O'Reilly Compares Al Franken to a New York City DJ

On the May 10th edition of The Radio Factor, Bill O'Reilly compared Al Franken, internet assassins, and cable TV to a NYC DJ who said that he wanted "to do an R. Kelly" on a rival DJ's 4 year old daughter. "To do an R. Kelly" is referring to a R. Kelly scandal where there was a videotape that allegedly showed R. Kelly having sex with an underage girl. The DJ, Troi Torain, was fired by Clear Channel Communications on Wednesday after offering his listeners $500 for information on where the rival DJ's daughter went to school, and saying "I would like to do an R. Kelly on your (the rival DJ's) seed."

I agree with Bill that this DJ was far out of line and definitely should have been fired. But that's not what this is about. The issue here is O'Reilly comparing Al Franken to this DJ. That is completely uncalled for. Franken, a liberal radio show host, could be seen as O'Reilly's rival radio announcer. So instead of threating "to do an R. Kelly" on his rival's daughter, he simply compares his rival radio talk show host to this despicable NYC DJ. O'Reilly, on Franken:

You know when that -- when that vile Al Franken, that disgusting human being that's failing in every way he can. The -- Air America just lost their New York City affiliate. When he attacked me in his book a couple of weeks ago -- not a couple of weeks ago, a couple of years ago -- News Corporation made a mistake in actually trying to sue the guy, and, of course, that helped his book sales.

Now, his last book bombed, nobody bought it, because we all ignored it. So, that's what I'm saying to you. If you give these people any publicity, if you mention their name, if you take them to court, then they prosper. That's what they want, these assassins.

This sounds to me like a personal attack to me, but O'Reilly claims that "I don't do personal attacks here." He only called him a "disgusting human being" said that he is of "failing in every way he can", accused him of using lawsuits against him to help book sales, compared him to this despicable DJ, and called him an "assassin." I don't know, if that doesn't qualify as a personal attack, than what does?

Transcripts from Media Matters:

O'REILLY: Clear Channel is a big radio company. It employed a DJ named Star in New York City . Here's what this guy said. Go.

TORAIN [audio clip]: Yes, I've disrespected your seed. Where -- where does kid go to school? I've got 500 bucks for that -- for that information. If you didn't hear me, I said I would like to do an R. Kelly on your seed.

O'REILLY: OK. So this vile individual who, again, works for a major media company in this country has a feud with another DJ on another channel in New York City and -- and wants to attack his four-year-old daughter. By that -- that's what an R. Kelly is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's disgusting.

O'REILLY: OK. So, he asked his listeners to tell him where the little girl goes to school and offered $500 for that information.

Now, the guy's been fired. He's been fired. OK. But he wasn't fired until a local New York politician brought it to the media. Clear Channel didn't fire him the moment he said it. They kept him there. So, this, ladies and gentlemen, is a -- a very troubling aspect of American society -- extremely troubling. It started on the Internet where you have a bunch of people there who assassinate people; say vile things about people; threaten people every single day. Then, it morphed into radio. And you know who these people are. I don't have to -- I don't have to name them for you. You know who they are. Where everyday , they just spew hatred, vitriol, defamation on the radio. And now, it's in cable television. It's in cable television.

You got a couple of people on cable news programs that do this every night of the week, and the big companies that employ them are the companies that should be held accountable. OK.

Now , if you are a famous person at all, you cannot sue. If you have any notoriety at all, if anybody knows your name, you can't sue. And if you do sue, then you empower the person who's attacking you. You see, you give them more publicity.

You know when that -- when that vile Al Franken, that disgusting human being that's failing in every way he can. The -- Air America just lost their New York City affiliate. When he attacked me in his book a couple of weeks ago -- not a couple of weeks ago, a couple of years ago -- News Corporation made a mistake in actually trying to sue the guy, and, of course, that helped his book sales.

Now, his last book bombed, nobody bought it, because we all ignored it. So, that's what I'm saying to you. If you give these people any publicity, if you mention their name, if you take them to court, then they prosper. That's what they want, these assassins.