Denver Post editor enters No Spin Zone

Newspaper takes issue with The Factor's coverage of Colorado's failure to pass Jessica's Law

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," March 13, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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BILL O'REILLY: "Factor Followup" segment tonight. Last week, we criticized Speaker of the House, Mark Ferrandino, for not allowing the legislature out there to vote on Jessica's Law.

Jesse Watters confronted Ferrandino.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: A 41-year-old soccer coach repeatedly raped a 13-year-old girl and only got two years in prison.

MARK FERRANDINO, SPEAKER, COLORADO HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, (D): Specifically, I still do not know the specifics of the cases you're talking about. I'm happy to look at them if you can look at the cases.

And if we need to toughen the laws in Colorado, we should and we will. But --

WATTERS: Well, you do need to toughen the laws, with all due respect, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: In describing Mr. Ferrandino to the national audience, I said he was openly gay, which he is, a fact that is noted in nearly every article written about him.

Apparently, that offended "The Denver Post" which editorialized on Sunday, quote, "It may not surprise you to learn that a fact-challenge bigoted line of attack came courtesy of a Fox News Channel talking head, specifically Bill O'Reilly."

"O'Reilly fear-mongering should offend all Coloradans. He was saying 'gay,' but what he wanted his listeners to hear was 'pervert-pedophile'," unquote.

Joining us now from the mile-high city is the man who wrote that, the editor of "The Denver Post" Editorial Page, Curtis Hubbard.

So, you've got a nerve calling me a homophobe. Number one, you can't back it up. Your editorial is libelous speculation. Is it not.

CURTIS HUBBARD, EDITOR, THE DENVER POST EDITORIAL PAGE: Let me correct you on a couple of things just to start. Number one, it's not an editorial. It's my column that appears each week, Sundays, so it's my opinion, not the opinion of the editorial board.

O'REILLY: All right. But you're the editorial page editor, correct.

HUBBARD: Correct.

O'REILLY: OK. Go ahead.

HUBBARD: So -- and I didn't call you a homophobe but what I did do was call in to question what Representative Ferrandino's sexuality had to do with his opposition to Jessica's Law, which was the point that you were making.

O'REILLY: OK. And why did I bring up that he was openly gay. What was the context of that description.

HUBBARD: You were trying to figure why he opposed Jessica's Law. And my question back to you is, what does his sexuality have to do with his opposition.

O'REILLY: Did you see the report. Did you see the report that we did. Did you see it on television.

HUBBARD: I did.

O'REILLY: Not read the transcript.

HUBBARD: I did.

O'REILLY: Did you see the report. OK, good.

HUBBARD: I saw it on television and to make --

O'REILLY: All right, so here -- I'm going to answer your question. I'm going to answer your question.

HUBBARD: OK.

O'REILLY: I described Ferrandino to the audience because the audience doesn't know who the heck he is. And I did it in the context of what his priorities are.

His priorities are civil unions, all right, which you guys are going to have pretty soon out there, and legalizing marijuana, which you already have out there. And he's a gay marriage proponent, as you know.

So, I said, here are Ferrandino's priorities, here's what he spends his time on, all right.

And Jessica's Law, he doesn't want.

HUBBARD: But, Bill, you didn't introduce them as his priorities. And you can go back and look at the tape.

O'REILLY: I did absolutely. I said, this is what the guy is promoting.

HUBBARD: What the tape says is you asked your guest why he opposed Jessica's Law.

O'REILLY: Right.

HUBBARD: And then who used his sexuality and his support for gay marriage as rationale for why he would oppose Jessica's Law.

O'REILLY: Oh, no, I didn't. I didn't say anything at the time. I described --

HUBBARD: My point is that the two are not related.

O'REILLY: -- I described who he was, who he says he is, all right. And that's it. I made no correlation between him being, quote, unquote, "openly gay" and Jessica's Law.

And for you to say that I equated --

HUBBARD: That's not true --

O'REILLY: No, you're, you're -- now, you are not telling the truth.

HUBBARD: Your guest is the one who took your words and then said, "He's protecting somebody."

O'REILLY: Listen, he's protecting the trial lawyers. That's who he's protecting. So, you are ridiculous.

You're a ridiculous person, and a journalist? This is disgraceful. To say that I described him as a --

HUBBARD: I don't know that I'm a ridiculous person, Bill, --

O'REILLY: You are.

HUBBARD: -- because no one here, other than Representative Sablan (ph), no one in law enforcement, no one in the justice system in Colorado were supporting this bill. And the fact still remains --

O'REILLY: Yes, and why are they not supporting it.

HUBBARD: -- what does Representative Ferrandino's sexuality have to do with passage of Jessica's Law.

O'REILLY: OK. I already explained that to you. If you can't grasp it, I can't help you.

You saying that I described him as openly gay, which is true, equates to me calling him a pervert-pedophile is a disgrace. It's a disgrace in any column.

