Afraid of Debate

I've always liked Mike Stark. He's been calling shows like Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Hannity for years, providing a counterpoint to their points. Recently he's started archiving these phone calls at Calling All Wingnuts, a really good, user-friendly site that I've had in my blogroll practically since it launched.

He's recently been hammering O'Reilly over this petition he wrote to the head of NBC asking them to take Keith Olbermann's Countdown show off the air (because Falafel Bill is awfully concerned about the ratings on MSNBC during the time slot with which he competes). Stark has not only been calling himself, but getting a posse of "Wingnut Spinners" to join in the phone fun as well. This is perfectly legitimate; O'Reilly has a radio call-in show, and these guys are calling in.

Well, apparently Fox Radio isn't too happy about the free flow of ideas:

Fox news security is calling Wingnut Spinners - they actually do have our phone numbers (or at least some of them).  I got an email from one who had a message left on her machine.  I called the number and took responsibility for the action.  I asked them to leave individual callers off their intimidation list - but I told them that we wouldn't stop until Bill apologized to Olberman and took down the petition.

Olbermann will apparently devote part of his show to this tonight.

Here's a testimonial from one of the other people who got called by "Fox Security." (incidentally, O'Reilly's radio show isn't even on Fox) The guy lies about how many times this person called O'Reilly, and claimed "you cursed him out" when the caller did no such thing.

What we have here is a public call-in radio show that has now taken to intimidating its listeners and accusing them of harassment, saying "there will be consequences" if you mention someone else's name - not an obscenity, a NAME - on the air. If you're asking for the calls, how could you possibly cry harassment after getting calls? This is par for the course from a bunch of crybabies that can't handle dissent. It's what you'd expect from Mr. "Cut His Mic!"

Here's a transcript of what O'Reilly said about this on the air. What a lunatic. I wouldn't be surprised if a leave of absence was on the way. A little Betty Ford or Mayo Clinic action.