political uncorrectness does not reflect well on FR, then I will leave and on good terms. I will understand. But I hope you understand that I will not be coerced into political correctness by BOR or anyone else. I will state what I think is true and funny or both. I don't make racial jokes. I generally don't think they are funny. I will joke about myself because I am funny, but looks are not everything. If that can not be handled, I will understand and move forward. Thanks for listening and I hope you understand as I do.

[pissant]

Well done. *applause*

Though you left out the COnservative Babe of the Week threads. ;o)

[Husker24]

I have to admit after hearing Bills rant about calling Dailykos a “hate site”, I had to go check it out. Its definitely full of Liberals, but I wouldn't call it a hate site, not even remotely close. After Bills attack on us, I'm thinking he’s just trying to get rid of competition.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“the insults from FReepers about HIM must have ticked him off.”

And Bill O thought he got revenge tonight........the simpleton : )

[counterpunch]

O’Reilly is detestable. He blows with the wind. I hope this undoes him.

O'Reilly is already a joke. He had a brief period of time where he actually did some good work shortly after 9/11. But he lost any shred of credibility long ago.
I don't know anyone who watches him anymore, or has for quite some time.