http://mediamatters.org/items/200412100002O'Reilly attacked Media Matters: "the most vile, despicable human beings in the country"; called ADL president "a nut"FOX News host Bill O'Reilly lashed out at Media Matters for America and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on the December 9 Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly. He called Media Matters "the most vile, despicable human beings in the country"; called the ADL "an extremist group that finds offense in pretty much everything"; and labeled ADL president Abraham Foxman "a nut."
The controversy began when Media Matters highlighted a remark that O'Reilly made to a Jewish caller on his December 3 radio show, and ADL president Abraham Foxman wrote to O'Reilly in protest. When the caller on the December 3 Radio Factor objected to "Christmas going into schools" and explained that he "grew up with a resentment because I felt that people were trying to convert me to Christianity," O'Reilly informed him that the United States is "a predominantly Christian nation" and declared, "if you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel then." O'Reilly labeled the caller's concerns "an affront to the majority," insisting that "the majority can be insulted too." In his letter protesting the comments, Foxman wrote, among other things, that O'Reilly's comment "plays into one of the oldest anti-Semitic canards about Jews, that they are not full citizens of a country and are not entitled to all of the rights afforded to the majority."
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O'Reilly also claimed that the controversy surrounding his remarks is "why nobody sticks up for Christmas except me." He replayed the audio clip of the controversial December 3 exchange and told listeners: "If you think that's anti-Semitic, I wanna know. Do you think that's anti-Semitic?"