Michelle Malkin Takes Aim at Bill O'Reilly, Who Fires Back

A spat of sorts has emerged between blogger and syndicated columnist Michele Malkin and FOX News talk-show host Bill O'Reilly. At issue is a comment left at Hot Air that characterizes Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court, as "militant and socialist." Here's O'Reilly's explanation of the throw-down:



The sniping between Malkin and O'Reilly is good theater, but the underlying issue is really rather mundane. As the comment in question was left by a reader, not one of the many fine writers paid to offer opinion pieces on the site, it is hardly fair to take Malkin to task for its content.

As anyone who has ever checked into a political blog's comment section knows, there's a whole lot of offensive ranting to be found there. But is O'Reilly's suggestion of censorship the answer? His often-repeated assertion that DailyKos "traffics in hatred all day long" is laughable to anyone who has actually followed their comment threads. True, they are full of messages from people who hate Republicans, but there's no more hate there than the kind directed at Democrats on right-leaning sites like Hot Air.

The point is, one person's hatred is another's well-reasoned argument. The portrayal of Sotomayor as militant and socialist is rather commonplace among right wing blog readers, just as are comments that refer to President Obama simply as Hussein. Are such instances offensive? To some, yes, to others, no. But when did O'Reilly of all people become so concerned about restricting opinions that one group or other may find offensive? Isn't that the entire premise upon which his show was founded?

In addition, I just had an e-mail back and forth with Hot Air's Ed Morrissey, who has posted a piece citing all sorts of questionable comments left on both O'Reilly's and FOX's websites.


David at Paradigms Lost
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