BILL O'REILLY: THE BESTEST ENEMY TO HAVE

by Steve Young

Want to save big dollars promoting an event? Have Bill O'Reilly despise what you're doing. Will Bill ever get it? Everything he wants the Folks to hate as much as he does turns to gold....for the object of his disaffection.

He turned Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" into a best seller.

His two or three week tirade (continuing ad infinitum) against Daily Kos has sent website visitation to all time highs and made DK bad boy, Markos Moulitsas, a much sought-after pundit on the major talk shows.

I'm sure Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore have sent more than a couple Vermont Teddy Bear "thank yous" to Bill.

A couple years back, Bill ranted on the Hollywood Hate Bush Rally being held at the Beverly Hills Hilton. Bill's producer sent me there to check it out. Really. Me. He proudly called me his "mole." What I reported back on the Factor was that, number one, it wasn't a Hate Bush rally (someone altered Laurie Davis's email-invite to read that), and number two, Bill blustered enough about it that it turned the expected small turnout into an overflow crowd...for which, Laurie properly thanked Bill.

It's called "What the hell is all the commotion about?" whiplash.

You talk so much about something being so egregious, people want to see it for themselves. It's part of the reason people slow down to see an accident. They've been stalled in traffic so damn long they want to see for themselves what caused it.

Not satisfied to preside over a week-long hatefest against "Redacted" producer and Dallas Maverick billionaire, Mark Cuban, Bill used his weekly print column "Betraying The Troops" to rip Cuban and his film saying... Hey, why don't we just let Bill tell you himself:

"...a depiction like this will be displayed prominently on jihadi websites, and will be used as a recruiting tool by terrorists. No doubt."

"Both [the film's director, Brian] DePalma and Cuban are unrepentant and apparently could not care less about putting U.S. troops in even more danger."

"No one denies the movie puts American soldiers in the worst light possible."

"In a free society, Mark Cuban is entitled to make this despicable movie. Our military people have fought and died to give him that right. Isn't that ironic? Cuban uses his freedom and his money, made in America, to put our troops at further risk. How does the guy live with himself?

"There comes a time when good people must make a stand, and this is one of those times. Cuban and DePalma have done a bad thing; they have made life even harder for our troops."

"There is no excuse for "Redacted." The incident is based on a true story, but those who committed the crimes are in prison for life. You don't celebrate this kind of aberration with a movie -- you don't brand the U.S. military with this stigma."

"Charles Manson is an American too, but does he represent this country in any way? Of course not. And I believe even the odious Manson would not make a movie like "Redacted."

C'mon. Tell me you wouldn't want to see a film so "odious" that Charles Manson wouldn't touch it. Tex Watson maybe. But Manson? The madman has his standards.

Read Bill's entire column yourself. Be sure to bring a truck to drive through the holes in logic. But the best part in Bill's rants against Cuban is that fact that he asked the Folks to bring "Support the Troops," in front of the theaters showing the film -- and on the Factor he urged them to do the same at the Maverick's games.

Odd that the O'Reilly cracked research team didn't catch the fact that Cuban who founded The Fallen Patriot Fund, an organization which has given millions of dollars to help families of U.S. military personnel who were killed or wounded in Iraq, donating over a million out of his own pocket to military families, gave away 20,000 t-shirts to promote the Texas National Guard and its website at the same Maverick game Billy boy wants the Folks to bring their "Support the Troops" signs to.

I was going to pass on "Redacted." Really, I was, but I gotta tellya. If Bill O'Reilly is so wound up about it, I definitely want to see what the hell all the commotion is about.

Don't be surprised if Mark Cuban puts Bill on the top of his War Against Christmas holiday gift list.