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Bill O’Reilly Defends MSNBC’s Right To Fire Pat Buchanan

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Thursday night, The Factor‘s Bill O’Reilly reported on how “the very liberal MSNBC network” has taken Pat Buchanan off the air because of opinions espoused of his book, Suicide of a Superpower, particularly where the issues of religion and immigration are concerned. Buchanan had previously denied being suspended from the network, explaining his absence as a medical leave.

Washington Post Magazine contributing editor Cathy Areu weighed in, noting that there have long been suspicions of Buchanan being a white supremacist or white extremist, and that the ideas he sets forth in his book confirm that. O’Reilly disagreed with that assessment, interpreting the book as simply saying that the idea of a melting pot nation “under God” has become a thing of the past, much to the country’s detriment. But “you can believe he’s a white supremacist, you can think I’m a member of the Mickey Mouse Club.”

RELATED: Pat Buchanan Denies Being Suspended By MSNBC, Says He’s On Medical Leave

O’Reilly’s main question, however, is this: Should MSNBC have taken Buchanan off the air now when he’s been basically promoting the same ideas for years? As Areu sees it, Buchanan’s book confirms, without the shadow of a doubt, long-held suspicions about Buchanan’s extremist, racist views. (But if the litmus test for dismissal from MSNBC is extremism, O’Reilly mused, who wouldn’t be fired?)

RELATED: If MSNBC Sacks Pat Buchanan, Will They Have To Answer For Al Sharpton?

Fox News contributor Sandy Rios, meanwhile, sees the move as an attack on free speech.

And here’s where O’Reilly defended MSNBC.

The network, he explained, is a private operation. “They can hire and fire whoever they want,” he said. “So it’s their prerogative to put him on the air or not. My thing is, Buchanan’s not saying anything now that he hasn’t said before in plenty of different forms. They knew it when they hired him; that’s what he was getting. And now they go, ‘Well, we don’t like it.’”

He also asked whether Buchanan’s book wasn’t merely generalizing or exaggerating when it described the self-imposed “grouping” of different ethnic groups within the U.S.

Watch what happened, via Fox News:

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  • Anonymous

    F*cking idiot Sandy. The 1st amendment applies to the GOVERNMENT censoring speech…not a private company!

  • Anonymous

    I Also Defend MSNBC’s Right To Fire Al Sharpton !!!

  • Gloves Bugsy Donahue

    Now let’s see MSNBC try to fire journalist Al Sharpton.

  • Anonymous

    The real problem with Buchanan’s comments is that they are absolutely true and the left doesn’t want the masses to hear it. The US is destroying itself, which is what the left wants.

  • Anonymous

    It’s funny because we became bankrupt from a war that your side trumpeted… now we have to deal with the fallout.. and yep, all Democrats fault.

    Take some personal responsibility for your vote. You guys voted George Bush in twice.. you guys have no right to criticize anyone, quite frankly. 

  • Pablo

    Why else would they encourage people to come to America and not be Americans first and foremost? America cannot be Balkanized.

  • Anonymous

    Buchanan no – Sharpton yes.  Go figure…that is MSNBC.

  • Anonymous

    “…[MSNBC] has taken Pat Buchanan off the air because of opinions espoused of his book, Suicide of a Superpower…”

    Is this an established fact? Did MSNBC sight the book as the reason for his dismissal? (I’m asking this as a legitimate question. I’ve not read this.)

  • Anonymous

    Didn’t you hear the Yenta from the Washington Post explain that Sharpton’s just fine?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brandon-Wilson/100000381113990 Brandon Wilson

    Hey, remember that time that Sharpton defended Hitler?  No?  Me neither.

    Anyone that posts to World Net Daily should not be on any news network. 
    That network has a show named after a R Congressman on for 2 hours
    every morning, tons of republicans all day.  But they don’t tollerate tin-hat Nazi-sympathizer idiots.  And this somehow hurts your opinion of their editorial standards?  Hmm.

    Sharpton is not a journalist, him, nor anyone that likes his commentary has said that.  Thanks for inserting (yet again) a strawman argument into things.  Helpful as usual.  (Not.)

    Sharpton is an idiot about many issues, but it is a reach to demand he be fired because your Klan member buddy got the axe for writing (another) seig heil book.

  • Anonymous

    Exactly. They encourage these masses of illiterate third-world peasants to come here and then encourage them to think of themselves as part of an ethnic interest group. A real healthy situation is developing in this country.

  • Anonymous

    F-stick, I didn’t vote for Bush I or II.

  • Anonymous

    MSNBC can do whatever it feels is best for MSNBC, but Sharpton’s most egregious racial rabble-rousing actually resulted in dead people. He’s not just an “idiot”; he’s a terrible human being.