It's a smear. You're a smear merchant. That's what you do. You can't back it up. Now, do you support Jessica's Law --

HUBBARD: No, I can back it up.

O'REILLY: No, you can't. You can't back it up at all. If you could, you would have put in your vile, little column.

All you did was make this giant leap. That's your opinion, fine. And your opinion is your opinion. But you're a smear merchant.

That's a smear. That's what you do. Now, do you oppose Jessica's Law. Do you oppose it.

HUBBARD: Bill, I don't think the question here is whether or not I support it or oppose it.

O'REILLY: No, no, no. That's the question because that's what we are doing in Colorado. Do you, as the editorial page editor of "The Denver Post," --

HUBBARD: No, but what is my column about. My column was about --

O'REILLY: -- do you support Jessica's Law or not.

HUBBARD: It's a -- listen, I don't know enough about it to say whether or not --

O'REILLY: You don't know enough about it. So, you write a column about our reporting and you don't know about it.

HUBBARD: I didn't write about Jessica's Law, Bill. I wrote a column about your comments on his sexuality.

O'REILLY: Yes, his description.

HUBBARD: I said --

O'REILLY: I described him the way he describes himself.

HUBBARD: If you had simply said, democrats in Colorado oppose Jessica's Law, here's why, I probably never would have brought it up.

O'REILLY: Look --

HUBBARD: But the fact of the matter is that you used the sexuality to impugn his character --

O'REILLY: I didn't impugn his character at all.

HUBBARD: -- and to imply to your viewers that his sexuality --

O'REILLY: I'd said what his priorities are as speaker of the house.

HUBBARD: Yes.

O'REILLY: Look, I'm going to post this -- I'm going to post this on billoreilly.com, the whole thing, so people can see what a charlatan you are.

You can't win the argument. You don't know what you're talking about Jessica's Law.

You run the editorial page in the most powerful paper in the state, and you don't know anything. And all you can do is smear. That's all you can do.

HUBBARD: That's not true, Bill. As I pointed out earlier, Jessica's Law was --

O'REILLY: You don't know anything about Jessica's Law. This has been in play for five years out there.

HUBBARD: Here's what I do know about Jessica's Law.

O'REILLY: What.

HUBBARD: No one in law enforcement in Colorado --

O'REILLY: No one?

HUBBARD: -- supported it in 2007, --

O'REILLY: No one?

HUBBARD: -- 2009 or again this year.

O'REILLY: OK.

HUBBARD: In fact, it's only brought up when the republicans are in the minority in Colorado. Not when they had the majority. It's been used against democrats as a wedge issue politically. There's --

O'REILLY: All right, but you don't know whether you support it or not. All you know is that no one, --

HUBBARD: I didn't know whether it does more --

O'REILLY: -- and believe me, I'll get law enforcement from Colorado on here and I'll make you look foolish on that statement. But you don't even know about it.

And you are the Editorial Director of "The Denver Post" and you don't know --

HUBBARD: I do know about it. What I don't know, Bill --

O'REILLY: Well, do you support it or not. Do you support it or not.

HUBBARD: You have to ask me which version I'm supporting.

O'REILLY: Which version.

HUBBARD: I'm supporting the 2007 version that included the 15-year --

O'REILLY: No, the mandatory 25 to life for rapist, child rapist.

HUBBARD: This year's -- I think that we have seen in our judicial system that mandatory sentencing oftentimes has unintended consequences. Colorado is --

O'REILLY: All right, so you don't support it.

HUBBARD: Colorado has strong sex offender laws. I don't see any reason to change --

O'REILLY: I've got a dozen, I've got a dozen child rapists doing less than five years in your state, Mr. Hubbard.

HUBBARD: And they're on lifetime --

O'REILLY: You need to do a little research about it.

HUBBARD: -- probation, which is something unique to Colorado --

O'REILLY: Lifetime probation, ooh. Lifetime probation for rape.

HUBBARD: Lifetime probation which means --

O'REILLY: You know, if you had a kid and somebody raped that kid and they got lifetime probation, you'd probably be out there with a gun, Mr. Hubbard.

HUBBARD: That's in addition to their prison sentences, Bill. And if they violate any of the terms of that probation, they go to prison.

O'REILLY: Yes, the two or three years that they got -- the two or three years that they got, that's good. The soccer coach that raped the kid and got --

HUBBARD: There are 2,000 people imprisoned in Colorado.

O'REILLY: All right. I'm just going to say it. You need to look up Delbert Wallace Stewart.

You need to find out what that man did, what a Colorado judge gave him, and then you need to come back on the show and tell me you don't need Jessica's Law. All right, Mr. Hubbard, fair enough.

HUBBARD: I can tell you, I know about that care. Sure, I'm happy to come back and discuss it with you anytime, Bill.

O'REILLY: All right, very good.

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