February 25, 2015

Rachel Maddow Slams “Ballistic” Bill O’Reilly Over Threats to Reporter

Bill O’Reilly has a history of hurling insults and threats at his detractors. With the controversy over the reports from Mother Jones, CNN, and others that he embellished his reporting experience in the Falklands War, the Fox News host has added to this reputation by suggesting Mother Jones editor David Corn be placed in “the kill zone” and by telling a New York Times reporter she would face consequences if a story on the controversy did not please him.

“I am coming after you with everything I have. You can take that as a threat,” O’Reilly told Times reporter Emily Steel.

During the “Debunktion Junction” segment on her show Tuesday night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow slammed O’Reilly over his latest personal attacks and threats.

“Fox News has a bunch of folks like Mr. O’Reilly on their shows—part of why I call them ‘Republican TV,'” Maddow said. “But they also have a lot of real reporters on staff who do real reporting all day long on real news…I’m sure they don’t take kindly when their own reporters get threatened for trying to do their jobs. But it is hard to imagine what this is going to do to the work environment at Fox News channel for the Fox News channel’s real reporters, and they do have them.”

Watch below:

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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