O'Reilly continued his harassment of Post TV critic
Summary: After an April 9 broadcast during which he called The Denver Post's TV critic "a far-left ideologue" for her column criticizing him, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News Channel had his producer follow the columnist, Joanne Ostrow, to a parking lot and conduct an ambush interview asking her whether she wanted to apologize.
Having already smeared Denver Post television critic Joanne Ostrow as "dishonest" and "a far-left ideologue" on the April 9 broadcast of Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly continued to attack Ostrow on his April 11 broadcast. O'Reilly had his producer, Porter Berry, trail Ostrow to a Denver parking lot to conduct an ambush interview, videotaping the encounter and airing it on both The O'Reilly Factor and his nationally syndicated radio show, The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly.
As Colorado Media Matters noted, O'Reilly on April 9 attacked Ostrow because her April 7 column criticized O'Reilly's behavior during a heated interview with TV journalist Geraldo Rivera. Ostrow wrote:
When a girl was killed by a drunk driver in Virginia, a driver who happened to be an undocumented immigrant, O'Reilly seized the moment to turn the issue into a tirade against illegal aliens. O'Reilly spewed racist bile; Rivera objected forcefully. When Geraldo is the voice of reason driving home solid points, you know things are out of hand.
After claiming on his April 11 broadcast that Ostrow declined an invitation to appear on the show, O'Reilly said, "So Factor producer Porter Berry went to her." He then aired footage of Porter asking Ostrow if she wanted to "apologize" for accusing O'Reilly of "spewing racist bile." When Ostrow asked Berry, "Why are you stalking me in a parking lot?" he replied, "I'm not stalking you. We called you and invited you to come on the program, so -- because we want to get an explanation. When you call someone a racist and do those kinds of things, it deserves a little bit of an explanation."
From the April 11 broadcast of Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: "Impact Segment" tonight, Virginia Beach still in an uproar over the deaths of two young women killed by a drunk illegal alien with an extensive criminal record. And I said all criminal aliens must be turned over to the feds. And Virginia Beach does not do that. For my troubles, some in the media have been attacking me. Writing in The Denver Post, Joanne Ostrow said, quote, "O'Reilly seized the moment to turn the issue into a tirade against illegal aliens. O'Reilly spewed racist bile." Pretty strong words. So we invited Ms. Ostrow on the program. She declined. So Factor producer Porter Berry went to her.
[begin video clip]
BERRY: When you wrote the piece that you, you said that Bill used it as an opportunity to go on a tirade against illegals, when the fact is, it was actually about -- it was a criminal illegals story. How do you explain that?
OSTROW: It's the reference to "illegals" instead of "undocumented" that I was referring to. Why didn't you guys just call me and ask for an interview?
BERRY: I called you yesterday and you declined the opportunity. I called -- I spoke to you yesterday.
OSTROW: Why are you stalking me in a parking lot?
BERRY: I'm not stalking you. We called you and invited you to come on the program, so -- because we want to get an explanation. When you call someone a racist and do those kinds of things, it deserves a little bit of an explanation. So the story is about a criminal illegal alien who had four priors -- in fact, one DUI. He killed two teenagers. That's what the story was about -- a criminal illegal, but you said O'Reilly went on a tirade against illegals. How can you explain that?
OSTROW: Because it changed the topic to talk about what he calls illegal aliens -- undocumented immigrants.
BERRY: But then you went on to say that he was spewing racist bile. Do you want to apologize for that?
OSTROW: To me it's racist.
BERRY: What's racist?
OSTROW: I was expressing myself.
BERRY: And, but that's fine, but shouldn't you give an example of -- if someone's a racist. If you're going to call someone a racist, shouldn't there be something to back that up?
OSTROW: I've already said it; now we're sort of repeating and repeating. Is O'Reilly upset that Imus is getting more attention these days?
BERRY: No, O'Reilly's not upset about that, but he doesn't like being called a racist by people when they can't give any examples and it's flat-out not true. Shouldn't you apologize? If someone called you a racist and it wasn't true, wouldn't you want them to apologize for saying something nasty and vile like that with nothing to back it up?
OSTROW: I would want them to catch me on the term "illegal alien." I, I don't think that's right.
[end video clip]
O'REILLY: All right, so, it's hard to believe, but because I used the term "illegal alien," I am a racist in this woman's opinion. This is The Denver Post. Now by the way, the Virginia Pilot newspaper also criticized me today, but didn't use personal attacks.
—J.S.W.
Comments (8) Show
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I know MM will never defend O'Reilly, but this one is a stretch. The simple and most effective way for the "harassment" (gimme a break) of Ostrow to stop is to publicly take responsibility for her words by backing them up with facts or just simply admit she was wrong and apologize. She's the one throwing around the "racist" label. Far more of an "attack" than a producer asking her to back up her own statements... Which she couldn't...
If she believes her words are accurate enough to write in her column, she shouldn't have any problem backing them up on TV.
Good post. But the word harrassment never appears in the article above. Are you quoting yourself? The term racist is thrown around way to recklessly today. By both sides. Ms. Ostrow should either apologize or qualify her comment.
The word "harassment" appears in the headline of the article...
I know what the headline said. I was trying to point out that it was misleading, and that you fell for it. Media Matters does this periodically (not as much as Huffington), and I consider it to be sloppy journalism. The headline doesn't relate to the article. Ms. Ostrow was complaining that Mr. O'Reilly's people were "stalking" her. CMM used a technique found in courtrooms and often the subject of objection. Misleading the witness (reader). Next time I'll try not to be so subtle. I meant no disrespect.
"I'm not stalking you."
Dude, when you call someone and they decline to meet, then you hunt them down in a parking lot, that's stalking.
let's see, she leaves work, goes home, then goes to wild oats, where billo's boy ambushes her. after work, "off the clock" done for the day. what part of stalking doesn't billo understand? oh, that's right, how much did ms. mackris get in that "undisclosed settlement" a couple years ago? guess billo never learns, except that this time the kid was left to do billo's stalking. and all this simply because billo can't handle ms. ostrow treating him like the miscreant child he is.
On the racism comments: The original segment featured a heated exchange between O'Reilly and Rivera, with O'Reilly screaming at Rivera and Rivera not backing down over the issue of race. Rivera contended that if the offender had been anything other than an illegal Mexican, O'Reilly would have never touched the story and that the story itself was about drunk driving, not immigration .
The exchange went back and forth over these points and it's not hard to see why Ostrow stated "tirade against illegal aliens", and I also think that at least on this occasion, that O'Reilly let the issue get the better of him. I have to agree with Ostrow in that O'Reilly's comments crossed the line into racist bile - intentional or not.
As far as Ostrow defending her comments - you need only watch the original segment she commented on and decide for yourself. She was right to decline the invitation as O'Reilly uses that forum to brow beat people, shouting over them as they attempt to speak. When they don't cave in, he goes into his left wing idiocy mantra. It's a no win situation for Ostrow unless she's better at his job than he is.
Here is the original segment Ostrow commented on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLPuGuaZTx8
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