Bill O'Reilly: 'cheap,' 'right-wing' media damaging Tea Party

Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly in his latest column blames a decline in public favorability for the Tea Party in part on the "right-wing media."

Credit: AP 

In September, a Gallup poll found that just 22 percent of Americans considered themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement, with 27 percent saying they're opposed. It was the lowest amount of support for the movement since 2011, when it was 21 percent.

O'Reilly said the mainstream media was part of the Tea Party's problem but also named the sympathetic "right-wing media" as a factor.

"Many in this crew are rhetorical bomb throwers - using personal attacks to slander and libel those with whom they disagree," O'Reilly wrote. "Calling President Obama a communist, a Muslim and a fraud (birth certificate) is cheap. And independent-minded Americans know it."

He continued: "While the majority of Tea Party citizens do not use defamation - some of those who claim to represent them do. It's the same thing on the left. Some progressive commentators are so hateful that they damage their own cause. Hate is hate no matter what ideology you embrace."

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