The Politics of Hate

The politics of hate, that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

A few weeks ago, six Mexican farm workers were murdered in Georgia. The mayor of Tifton, Georgia, (search) where the killings took place, responded by flying the Mexican flag at city hall in sympathy. Now apparently some residents complained about that.

Enter Dallas Morning News (search) columnist Macarena Hernandez, (search) who wrote these astounding words: "Were the complainers angrier about the red, white and green Mexican flag fluttering in the Georgia air than they were about the horrific murders? Do they watch FOX's "The O'Reilly Factor," where the anchor and the callers constantly point to the southern border as the birth of all America's ills? It is one thing to want to secure the borders and another to preach hate. Taken literally, such rhetoric gives criminals like those in southern Georgia license to kill."

So what Ms. Hernandez is telling her readers is that this program preaches hate and encourages murder. That's what this dishonest woman is doing.

Now first of all, we have no callers on "The O'Reilly Factor" as anybody who'd watch the program knows. So Hernandez doesn't know what she's talking about. I suspect she got her information from some smear Web site.

Secondly, I'm on record time and again as sympathizing with Mexican workers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: I'd always said if I were a poor Mexican, I would try to cross the border and earn money here and send it back to my family. I don't blame the illegal aliens. I blame the federal governments of both Mexico and the United States of America. I mean, I don't think you could deport 11 million people.

And if I were a poor, Mexican worker, I'd do the same thing that these people do. I have nothing, you know, they're hardworking, most of them. They're good people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: So there's the proof that Macarena Hernandez is a liar. This isn't a matter of opinion. This is a matter of deceit. You want more? How about this?

Ms. Hernandez fails to report the alleged killers of the six Mexicans in Georgia are criminal thugs who wanted money. Immigration had nothing to do with it.

Shockingly the Dallas Morning News allowed the column to be printed, allowed Ms. Hernandez to level the worst possible charge, that we encourage murder without checking anything out. Talk about promoting hate.

Hernandez and that paper are right in the forefront. There's no excuse for this. This is far beyond the limits of responsible journalism. The publisher of the paper, James Maroney (search), dodged our calls all day long. Hernandez refused to appear this evening, as did her editors. There's something very wrong at the Dallas Morning News and that guy Maroney is responsible.

"Talking Points" realizes American journalism is disintegrating quickly. There are few standards anymore. Left wing ideologues like Ms. Hernandez, who has a master’s degree from California Berkeley, are running wild with hateful invectives on an almost daily basis.

But for Hernandez to write a column this vile is beyond the pale. There's no excuse for that. If you'd like to tell the Dallas Morning News exactly what you think, we posted their e-mail on billoreilly.com. And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

As we reported last week, there are plenty of nasty creatures running around south Florida. Pythons starting to come out of the Everglades and bother Floridians in a variety of ways. Look at this.

But if you bother the python, you'd better watch it. He got him. He got him. Tim Callahan and Tommy Compton got this snake as the snake was trying to eat fish in their little pond. So they're trying to get the snake and the snake bites them. Well, the snake was captured, and as I said, don't try this at home.

Ridiculous? Maybe not for Tarzan but for everybody else. Don't try to capture the python. Pinhead. What's the matter with people? Call the python police.