SPLC takes a "fascist" approach, says Fox's Bill O'Reilly

by FAIR President Dan Stein

Last night, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said what many believe, that the tactics of the SPLC are "fascistic," seeking through feigned tolerance a calculated effort to smear into silence those with whom they disagree. Stein Report readers know that FAIR has been a target of the same sort of bigoted tactics for several years now. During the interview with Richard Cohen, head of the SPLC, Fox News host Bill O'Reily stated that the goal of the SPLC was to silence differing views, and labeled the tactics of the SPLC as "fascistic." O'Reilly said people should be welcoming our ability to hear and discuss issues from a range of viewpoints, not trying to stamp it out. (Note: The SPLC is celebrating the fact Lou Dobbs has left CNN, and the smear-shop has been taking credit for it with the public and its supporters. Earlier, Dobbs had labeled the SPLC a "national disgrace.") During the interview with O'Reilly, Cohen repeated a series of generalized attacks against Dobbs - declining, as usual, to name any demonstrable specifics - in a blizzard of smears that amounted to hysterical and vapid name-calling. In the end, it's clear that the SPLC's issue with Dobbs was over perspective and emphasis: the SPLC and its allies want to control what is "legitimate" to debate in this country. O'Reilly properly reacted negatively to Cohen's tactics, and saw in them the foundation of the SPLC's vicious propaganda techniques designed not to disagree but to marginalize and demonize. Many of us had thought that the SPLC's new culture of intellectual fascism had its start with hiring of a former reporter**, Mark Potok. It's now clear that the rot starts at the top. Click here to check out our Special Investigative Analysis about the SPLC's methods.

**Mr. Potok requests this be published as a correction:

Hey, Dan,

Like your pal Lou Dobbs, I know you have some trouble with the facts. Or maybe you're just stretching to try to be really, really mean. But, my friend, I was never a "stringer reporter." (Where do you get your facts, Dan? Madeleine Cosman?) I worked as a full-time reporter at (in reverse chronological order) USA Today, The Dallas Times Herald, The Miami Herald, The Times (of Hammond, Ind.), and City News Bureau of Chicago.

I just knew you'd want to get it straight. Can't wait for the correction.

Your friend, the "intellectual fascist,"

Mark