O'Reilly Lambasted "Creepy, Little, Left-Wing Outfit" Media Matters - Audio Inside
O'Reilly lambasted "creepy, little, left-wing outfit" Media Matters for reporting his U.N. death wish
http://mediamatters.org/items/200509200010
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9/19/2005
On the September 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly took aim at Media Matters for America after we highlighted his comments expressing regret that Hurricane Katrina had not hit the United Nations building in New York instead of New Orleans. O'Reilly's comments were brought to the attention of Fox News by former Sen. Timothy E. Wirth (D-CO), president of the United Nations Foundation, who asked Fox News and O'Reilly to publicly apologize. Far from an apology, O'Reilly's vitriolic response instead targeted both Media Matters and Wirth. O'Reilly repeatedly referred to Media Matters as "creepy" and compared us to the devil worshipping "little people" in the film Rosemary's Baby. O'Reilly admonished Wirth for sending the letter -- lamenting his willingness to accept the "propaganda that this creepy, little, left-wing outfit gave him" -- and called it "off-the-chart embarrassing."
From the September 20 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
O'REILLY: So, anyway, even though Bush is in trouble, the left can't make any inroads. Enter me. This is a riot. This is so funny. Now let me set it up. Every day The Radio Factor's on, there's this creepy, little group who listens to our program and tapes it, and then analyzes the tape. They're like the Rosemary's Baby people. Remember the scene in Rosemary's Baby, where the devil was born to Rosemary, and they had the little people around the crib, chanting? That's what these creepy, left-wing nuts are like. They're little gnomes. And they tape every show. And they go over it to see if they can find something to embarrass me or, you know, raise some hell or whatever. Now they succeeded one time last year. In the Christmas controversy, they found some nutty group that took their propaganda and ran with it. And you know, it was good for us, because we got six shows out of it and high TV ratings.
Now this is great. You got this U.N. thing cued up? All right. Couple weeks ago, I was talking about how screwed up the U.N. is, and everybody knows it's screwed up. What more do you need -- oil-for-food; they can't even come to a consensus what terrorism is; they can't even define terrorism, OK. So I'm talking about the U.N., and all the U.N. pinheads are in town, tying up traffic, and I say this. Let's roll the tape:
[audio clip]
O'REILLY: Bush to address the U.N., says we must be steadfast in battling terrorism. I'm sure all the U.N. people fell asleep. They don't really care about anything over there at all. I just wish Katrina had only hit the United Nations building, nothing else, just had flooded them out. And I wouldn't have rescued them.
[end audio clip]
O'REILLY: OK, so that was it, right? We're just doing the No-Spin News, off-hand comment? So the creepy, little left-wing website -- eeewww!!! -- we got him. So they send a letter to a guy named Tim --
E.D. HILL (co-host): They got you with that?
O'REILLY: Yeah. So listen to this, because it is great. They send a letter to a guy named Tim Wirth, he's a former senator from Colorado, who now works with the U.N. OK, so they get Wirth, and they say "Oh, O'Reilly said a hurricane should hit the U.N., and he wouldn't save anybody." So Wirth, the pinhead, and we've had him on The Factor before, and "pinhead," I'm using it with affection --
HILL (laugh): Uh-huh.
O'REILLY: -- writes a letter, writes a letter to the boss at Fox News, and I'm going to read you the letter. This is the best:
"I was astounded and appalled by the comments made by Fox News' Bill O'Reilly on his September 14th radio program, The Radio Factor. O'Reilly said he wished that the deadly Hurricane Katrina would have hit the United Nations building and flooded it. He added that if it was up to him, he would not have rescued anyone.
"Mr. O'Reilly should be required to withdraw these remarks. And both Mr. O'Reilly and Fox should make an immediate and public apology.
"Some weeks ago, Pat Robertson made a mistake in calling for the assassination of a head of state -- and then had the decency to apologize and withdraw his comments. But [sic] O'Reilly should do the same.
Sincerely yours,
Tim Wirth"
Can you believe it?
HILL: He's got a lot of time on his hands.
O'REILLY: Now the creepy, little website, they go, oh, we got him now, we got Tim Wirth. Now Tim Wirth -- this is the tragedy of this -- is a decent guy. He's a decent public servant. He's working with the U.N., he's trying to do some good. He didn't hear the radio program. He didn't hear it. He took the propaganda that this creepy, little, left-wing outfit gave him and then sent this letter, which is absolutely, off-the-chart embarrassing. I'm gonna use it on TV tonight, too, in the "Most Ridiculous Item."
[..]
O'REILLY: No chance. Because most Americans loathe these people. They loathe them. And they are very loathe-able. These creepy, little website people are just, I mean, it makes my stomach turn. And that's the truth. I don't like the right-winger nuts either. But the left-wingers have reached new lows.