  • Anonymous

    You must be new to this game.

  • Anonymous

    Private employment is “at will” so anyone can leave or be fired at anytime. If they have a contract with the employer either side can take action to enforce the provisions of the contract.

    Of course, employers can not violate any employment laws.

  • RW

    In this day and age, Pat Buchanan should just record himself giving his opinion on a current issue and post it to YouTube.  I am less likely to tune in MSNBC.  Now it is one big liberal lovefest.  They debate conservatives by running footage of the conservative, then presenting the liberal argument. 

    Boring.  zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

  • Anonymous

    An exec at MSNBC (can’t remember which one) actually did say when Pat was first taken off air that there were concerns about opinions expressed in the book.

    I do love the irony that an organization (NBC News) that thrives on free speech is quick to slam an employee for just that.

  • Pablo

    Phil Griffin, the top dog. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/pat-buchanan-out-indefinitely-at-msnbc-over-controversial-book-comments/

    Griffin told me after the panel, “I don’t think the ideas that [Buchanan] put forth [in the book] are appropriate for national dialogue on MSNBC. He won’t be coming back during the book tour.” Will Buchanan be back at all? “I have not made my decision,” replied Griffin, who did say he will be tinkering with the network’s format as the year goes on. Pat’s a good guy. He didn’t like [being removed from the air], but he understood.”

  • Anonymous

    Thanks. I knew it was one of the fools in charge over there.

  • Pablo

    Buchanan isn’t a journalist either, and he hasn’t changed a bit in decades. This is the guy they hired, who just doesn’t work anymore with MSLSD’s extreme progressive bent. He giving up their game, ferchrissakes!

  • Pablo

    We’ve spent far less in Iraq than one of Obama’s annual deficits. Your premise is bullshit.

  • Pablo

    Indeed he was. The paleocon is the sworn enemy of the neocon.

  • Anonymous

    I’m with O’Reilly.  You’re a liberal news org and you can fire whoever you disagree with, viewers can watch you or not.  That’s America.  

  • Anonymous

    Why?..the balkans are a standard bearer for racial harmony and peace..

  • http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

    If anyone should be fired from their network, it should be Bill O’ Reilly for sexually harassing his co-workers!!

  • http://PalinsDirtyLittleSecret.blogspot.com/ StopElectionFraudClickHere

    Interesting

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NRXU7LAJ2DLVHPGX25WOQR3RI4 chris l

    You’re apparently ignorant of Shartpton’s history.  You call Buchanan a nazi & a klan member, both of which aren’t true, yet you ignore the deaths that have resulted from Sharpton’s actions.  That’s telling. 

  • Anonymous

    In all fairness, MSNBC also fired Keith Olbermann.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KV4RFCL74WV652VV43U3GDPAEY Stephen W

    Buchanan is completely correct on what he wrote in his book.  America is being destroyed from within.

  • Anonymous

    Yep. Pat is an MSNBC asset because he brings both neo conservatism, and a “traditional family values” perspective, and he is a natural foil for progessives like Maddow, who shines when Pat is on. The man loves to be politically incorrect, he’s a jewel. IMHO. On the other hand, MSNBC has the right to distance themselves from Pat’s “politically incorrect” book tour. Lord knows if he was on he would be plugging it.

  • Anonymous

    Kind of like Fox News.

  • Anonymous

    put some numbers behind this claim with data supporting it or i call bull!

  • Anonymous

    New to what game? If you want to challenge me, do it and stop beating about the bush! Yawn.

  • Anonymous

    Guffaw. An Obama annual deficit does not continue to increase after the end of the fiscal year unlike the perpetual Iraq/Afghanistan expenditures. Maybe you should look at what the CBO estimates those engagements will end up costing the US tax payer. 2.4 Billion dollars. Some other economists have even higher figures.
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/10/24/us-iraq-usa-funding-idUSN2450753720071024 

  • Anonymous

    Hyperbole much? People…err, immigrants come to this country to become Americans because they LOVE the country. Their patriotism is STRONGER because they actually made the effort to become an American unlike you who became one by sheer LUCK of being born here. There’s no balkanization of the states. That is a canard parroted by the nativist and xenophobic bigots like Buchanan. It’s paranoia fueled over the shrinking white demo. America is strong and will continue being so WITH immigration as it has over the past 200 years. No Chicken Littles allowed.

  • Anonymous

    I appreciate that you edited out the “Yawn.” ;)

  • Anonymous

    Yawn. 

  • rick.ruskin

    You should take a quick course in recent history, we are approaching bankruptcy because of a housing bubble and subsequent financial meltdown created by the government’s meddling in the mortgage industry in an effort to achieve “social justice” . That program was a creation of the democratic party during the Clinton years and when republicans and Bush tried repeatedly to reform the irresponsible programs, they were blocked by the democrats. Your claim that we are bankrupt from a war is laughable.

