However, in conservative circles that is regarded as something akin to McCarthyism. That’s the characterization that has been disseminated in Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Fox News, Fox Business Network, and Fox Nation. And now O’Reilly is chiming in with the most absurd and irresponsible rhetoric to date. Here is the exchange between O’Reilly and VanderSloot:<\/p>\n
O’Reilly:<\/strong> Some believe this is economic terrorism…not economic, political terrorism. That targeting a business man like you, running an honest business, because of your freedom to donate to who you want to donate to, but try to ruin you personally and professionally, that’s terrorism. Political terrorism. Do you see it that way?<\/p>\nVanderSloot:<\/strong> Well, I have these two questions, Bill, to President Obama. Why did you publish a list? […] Then the second question is, who is supposed to receive the message? Is it only the liberal press that’s supposed to go after these folks, or is it also the agencies that he runs, that he’s in charge of, and that report to him and want to please him? […]<\/p>\nO’Reilly:<\/strong> They want to intimidate you from giving any money to the campaign, and others like you who might be thinking of it. Business people go “I’m not gonna do that. They might put my name on the web and I’ll lose customers. So I’m not gonna do it.” But that’s terrorism.<\/p>\nVanderSloot:<\/strong> I suppose it is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nJust to be clear, what O’Reilly and VanderSloot are describing as terrorism is actually just disclosure. They believe that transparency in political donations by powerful corporations and wealthy individuals is an unwarranted burden. They would much prefer to be able to buy elections and influence politicians in complete secrecy. And even though donors to candidates of both parties are subject to the same disclosure rules, only Republicans consider such requirements the equivalent of terrorism.<\/p>\n
Aside from the obvious absurdity of attacking open and honest political disclosures as terrorism, this sort of discussion also trivializes the very real horrors experienced by actual victims of violence perpetrated in the name of intimidation and fear. O’Reilly and VanderSloot should be ashamed of themselves, but instead used the occasion of this madness to solicit donations for Romney. They closed the segment by celebrating VanderSloot’s new donation of $100,000 to Romney’s SuperPAC.<\/p>\n
Seriously, when is the Federal Elections Commission going to start monitoring Fox News for its in-kind contributions to Republicans? The network is a non-stop ad for the GOP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Now that Glenn Beck has left Fox News and slithered off to the obscurity he so richly deserves, Bill O’Reilly is stepping up to fill the role of frothing lunatic that the network has missed since Beck’s departure. Monday night’s program featured an interview with Frank VanderSloot, a wealthy businessman who is the finance chair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[152,1],"tags":[26,33,260],"class_list":["post-7101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-general","tag-bill-oreilly","tag-fox-news","tag-mitt-romney"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1Qx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8442,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8442","url_meta":{"origin":7101,"position":0},"title":"Bill O’Reilly Inadvertently Tells The Truth About Fox News Promoting Ideology","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/14\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night Bill O'Reilly engaged in a particularly obtuse and angst-ridden defense of himself. His pique was inflamed by critics who brought attention to the commentary he gave on election night when he slammed voters who \"want stuff\" and seemed nostalgic for a majority white, \"traditional America.\" O'Reilly: \"The white\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7597,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7597","url_meta":{"origin":7101,"position":1},"title":"Mitt Romney: Stop Asking Me So Many Darn Questions For Pete’s Sake","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/16\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Is Mitt Romney cracking under the pressure? As the election season heats up Romney is finding himself in the crosshairs of both his friends and enemies alike. President Obama thinks the American people are entitled to know what Romney was doing at Bain Capital, and when he was doing it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4649,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4649","url_meta":{"origin":7101,"position":2},"title":"Fox News Analyst Dick Morris Admits He Is A GOP Shill","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/14\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone with a functioning brain stem knows that Fox News is the PR arm of the Republican Party. Their programming throughout the day is unabashedly partisan and overtly hostile to the White House and Democrats. And while they prove it every day in their news and commentary, it isn't often\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8044,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8044","url_meta":{"origin":7101,"position":3},"title":"Romney’s 47% Fiasco Fuels MSNBC Ratings Rout For Maddow, O’Donnell","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/19\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Just like when the party conventions concluded and the DNC's superior production boosted the audience for MSNBC's primetime programming, the release of the crippling video of Mitt Romney dismissing half the nation as moochers is having a positive effect on MSNBC as well. On Monday, Rachel Maddow crushed Sean Hannity\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7637,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7637","url_meta":{"origin":7101,"position":4},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Jobs Council Fraud?","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/19\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The headline story on Fox Nation today calls the President's Jobs Council a fraud. There is nothing in the story that indicates what the nature of the alleged fraud is, but the charge stills hangs there like rotting fruit. The root of the complaint has something to do with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7563,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7563","url_meta":{"origin":7101,"position":5},"title":"Now Bill O’Reilly Needs To Apologize For Being An Idiot To The NAACP","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/13\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last March, Bill O'Reilly engaged in an on-air brawl with a constitutional expert who told him that ObamaCare would be upheld by the Supreme Court. Bullheaded Bill vehemently disagreed and and promised to replay the segment and apologize for being an idiot if he were wrong. Well, he was wrong,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7103,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions\/7103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}