Spatwatch

O'Reilly On Klein: "Coward"

John Hudson Oct 28, 2009

Fox News Host Bill O'Reilly picked a fight on Monday and this morning he got one. In his ongoing effort to defend his network's "Fair and Balanced" motto, he targeted Time magazine columnist Joe Klein who said, "FOX News peddles a fair amount of hateful crap. Some of it borders on sedition. Most of it -- much of it flat out untrue."

On his broadcast, O'Reilly labeled Klein a "coward" who was "scared" to come on his show and explain himself:

Even though he has plenty of space, Klein fails to illustrate his point, providing no examples of what he says is untrue. So I, being a fair kind of guy, gave Klein a chance to come on the factor and see if could provide backup - to make his case specifically rather than irresponsibly. A TIME publicist told us 'Mr. Klein is unavailable.' Sure, truth is, Mr. Klein is scared.

But this morning Klein responds on his blog from Pakistan—apparently unaware that O'Reilly ever invited him on his show:

Greetings from Pakistan. I arrived to learn that Bill O'Reilly claimed I was "afraid" to talk to him about the hateful crap his colleagues at Fox are peddling. Sorry Bill, I was aloft, not afraid. Actually, I've enjoyed the times O'Reilly has had me on his show. He's also a Mets fan, which counts for something with me.

Klein then offers the takedown of Fox News that O'Reilly had solicited:

I'd suggest that Bill spend some time watching his colleagues Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. I'd suggest he check out what Beck's been saying about death panels, the public option, czars, moderates like Cass Sunstein.

Busting out the dictionary, Klein then defines the word sedition ("Incitement of discontent or rebellion against a government") and puts it in context:

I'd say that the constant wink-wink implications that the President is (a) a communist or socialist, (b) not an American, (c) maybe a Muslim, (d) a friend of terrorists, (e) a front man who is taking orders from...others, (f) committed to misreading or abrogating the Constitution of the United States or (g) a threat to our basic institutions--these approach sedition.

Klein closes:

You want to criticize the public option, fine. You want to rail against the stimulus and bailouts, fine. You want to say Obama is dithering on Afghanistan, fine. We should be debating those issues. But the stuff that's spewing from O'Reilly's colleagues is way out of bounds, and dangerous.

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John Hudson