Posted on 08/01/2007 12:16:56 AM PDT by Syncro
You Tube video of The O'Reilly Factor with Kristinn Taylor speaking for Free Republic.
Bill O'Reilly makes claims about Freerepublic.com to spin us into a right wing hate site.
“I hope it is not my fault”
We blame you, yorkie.
That “Sponge Bill” comment reveals the deep-seeded and underlying hatred that is simply boiling over here at FR.
Keep up the good work! ;0)
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.
That’s a total smear job by BOR. He has to be pressed to provide the links.... it’s especially suspicious since he says the posts just went up ..... suggests a set-up, either by leftoid drones or maybe a BOR junior staffer who wanted to set the boss up for his attack-segment.
There’s no comparison between the constant stream of vile hatreds on DU, DailyKos, etc. and the occasional post (usually by a troll or disruptor) here that is quickly removed when/if identified to the mods.
I do see this as part if an effort to control the Internet. Since there are no such controls—yet—there is the method of media propaganda to poison the public against those who they oppose. The intent of the lies against the Free Republic may be to paint the Free Republic in the same light as the Daily Kos and other similar leftist forums. When you see Daily Kos comments about the need to hang President Bush for treason, statements that our troops are murdering and raping innocent Iraqi civilians, and photo shopped scenes of President Bush being fornicated by Senator Joe Lieberman, we have a picture of a forum gone wild. If mainstream America were to get a taste of what is going on in these leftist forums, they would get a bad case of food poisoning. Not here at the Free Republic. We have rules of civility.
The big picture is we do not want censorship by the government. I think free speech, even if it is hateful, should be able to express itself in the open forum. Of course, the same open forum exists for criticism and condemnation. And forums, like ours, can control how things are said. Those who don’t like the rules are free to go elsewhere.
Yeah. I like some one interrupting me when I am trying to get across a point.
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.
That is one astonishing video. Bill O’Reilly came off as utterly clueless, although he does vindicate himself (slightly) with his comparison of FR to a true “hate site” like Kos. Personally, I think somebody hoaxed Bill with those alleged FR postings he was waving around.
Kristinn did a nice job defending FR, and I was impressed with his restraint considering he probably felt like jumping through the airwaves and strangling O’Reilly. (Ooops! Does that count as a “hate” posting??)
Approximately 300,000 people have registered with Free Republic and there must be an archive of about 96 bajillion posts. I have little doubt that somebody could waste a whole lot of time scouring the 12-year history of Free Republic and come up with a few deeply buried posts that are outside of FR guidelines and were missed by moderators.
O’Reilly did not do his homework. Period.
For what it's worth, I've been a member of FR for seven years and have rarely seen posts like the ones BOR quoted. The ones I have seen are almost immediately removed by the moderators. I'm sure they were plants by the DU crowd in anticipation of the BOR site review prior to the segment. It would have been nice if BOR had given Kristinn advance notice of the posts so he could have checked out the join dates prior to the interview.
He didn't exactly say the bad messages were just posted today, he said that they are on the web site today. Well, this web site has existed for over ten years, and the archives here go back at least to 1999. There must be millions of messages posted here. One could probably search Google for any sort of phrase and find it here in the archives.
During the interview, O'Reilly did not permit Kristinn to see the sheet of paper he was waving around containing the purported comments. So, we don't really know the context of the alleged statements.
Here is a Google search of FR for "I hate blacks". In each instance that I see, that phrase is being condemned, mostly as part of a discussion about an article published at AsianWeek.com. Using Google to search DailyKos for the phrase shows a few similar results there. A Google search of FR for "gays are dogs" shows zero results.
Before today, when people are quoting the vile phrases simply to refute what BOR said about FR, the only use of the ‘dogs’ slur against homosexuals that I can find with a Google search of FR is from 2001 in a post that is citing what leftist Robert Mugabe supposedly said, only to assert that Mugabe (or anyone) should not be arrested over a free speech issue. In other words, far from asserting the truth of that phrase, the poster is merely making a free speech point about Mugabe’s own words..... if THAT is what BOR is relying upon this really is hit-and-run smear job.
The Dog comment was in the main area of the post also. In an article quoting Mugabe. It was in a post, the same as the I hate Blacks comment.
I do think you are right, he spun the words he used. He said "found on your website today."
I did think he said posted today, but I misheard.
Sly old deceiver ain't he?
I haven’t watched O’Reilly in years. He’s just an arrogant windbag. It’s annoying to watch a person lecture someone with greater knowledge and understanding than themselves.
“I haven’t watched O’Reilly in years. He’s just an arrogant windbag. It’s annoying to watch a person lecture someone with greater knowledge and understanding than themselves.”
Excellent point about his ability to lecture his intellectual superiors. Many pundits fall into that trap, and O’Reilly is certainly among that number.
I want to make a few points here. O’Reilly, if you find this thread, please pay attention...I don’t want my words distorted. Some of these points are somewhat nuanced, so do engage your gray matter.
First of all, my “most ridiculous item of the day” - someone who claims to be for “the American way” (perhaps I’m being generous to Mr. O’Reilly here) advocating censorship.
It is literally impossible (and in my mind wrongheaded regardless) to censor the Internet. The Internet is an international medium - who’s standards are we going to impose? I suppose one could try national filtering - that’s the equivalent of the Great Firewall of China. Is that where our “free” society is headed? I hope not. Perhaps someday even a “pithy” O’Reilly comment might cross the line...
That said, FR does moderate content in an effort to be a family-friendly site. That’s actually a dangerous thing to do, since by moderating FR becomes responsible for ‘indecent’ content that slips through. The Usenet newsgroups (for instance) have historically relied on a ‘common carrier’ status that assumes no responsibility for content since there is no editorial filtering. It seems disingenuous at best to go after FR for allowing objectionable content when it goes the extra mile at some risk to provide a ‘decent’ site. Wait, can I have two “Most Ridiculous Items of the Day”?!?
I would go on, but I’m wasting time on a topic that really doesn’t interest me much. I’ve tuned my last O’Reilly show on purpose.
FR is clearly not a hate site, but it is fast becoming a hate-Rudy site.
The word ‘hate’ has been bastardized to mean if you don’t agree with me, then you are a hate monger! BS
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.