O'Reilly has recently compared the DailyKos website to (1) Nazis, (2) the KKK, (3) Mussolini, and (4) Al Capone, based on nothing more than a handful of user comments which neither represented the site itself, nor were written by the site itself.
One of these user comments, which O'Reilly described as "no different" from Nazi propaganda, said that "the pope is a primate." Turns out, on top of that comment being a far cry from Naziism, the pope is a primate in both the taxonomical and ecclesiastical senses.
O'Reilly represented another one of these user comments as wishing death upon Tony Snow when he was suffering from cancer. More specifically, O'Reilly said:
"There's no difference between the KKK and the Nazis, who have websites, than the Daily Kos. Because the Daily Kos is basically saying, "We're allowing this kind of thing to come on. It's good that Tony Snow has a recurrence of cancer; we hope he dies. We're sorry the assassination attempt against Dick Cheney failed; let them try again." And on and on and on and on."
Well, it turns out that particular commenter got wind of O'Reilly's comments and responded here.
"As usual, O'Reilly got it mostly wrong. I never said that Tony Snow "should" die of cancer. Nor did I say that I wanted him to die of cancer. Or of anything else, for that matter. What I said, in a comment responding to a diary about the White House spokesman's illness, was that I really didn't care if he died.
Now, you might say there's not a lot of difference. But I disagree. Actively wishing for something to happen is not the same as expressing indifference as to whether that thing happens or not.
...
I certainly don't actively wish any harm to Mr. Snow. But neither would I shed a tear for him."
So the comment, not even written by the site itself, was actually saying that the user simply wouldn't care either way if Tony Snow were to die or not. While that comment is obviously mean-spirited, it is a far cry from Naziism. Furthermore, I don't see any real difference between that comment about Tony Snow, on the one hand, and this comment by Bill O'Reilly about San Francisco, on the other:
"Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."
Source:
San Francisco Chronicle.
San Francisco Chronicle.
If anything, this comment takes it a step further and says "go ahead."
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