Fox 'News' Host's Misleading Smear Report Decries 'Far-Left' Websites for 'Vicious Attacks' as Townhall.com's Amanda Carpenter Joins Him in Ignoring Multiple Threats Posted on Her Own Website
'Pray They Are Defeated by Ballot Instead of Bullet,' Warns One of the Ominous Posts Made in Early July and Still On the Site as of Today...
By Brad Friedman on 8/14/2008, 6:06pm PT  

[Update 8/15/08 5:05pm PT: The offending death threats discussed below, though not all of them, have now been removed by Townhall.com, and the writer's Townhall blog has had all comments scrubbed as well. So O'Reilly should therefore know about it all now, and can report on it next time Townhall's Amanda Carpenter joins him to dishonestly bash "far-left" blogs. Our cached version of the webpage still shows the offending more-than-month-old comments, as does the graphic at the bottom of this article.]

On Wednesday night, Fox "News'" Bill O'Reilly continued his dishonest and deceptive attacks on websites, such as Huffington Post and Daily Kos, which he misleadingly describes as "hate sites" featuring "vicious far-left attacks" as based on selective reader comments he's discovered posted on those sites.

In the latest of his continuing segments with "Internet Cop" Amanda Carpenter, of the rightwing website Townhall.com, O'Reilly pointed to a number of objectionable comments at the two sites, from "far-left kooks," before tepidly lauding both HuffPo and Daily Kos for having removed some of them, presumably after they were brought to the attention of site moderators.

"Where is that rocket propelled grenade launcher when you need one," O'Reilly displayed on a chyron, and then "Let's hope the dissidents aim is good!" Both of the quotes are purported to be from a "Blog Posting" at HuffPo, according to the Fox "News" graphic, posted in regard to a group of Iraq War Veterans who support the war effort.


Failing to note any distinction between actual articles posted by contributors to the two sites versus comments from anonymous and pseudonymous users, O'Reilly accuses "bloggers" at the two sites of posting "despicable" material, even though it's unknown whether the commenters in question are actually rightwing posters, or even O'Reilly supporters, writing under a pseudonym. The entire segment is posted at left, as recorded yesterday by The BRAD BLOG's Alan Breslauer.

"These people are out of control and that's where they live," O'Reilly notes indignantly before tossing it to Townhall's Carpenter for comment.

"It's a good step that they are moderating the comments section more, and we've applauded that," Carpenter says in reply, before noting the "deeper issue...of posting blogs" critical of the Iraq vet group, which is reportedly going back to the war-zone to report on the country's status following George W. Bush's "troop surge."

But O'Reilly and Carpenter clearly have been protesting a bit too much, as it turns out Carpenter's own website is guilty of the same --- and even far worse --- "vicious" attacks, and potentially even illegal ones, including death threats issued against Barack Obama and "traitorous liberals."

Despite the mock outrage of the Fox rightwingers, The BRAD BLOG has been pointed, by a reader, to a number of out-and-out (and repeated) death threats issued by "bloggers" at Carpenter's own Townhall site.

The multiple threatening comments are posted on the Townhall blog of rightwing radio host and blogger Hugh Hewitt, and include death threats against the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama. They were posted on July 10th of this year at Townhall and, as of this posting on August 14th, still remain on the popular rightwing website which requires registration before commenters are allowed to post...

The comments were on Hewitt's Townhall blog on June 10th, in reply to an article in which Hewitt characterizes a win by Obama as a "signal [to] the jihadists" of "hope of an American retreat."

"Do you want to win the war or lose it?" the rightwing radio host writes in his article. "Shall the enormous sacrifices made by America's military and their families be for the high purpose of extending freedom to others while protecting our country, or will they be gambled away on wishes and rhetoric?"

In reply, a blogger named "Akennas" promises "A day of reckoning" before describing his/her intentions to "hunt down" the "liberal traitors...in our midst."

"I said traitors intentionally," Akennas writes. "I know more than one military man and woman stationed overseas who cannot wait to rotate back once the job over there is done and complete the work of fighting all enemies foreign AND domestic, Posse Comitatus be damned, and hunt down the Copperheads in our midst."

"Traitors, be afraid. Be very afraid." the commenter concludes in the first threatening post, followed by posts that only increase in intensity and threats --- including against the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Obama.

