I hate shouting matches like this, especially with a guy like O’Reilly. It’s hard to believe he has a show that people watch. It’s like watching Colbert except sadder because he’s not kidding. Genghis Conn over at CTLP summed this up well:

One thing I noticed about the “offensive” Lieberman/Bush pic in this segment was just… how… long it stayed up there on the screen. Disturbing choice, Fox editorial staff.

[continued in the comments]

It is odd, isn’t it? I had never seen the image before, either. I do wonder where he got it.

I do wonder. Given the insane amount of coverage the Lamont-Lieberman primary got from this site, MLN and other Connecticut blogs, isn’t it odd that none of us have seen it at least once?

That sort of nutpicking is nothing new, sadly. The Lieberman campaign got rather good at it last year–I remember that the Lamont blog warned people against commenting in the short-lived comments section of the Lieberman blog for just that reason.

Exactly the point of Dodd’s comments.

Of course, in trademark O’Reilly fashion, he lied about his San Francisco statement. Sure, Dodd didn’t know it was on the radio show, not the TV show, but it doesn’t change the fact that O’Reilly said he would tell San Francisco, if he were President, that he wouldn’t do anything if al-Qaeda blew them up. The great thing about Media Matters is they keep audio and video of the segments, so you can listen to it. Like the oh-so-offensive photoshopped pic, O’Reilly probably meant to be funny(?) and make a point, but it’s probably more offensive to be okay that about an attack on an American city just because you disagree with their politics.

One more note: A lot of speculation has come up that O’Reilly is targeting the YearlyKos convention because the DailyKos community was a large factor in the Democratic debates being pulled from Fox News. I really never try to understand why Bill O’Reilly goes crazy about something, but in the extended segment, Dennis Miller brought that up specifically (the Dem debates being pulled). Make of that what you will. And, by the way, what the hell happened to Dennis Miller? He sounded ridiculous and sycophantic. I guess that’s what it takes to get BillO to be nice to you…