By: E&P Staff On his weeknight Fox News chat show, Bill O'Reilly often goes out of his way to give guests he plainly despises what he calls "the last word." When he didn't offer that opportunity to cartoonist/columnist Ted Rall on Tuesday night, you know he had to really hate the guy.
These were O'Reilly's final words to Rall: "You should be ashamed of what you did to Tillman."
This was a reference to Rall's controversial syndicated cartoon earlier this week which raised the question of whether ex-pro football star Pat Tillman, killed in Afghanistan last week, was actually a hero or possibly an "idiot" for volunteering to serve a less than noble cause overseas.
Before his final words, O'Reilly called Rall "a far left guy" who "makes (Gary) Trudeau look like Rush Limbaugh." He added: "Something is the matter with you, Mr. Rall."
O'Reilly also challenged Rall's statement to E&P on Monday, in which he said Tillman was serving an "evil cause." In a debate over Afghanistan's part in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Rall said it was myth that Osama bin Laden had admitted responsibility for those attacks on the U.S. and he might be innocent. The war against Afghanistan he said "was just as big a scam as the war on Iraq."
When O'Reilly predicted that not even five of Rall's usual clients for his cartoon would dare run it, Rall observed, "Editors are kind of cowardly."
O'Reilly did thank Rall for having the guts "to show up here."
In vintage form, O'Reilly also called Los Angeles Times' columnist Robert Scheer "a left wing bomb thrower" and took other shots at Doonesbury, the "left wing" New York Times and other members of "the anti-Bush media."
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