Categories: Media & Culture

This is rich: Fox propagandists attack Media Matters as “hate-filled propaganda machine”

On Friday’s episode of the O’Reilly Factor, Fox Noise host Bill O’Reilly brought in his pal Stuart Varney from Fox Business to present a silly segment titled Varney’s Villains. One of two targets this week was Media Matters, the progressive media watchdog founded by David Brock over a decade ago.

Hilariously, O’Reilly and Varney – themselves two prominent mouthpieces for the Republican Noise Machine – described Media Matters as a “hate-filled propaganda machine”. Media Matters has spent years correcting the record and calling out Fox hosts for lying and fabricating. Clearly, they’re getting on the nerves of Roger Ailes and the empty suits who pass for personalities on his network.

Media Matters has both the transcript and video.

BILL O’REILLY: The first villain that Stuart has analyzed for us is Media Matters, which is just an outrageous propaganda website, a hate site, and they have been for years. And they’re tax-exempt. How can that possibly happen?

STUART VARNEY: Okay, they are a propaganda machine. That’s all they do.

O’REILLY: Far left propaganda machine.

VARNEY: Absolutely. They’re a hate-filled propaganda machine. They are technically a 501(c)(3) corporation. Okay, that means, they get a tax break. They’re not supposed to engage overtly in politics all the time. But that’s exactly what they do. They’re supposed to get a tax break and they do get a tax break.

But they’re allowed to propaganda, they’re allowed to put out propaganda. But it must not be — it must be insubstantial.

O’REILLY: Okay, that’s all they do is propaganda. And the guy who runs it also runs a reelect — an elect Hillary Clinton outfit. So, there’s no way that the IRS can’t know that this is a political unit, alright, devoted to harming conservatives and traditional Americans.

Faux outrage has been a specialty of the Fox Noise Channel for a very long time. Fox Noise hosts are experts at psychological projection.

Reading this, the team at NPI is reminded of that time years ago when O’Reilly attacked netroots activists as devil worshippers — which made him the target of merciless mockery in the progressive blogosphere for days on end.

One Daily Kos reader quipped, “So, Bill thinks we worship the devil… and [fellow Fox personality Ann] Coulter says we are godless. I’m so confused. Well, at least the right wing is there to tell me how to think.”

Andrew Villeneuve

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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