Two things that come to mind when I think of O'Reilly is that he is bully and a liar. The bullying part is easy to see but the lying takes some facts. There has been plenty of debunking when O'Reilly says something that doesn't measure up to the truth. The 'No Spin' Zone itself is a falsehood. Bill is constantly trying to take facts and spin them to his own twisted worldview. In this particular instance, his bullying and his lies coalesced into one giant debacle that left him out in the cold after the National Center for Missing Children refused to let him speak at one of their events in Naples, FL last month.
O'Reilly spoke viciously of kidnapping victim Shawn Hornbeck in the last couple of months, saying that he preferred to be with his captor rather than back at home and in school. Many of Bill's guests questioned O'Reilly's judgment on the matter but he was having none of it. After many protests and an effective campaign to have O'Reilly pulled from an event that he had no business being at, O'Reilly was sure to be pissed.
Bill never mentioned that he was yanked, obviously irate about the fact that someone took him down a notch. The NCMEC made a brief statement that they had become aware of Mr. O'Reilly's statements about abused children and decided to go a different route by inviting John Walsh instead.
Local reporter Brent Batten tried to get the story from Fox, but was given the run-around:
Why couldn't O'Reilly or his people give a straight answer? If something brushes Bill's ego the wrong way, he simply spins it away.On Feb. 14 I e-mailed Fox News producer Ron Mitchell, who works with O’Reilly, asking him for a few words of explanation as to why O’Reilly was no longer on the March 9 program.
He responded promptly, directing me to Fox News spokeswoman Irena Brigante. I called Brigante, who referred me to Ernie Allen, the president of the NCMEC. Allen, Brigante said, had a letter on the subject and would read it to me.
Allen did not return repeated messages left at his office.
The only “letter” I could find was a short posting on the NCMEC web site stating, “In response to the numerous e-mails and inquiries we have received, we are providing the following update regarding the Collier County, Florida branch fundraising dinner. Bill O’Reilly, will not be a speaker at the dinner.”
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