Bill O’Reilly took his history of harassment to a deplorable new low last weekend. He sent FOX producer Jesse Waters to ambush Think Progress’ Amanda Terkel for highlighting O’Reilly’s outrageous comments about the rape and murder of Jennifer Moore in the context of his recent appearance at the Alexa Foundation for rape victims. O’Reilly clearly said–and there’s audio proof–that Moore and women who dress in a certain way and consume too much alcohol basically bring rape upon themselves. But did O’Reilly bring up those atrocious comments on last night’s show? Hell no!
According to Terkel, “Here are the two things that O’Reilly conveniently left out of his segment:”
– His Original Comments. O’Reilly said that he posted the full Aug. 2 interview about Moore on his website. (It’s here.) But he did not repeat his comments on air, nor did he try to defend them — perhaps recognizing that they are indefensible. These comments elicited outrage from more than 900 signatories to a petition by the Concerned Citizens Against Sexual Violence.
– His Harassment. O’Reilly never mentioned to his viewers how he scored that interview with me. He never contacted me for a statement or the chance to appear on his show before deploying his harassment machine. Instead, he sent his producers to stake out my apartment, follow me for two hours, and accost me while I was on vacation in Virginia (and the least prepared to recall a post I had written three weeks earlier).
So O’Reilly had Waters stalk and harass Terkel while on vacation; accuse her of dishonesty for not recalling there and then an unrelated part of that radio segment regarding Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-semitic comments (which O’Reilly actually compared to Moore’s rape!); and then used this video to continue his delusional beef with NBC. O’Reilly even managed to include GE and Iran in the same conspiratorial breath. Now you tell me who’s in dire need of a “Reality Check?”
The fact remains that O’Reilly has a long, sordid track record of harassment, both on air and in his personal life. He clearly has no regard for people’s right to privacy, and he thinks these phony “gotcha” moments constitute quality reporting and journalistic accuracy. It’s high time the world stopped watching O’Reilly altogether and forced him to switch off the harassment machine. Until that day arrives, you can send Jesse Waters an e-mail at Jesse.Watters@FOXNEWS.COM. And as John Amato suggests at C&L, if you ever find yourself ambushed by an O’Reilly henchman, just repeat the words “Andrea Mackris.”
