The Feld-Blog

I just don’t understand the world of public opinion. During the Republican national convention Senator Zell Miller challenges Hardball’s Chris Matthews to a duel and feels no repercussions. Dick Cheney actively opposes an amendment to ban torture and his numbers don’t move. Yet, Howard Dean lets out a passionate yell in the midst of an emotional victory speech and public opinion detonates his campaign. Now Bill O’Reilly essentially condones an Al Qaeda attack on San Francisco and any public outcry is almost completely absent. Granted his comments were fairly indirect, but this does not excuse their inappropriateness. Here is what he said:

O'REILLY: “Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I'm not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, ‘Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead.’
And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.”

Let me just say, Thank God he isn’t the President. Maybe he’s exaggerating (I certainly hope so) but to condone terrorist violence on a city just for keeping military recruiters out of schools – a subject that has actually received some serious discussion in congress from both sides of the aisle – is one of the most incendiary and ridiculous comments I have heard in recent history and underscores some of the most unbalanced priorities I have ever heard escape the mouths of any pundit or politician.

How can America and the American Media allow Dean’s scream to destroy his campaigns while simultaneously allowing comments like O’Reilly’s to slip unnoticed under the radar. The media devours politicians in feeding frenzies over such inconsequential slip-ups as Bush’s annoyed looks in the debates. How can they then let O’Reilly get away with this? The same person who accuses people of being un-American for not supporting the war on terror just condoned a terrorist attack on a major American City. WTF?!?!