So, Bill O'Reilly is going to destroy dKos, or some such, because someone said a bad word and made a naughty picture of Bush and Lieberman. Thank goodness I'm not a regular diarist here or I'd be shakin' in my sandals! (Seriously, you guys - you're putting us all in danger, and I don't need FOX Security stopping by my place and 'changing my Life as I'd known it'... or whatever FOX Security does.)
Errr... anyhoo... I thought I'd take a moment to remind Bill O'Reilly how the liberal blogpsphere stood up against real hate speech, not that I think it will sink into his thick skull. So let's take a trip back to January, 2007, when a bunch of dirty fucking hatey-hate hippies took on a foulmouthed Prom Queen and her Radio Tough Guy sidekick.
First, may I suggest a talking point for you Y-Kossaks who might have a chance to talk to some media-type person: "You want hate (speech)? Check out KSFO-AM Snuff Radio in San Francisco!"
Now, on with the show! I did some googling and didn't find any references to the KSFO debacle by O'Reilly. Telling, no? Evidently, Bill's A-OK with hate speech if it comes from the 'proper' side of the aisle - Family Values and all that rot, eh? LGF, FreeRepublic, BillOreilly.com - upstanding, Mooslim-hating patriots...err.. PATRIOTS!!, sorry, who can do and say no wrong.
But let's check out that sweet, sweet righteous talk from KSFO, shall we? Let's shall !
Brian Sussman tells caller to say 'Allah is a whore'
KSFO caller suggests bombing Syrian mosques
Brian Sussman wants military weapons in his home
Brian Sussman says he doesn't have to tolerate Islam
Brian Sussman says we should cut off detainee fingers and penises
Melanie Morgan and Ann Coulter say liberals should be executed
Coulter and Morgan say Bill Keller should be executed - sound effects by Officer Vic
Brian Sussman says Islam is a false religion
Officer Vic wants to send a hit team after photojournalists
More laughter about Bill Keller in the electric chair
Honky talk-show host is offended because Sen. Obama is a 'halfrican'
Paint a bullseye on Rep. Nancy Pelosi?
More bullseye talk about Rep. Pelosi
Morgan accuses SF Chronicle of 'blacking up' Richard Pombo
KSFO crew says 'dig up Rachel Carson and kill her again'
Coulter says 'at least they hit some UN peacekeepers'
Morgan says 'hang the NY Times editors'
KSFO crew wants to kill liberals
KFSO crew says 'liberal tree should be pruned'
KSFO crew says liberals should be 'stomped to death'
KSFO crew says 'gonna track that e-mail down and do something unpleasant to
his cojones'... then Melanie does a live spot for Brite Smile
KSFO crew says 'then, attack the NY Times'
KSFO caller says Bill Keller should be 'lined up and shot'. KSFO crew says 'skip the trial'
KSFO says 'unpleasant things are going to happen to stupid liberals'
Lee Rodgers talks about civility, then says 'someone should have belted that chinless bitch a long time ago' This one is just precious.
Lee says we need to kill millions of Muslims in Indonesia
Lee says the AP should commit mass suicide
Lee suggests hooking a Sears DieHard battery to someone's testicles, then blowing them away
If you don't feel like wading thru all that filth, here's a quick audio montage I produced for it.
(Clips stored on my personal site and posted for purposes of commentary, exposure and ridicule, based on my personal view of Fair Use.)
Huh! Where was O'Reilly's outrage about these hateful, hateful statements? Where were the cries of "KKK!! Racist!! unAmerican!!"? Birds of a feather and all that rot, eh Bill? I guess when a fellow Media Personality talks about killing innocent civilians - Iraqi, Pakistani, Iranian or American - it's no big deal because... because what, Bill? We disagree with George Bush, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales and Doug "the stupidest fucking man on the planet!" Feith?
I'd suggest you have your interns spend some time trolling around the wingnut sites, if you're looking for real hate, Bill. You'd be surprised how gruesome your fans can be... or maybe you wouldn't be.
It's hard to take an effete Republican elitist like Bill O'Reilly seriously. Jeebus, talk about your pink collar brat running loose in Daddy's store... But it never hurts to throw it back in his face and laugh when he wets his pants. Unlike Bill, some of us work (or worked) for a living at real jobs, and we don't have the luxury of multi-billion dollar corporations to spoon the gravy to us and shield us from the oogy side of Life. We are the riff and the raff, and we have the right to speak up and out. And we will.
I don't really consider myself a Kossack per se, because I lurk and read more than I comment here. I'm probably a bigger booster of the Z-listers than I am of dKos. I stood up for Spocko because the Powers That Be tried to screw with him - and he's a hell of a nice guy. And in the same spirit, I won't let some Instant Asshole (just add microphone) come in here and kick 'the common folks' around because he doesn't agree with what they're saying.
I'm reminded of a great piece from The Cluetrain Manifesto:
we are not seats or eyeballs or endusers or consumers
we are human beings - and our reach exceeds your grasp
deal with it.
We are Americans, Bill. We are America. I'm a liberal blog fan and liberal blogger. I'm not Kos, but I'm the DailyKos.
Who are you, Bill?
[Update] - I should add that Spocko started the movement to track KSFO's hateful rhetoric. (Thank you, Gato, for reminding me to keep it real!) And there were many people who helped keep the KSFO issue on the front pages long enough to fluster the Prom Queen. Bill O'Reilly was not one of them.