  • rick.ruskin

    So than you agree with the Clinton impeachment?

  • rick.ruskin

    Olbermann was fired because he is a vile POS who cannot get along with anyone, he has been fired from every job he has had. Luckily he is now wallowing in obscurity on a network that no one has heard of. Buchanan being fired for his views is entirely different.

  • http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

    Monica wanted to be with Clinton, no woman wants to be with Bill-O, just ask his wife who recently left him for another man!!

  • Anonymous

    Why are whites afraid to admit what most blacks know already, we’re not as intelligent as white people. Just as I see Asians are smarter than whites. We’ve built no great cities or nations on our own. But by mixing with whites, our children would have become smarter, generation by generation until they caught up. 

    But no, Jews designed welfare to make sure the lowest of our women had the most children, keeping most of my race stupid, just so they could secure a dumb voting block for democratic, who support Israel and her wars with American blood and tax dollars.

    Pat is no racist to say we’ve become a social burden. We have. Children who drop out of school, who wild malls for sneakers is not what we should be today. 

    Jewish controlled media fired Pat as they did Sanchez on CNN. Bill Big Mouth looked scare to even express a wrong opinion least he get fired. 

    I can’t understand how most white people let a small group of whites to control all their money and media.

    Take it from someone who understands gang behavior.  Jews act like a gang, they work together, the hurt anyone against what they want. They a gang. 

    It takes a gang to fight a gang. Make a bigger white gang against them to protect yourselves from them hurting you, as Cribs were formed to protect weak blacks from Hispanic gangs.

    be a white gang, learn to look out for yourselves, or you all dead. Slaves to your Jewish master. Held by chains of money. Your leaders are whores for money. Get new ones.

  • Anonymous

    You should also look up Alan Greenspan, deregulation, and derivatives to understand that although Democrats established these laws’ Republicans have abused them when they realized there was a profit to be made in the private sector.  Also search Brooksly Burns, a Democrat who actually tried to stop derivatives and the pending housing bubble at the time and was shot down by Greenspan and other Republicans because she wanted to increase regulation…

  • Anonymous

    This is the worst comment I’ve ever read. I know an individual of African descent did not write this comment. Whoever is the author behind samchaseback…please refrain from sharing your views with anyone or anything…You are the only person who should not be entitled to Free Speech for the Bulls**t you wrote…

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/3MNGL5F6BLCC5TLDC3TO2BOPG4 Brian

    I do not watch MSNBC.

    But MSNBC can fire Buchanon legally if they state that their company has an employment-at will doctrine. If they do not state so, Buchanon could sue them for wrongful termination.

    But ethically, they should not have fired him for this. And like others have said, it is hypocritical to fire Buchanon and have Al Sharpton allowed to stay as a news anchor.

    There is a  major double standard that in society today, minorities, especially Blacks, can get away with being racist and vile towards White people.
    But if you are White and have an Imus incident, that does harm to nobody and does not interfere with other peoples’ lives, your ass is likely to be grass.

    To me, this is a civil rights issue if White people are being silenced and are having their 1st Amendment right taken from them while others can say what they want.

  • Dj Bobby

    you do reliaze that websites like liberalbias.net have dis-proven these conspiracy theories about a left wing libearl bias

  • Anonymous

    I don’t need a website to tell me what to think…I know what I hear and read. Apparently, you do need someone else to tell you what to think.

  • valerie avigo

     why would you get rid of a wise man like pat buchanan/
    he speaks the truth .i watched morn. joe in hopes of seeing
    this wise man .instead; i have to look at the likes of donny

    duetch  who secretly wants to be fonzie ed rendell a hasbeen whostill thinks he can run for president  not!
    i’m losing interest  joe ! I’m being forced to watch the Mc Laughlin group, who is s mart enough to still have him on the panel. Love that group! 

  • valerie avigo

    Why would you get rid of a wise man like Pat Buchanan/
    he speaks the truth. I watched morn. Joe in hopes of seeing
    this wise man. instead; I have to look at the likes of Donny

    Duetch ( who secretly wants to be fonzie), and Ed Rendell a hasbeen who still thinks he can run for president….  not!
    I’m losing interest  joe ! I’m being forced to watch the Mc Laughlin group, who is smart enough to still have him on the panel. Love that group!  Valerie’s Angry 75 year old MOMJackie

  • Anonymous

    Bill’O should not be talking. His viewership is down by almost 900,000 viewers for the past 8 months. I think viewers are tired of Billyboy always promoting himself and his massive ego. It is almost as big as Donald Trump’s ego. Frankly, I can’t understand why anyone watches the factor. I can stomach about 30 seconds before I start puking.

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