P-I's Connelly to Fox's Bill O'Reilly: "Apologize or shut up!"

The Pacific Northwest's senior political writer, Joel Connelly, has an excellent post up at Strange Bedfellows admonishing Fox Noise host Bill O'Reilly for unfairly attacking the Seattle Post-Intelligencer after it refused to circulate photos of "suspicious ferry passengers" last fall:

O'Reilly sent out an aspiring slayer of straw men, his producer Jesse Walters, to conduct an ambush interview with P-I publisher Roger Oglesby, outside the latter's Seattle home.

"Are you proud of that decision, sir? I mean, they still haven't found those guys," Walters sneered at Oglesby. A few moments later, Walters said the two men were "still on the loose."

On the loose? No crime was committed. No illegal act by the two men was ever alleged or attributed. No effort to sabotage Washington's marine highway was ever found.

The two men were identified and photographed by a fellow passenger for a simple reason: They looked Middle Eastern.

Should a newspaper --in a free country, proud of its history as a melting pot - be stereotyping people as "suspicious" by the pigment of their skin?

Well, the story has a predictable end. The FBI disclosed Monday that the two men came in from the cold, as it were, by visiting a U.S. embassy recently. They were European business consultants on a Seattle trip.

"It appears they were in the area for legitimate reasons," reported the FBI.

We are an international city. At least a quarter of Washington's jobs depend on exporting goods to other countries. We naturally need to entertain buyers, even - and especially, say, in the case of Saudi Arabians buying jets - people whose skin looks like the two guys on the ferry.

O'Reilly ought to apologize, like right now.

He ought to, but he won't. Bill O'Reilly never apologizes for anything, let alone get his facts straight in the first place. The "No Spin Zone" is as fine of a oxymoron as any I can think of.

O'Reilly treats everyone who doesn't agree with him like scum, which is typical of figures on the right wing. Strangely enough, he is so nasty and baseless that even fellow conservatives don't like him.

I remember O'Reilly came up in a conversation between myself and KVI's Kirby Wilbur back in 2005. I had just finished debating Tim Eyman about Initiative 900 on Kirby's show in the morning. Kirby had been broadcasting his show (and our debate) from a pancake house in Edmonds, and as his team packed up the equipment and prepared to leave, we got to talking about the Fox host.

I expressed my disgust at O'Reilly's delusion and obscene treatment of his on-air guests, and was surprised to hear Kirby and his KVI crew agree with my point of view as we walked out into the parking lot.

I've never forgotten that memorable exchange. But it just goes to show that being mean-spirited and uncompromising has its consequences. It's easy for me to hold Bill O'Reilly in contempt for his disgusting behavior and lack of professionalism. But it's also easy for me to respect those in the right wing who care about having a discussion with the other side...and not waging a "culture war".