Bill O'Reilly Hits Back at NYT's Kristof and His 'Ploy'

By: E&P Staff TV and radio talk show host Bill O'Reilly fired back at New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof Tuesday night as their two-month-old feud continued.

O'Reilly called Kristof's column this morning, in which he announced a "pledge drive" to collect money to send the Fox News personality to Darfur, "simply a gimmick, a ploy, to bring my name to his passion."

He said he didn't really mind this, except that Kristof is "wrong" in focusing on Americans when the Sudanese are the "villains" for the mass killing in Darfur, and the United Nations holds the major blame for letting it go on.

Kristof, he added, "couldn't care less if I travel to Darfur. He should direct his ire at the U.N."

Finally, he noted that he had invited Kristof on his Fox show, "The Factor," but "so far he has said he is 'too busy'."

Earlier Tuesday, Kristof had announced his funding please, adding that he would ante up the first $1000 to bring O'Reilly to Africa.

The "feud" began last December when O'Reilly denounced Kristof as a "left-wing ideologue." Kristof replied by calling him a "bully" and challenging O'Reilly to show truly "traditional values" by joining him on a visit to Darfur to assess the death and devastation there, thereby "using your talents for an important cause."

O'Reilly then hit back at Kristof, calling him "absolutely clueless" and adding that the New York Times columnist has "no idea what is happening in the country."

Kristof in his Tuesday column revealed that a few days ago he got this answer to his earlier offer to take O'Reilly to Darfur: "I do three hours of daily news analysis on TV and radio. There's no way I can go to Africa."

But Kristof observed that with a satellite phone, "you can do your show from anywhere."

Asking readers for help, Kristof asked that they send e-mails and tell him how much they are willing to pay toward O'Reilly's expenses in Darfur.

"Offers will be anonymous, except maybe to the N.S.A.," Kristof observes. "Sure, this is a desperate measure. But with several hundred thousand people already murdered in Darfur and two million homeless and living in shantytowns, the best hope for those still alive is a strong dose of American outrage....

"Mr. O'Reilly has a big audience and a knack for stirring outrage. Lately, he (quite properly) galvanized an outcry over a ridiculously light sentence for a sexual predator in Vermont. The upshot was that the sentence was increased. Good for him.

"So imagine the furor Mr. O'Reilly could stir up if he publicized the hundreds of thousands of rapes, murders and mutilations in Darfur. He could save lives on a grand scale. Join the pledge drive!"

But tonight O'Reilly had, as he would put it, "the last word"-- at least so far.