Anatomy of a Smear: Bill O'Reilly

During the busy week that was, I hadn't paid much attention to the smear story brewing around Bill O'Reilly, as he's not someone I usually watch or listen to.

In the wake of the phony Rush Limbaugh controversy, I took the time this morning to check out the stories on the O'Reilly smear campaign, and the collusion of Media Matters and CNN to baselessly smear O'Reilly is truly jaw-dropping.

Juan Williams -- who apparently wasn't liberal enough for NPR to air his interview with President Bush last week -- describes his original conversation with O'Reilly, and how it's been twisted in the media. Read the whole thing, it's worth the time.

Not only has O'Reilly been smeared, but Williams himself is being smeared as an "Uncle Tom" for not having taken O'Reilly to task for his non-existent slams on black people.

Power Line has a YouTube video of Williams and O'Reilly discussing the smear campaign.

More at Captain's Quarters.

The left's cherry-picking of out-of-context phrases in order to fabricate non-existent controversy is yet another new low in American political discourse.