Screenshots of some of the offending and possibly even illegal comments are posted at the bottom of this article. The Townhall/Hugh Hewitt page on which they are still posted is here. In case the comments are now removed, we've posted a cached version of the page here.

After being lauded for the post by another Townhall writer, and then challenged for making the threats by a commenter who finds "conservatives" to be growing in "irrelevance in the months to come," Akennas repeats what he/she claims "aren't threats," but rather "blood-oath promises."

"If I were a Copperhead of any prominence (and that included several elected officials), I would put my affairs in order in a hurry," Akennas wrote in reply on June 11th as the threatening language was repeated and intensified to include a direct threat against Obama.

"These aren't threats. These are blood-oath promises," "You don't allow cancer to grow - you cut it out before it kills you," he/she begins. "There is a cancer growing in this country, and it is called Marxist leftism, which has found a willing home in the Democratic Party...It is reaching its culmination in the Obama campaign. Pray to God they are defeated by the ballot, which will make the bullet unnecessary."

Akennas then continues, in yet another posting, to say: "I have never seen things more clearly than I do right now. The time for compromising with evil is over. It is time to destroy it, before it destroys me, my family and our liberty."

That posting concludes: "There are some things worth fighting for, dying for and, yes, killing for. It is better for one man to die than for a whole nation to perish."

Though Hewitt's Townhall site offers a "Flag as Offensive" link at the bottom of every comment, apparently nobody at the site bothered to flag any of Akennas' posts, or they did so but the moderators at Townhall didn't find them worthy of removal.

A poster named "MaineConservative" attempts to take Akennas and the supporting poster to task, however, asking, "What is wrong with the two of you? Your words are frightening, and seem as though they would be attributable to a Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, etc...you guys do look like lunatics."

While the posts from MaineConservative clearly demonstrate that not all "bloggers" at Townhall agree with the disturbing comments and threats from the others, it demonstrates how deceptive and hypocritical it is for O'Reilly and Carpenter to target "liberal" websites, as they see them, based on selective comments posted by readers (as opposed to writers selected by the site's owners to be contributing authors).

"I think we've proven our point that the real haters in America are on the far-Left," O'Reilly avers in last night's segment, before reluctantly conceding "there are some rightwing kooks too, but this is where they live."

By deceptive way of comparison then, O'Reilly continues by referring to a video clip from the rightwing organization Focus on the Family, in which their correspondent jokes about praying for rain during Obama's upcoming nomination acceptance speech at Denver's Mile-High Stadium.

"I just wanted to do the comparison," O'Reilly says, following the sardonic clip from Focus on the Family. "On one side, you want people to die. On the other, you want it to rain."

Carpenter, naturally, concurs with O'Reilly. "There's a clear contrast there," she says in agreement.

We are unaware of O'Reilly reporting on the numerous death threats, prayers for disease and death of perceived "liberals" such as Senator Ted Kennedy, as made on any number of rightwing websites in his continuous attempts to marginalize and smear popular non-rightwing sites such as HuffPo and Daily Kos.

We would normally be inclined to try and touch base with Carpenter, O'Reilly, Townhall, Hugh Hewitt, or even "Akennas" for comment before posting a story such as this. However, given that neither O'Reilly nor Carpenter find it similarly necessary to offer an opposing view to their vile, unfair, inaccurate and deceptive swiftboating, as made in order to mislead millions of American viewers who watch O'Reilly's show, we suppose we don't need to bother either.

All of the above may post their own replies here in our open (no registration necessary) comments section here, if they wish --- a courtesy not afforded to the unnamed "bloggers" (actually, commenters) quoted (presumably accurately, but who knows?) by O'Reilly on his television show.

DISCLOSURE: We are a frequent contributor to Huffington Post, even as we've expressed our own concerns, from time to time, about the editorial policies of both that site and Daily Kos, where we do not contribute.

Screen captures of a number of the comments as mentioned above, from Townhall's Akennas and others, follow below...

UPDATE: 8/15/08 1:10pm PT Sara Robinson of Orcinus has some interesting additional information and background to offer on this story. Instead of quoting anything from it, we'll simply recommend you check it out in full, as her comments are well-worth the read.

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