VIDEO: BILL O'REILLY FALLS OFF THE TIGHTROPE

Not in the literal sense but in the figurative sense. While talking with Fox News anchor Jane Skinner of the Fox news channel, O'Reilly plays a clip of Pat Robertson identifying Islam itself as the problem instead of radical terrorists who practice Islam.

Now for the tightrope. After O'Reilly plays Robertson's quote, he distances himself from Robertson by saying this:

I continue to believe most Muslims are good people all over the world and I'm not saying that to be PC (Politically Correct). I think that's true.

Then, before pitching it back over to Skinner, he builds Robertson up by saying he believes he's an honest man but that....

I'm not sure that helps the country.

Aside from sounding politically correct - which he denied being only moments earlier - O'Reilly is doing all he can to dismiss Robertson's claim without having the intellectual courage to explore the facts of those statements. O'Reilly is obviously more concerned about wishing something to be true rather than exploring the facts to determine if his conclusion is true.

Another disturbing aspect of this video is when Skinner refers to Muslim groups that came out after the shooting and condemned "what Hasan had done". This is a perfect example of not digging deep. One of the groups that "condemned" what Hasan had done was CAIR, which was an un-indicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial and has ties to both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

It is intellectually dishonest for both Skinner and O'Reilly to take the public statements of groups like CAIR at face value. It also perfectly illustrates O'Reilly's erroneous tactic of drawing conclusions based not on truth and facts but on what "helps the country". It doesn't take long to discover that the most obvious reason for why Muslim groups would come out and condemn Hasan would be to create the exact perception O'Reilly and Skinner seem to have bought hook, line, and sinker. Someone should tell O'Reilly that sometimes the truth hurts but that doesn't mean it should be avoided.



John Nampion at the David Horowitz NEWSREAL blog has more on this.

h/t to Barrackaid #7