Be afraid, Bill O'Reilly

The “blogosphere” is an emerging political force in America. It’s the new public square, the new town hall meeting, the new voice of democracy.

Liberal and progressive bloggers from across America will come together soon for a second annual convention. All that brainpower in one place apparently has Bill O’Reilly scared senseless.

“On Monday night, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly aired a segment full of misleading, inaccurate claims attacking the upcoming YearlyKos blogger convention, its namesake DailyKos, and one of the event's sponsors, JetBlue.

“In his ‘report,’ O'Reilly cherry-picked an extreme minority of reader comments and diaries from the hundreds of thousands on DailyKos, claiming them to be representative of the community Web site and the greater netroots movement that will be gathering in Chicago from Aug. 2-5, 2007, for the progressive convention.

“Calling the netroots ‘the radical left’ and DailyKos ‘hatemongerers’ (sic) like ‘the Ku Klux Klan’ and ‘the Nazi Party,’ O'Reilly compared YearlyKos to ‘a David Duke convention,’ calling it ‘one of the worst examples of hatred America has to offer.’

“O'Reilly's segment, which has been latched onto by his ideological allies in the conservative blogosphere, is an attempt to discredit a movement that ‘each day is having more impact on America's political discourse while helping to renew our democracy.’

“O'Reilly's pre-emptive attack on the convention is a testament to the fact that the netroots are not a ‘nutroots’ fringe movement as critics would like to characterize it, but rather a snapshot of energized progressive activists agitating for change in America.”

- From The Progress Report, Center for American Progress, 18 July 2007. Read the full report: LINK

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is not a household name, but his blog, DailyKos, is read by millions of Americans every day. At last year’s convention, Moulitsas said the movement has been miscast as a collection of young, far-left activists: "I think Democratic politicians - I don't know whether slowly or quickly - are realizing that we aren't these far-leftist, naïve and young political extremists, that we're actually a fairly representative cross-section of the Democratic Party, and we don't have an agenda other than seeking strong Democratic voices."

And, what did The Washington Post have to say about last year’s first YearlyKos convention? Maybe a little more reputable account than O’Reilly’s: “Bloggers’ convention draws Democrats,” 10 June 2006: LINK

So. why is O’Reilly so afraid? Alternative voices. Take a look at this year’s roster of YearlyKos convention speakers, which includes governors, U.S. senators and representatives, Gen. Wesley Clark, members of the MSM and a large number of political activists and bloggers who are energized and doing wonderful things with their lives: LINK