Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” segment might be gone from Al Gore’s Current TV, but the name-calling isn’t.
On Current TV’s “The Young Turks” on Tuesday, host Cenk Uygur attacked Fox News host Bill O’Reilly for claiming the mission of “the far left” is to silence some. Uygur tied the crusade against the left’s latest boogeyman, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), to an O’Reilly complaint about the tactics used by left-wing groups to “silence” opponents.
“Alright, before I go to my panel, let me just level Bill O’Reilly,” Uygur said. “First of all it is your right-wingers that try to hurt people and their families by killing them, by bombing abortion clinics, etc. You are the one with the right-wing extremist terrorists on your side. So don’t talk to me about how Color of Change, who actually wants to help minorities in the country, wants to hurt you and your family. That’s made up.”
Uygur then went on to label O’Reilly with the “Nazi” moniker, which is considered to be taboo, at least when the right uses it.
“Before we went to the break, I showed you another part from that clip where he talked about Color Of Change and these groups are fascists,” Uygur said. “Alright Bill — you want to play name-calling games? No problem. You are a goddamn Nazi. That’s what you are, OK? You’re going to call us fascists all day long, and we’re not going to respond? Well, those days are over, Nazi. And freedom of speech, what are you talking about?”
Uygur declared that ALEC’s alleged activities of buying off politicians was a practice that was approved of by the Fox News Channel, leading to O’Reilly’s complaint.
“I’m sorry guys, I know this is supposed to be a panel, but man that makes me mad,” he continued. “OK no, your group was trying to buy politicians because that’s what you do on a consistent basis. Fox News loves that because you guys are in bed with all those corrupt politicians. We fought back. That’s called freedom of speech. You didn’t like it because you lost like a loser.”
Current TV isn’t shying away from Uygur’s remarks either. The network’s corporate communications director Naomi Bulochnikov blasted them out in an email press release wrap-up of the show shortly after it aired.
