Sleazy Andrew Sullivan tries to implicate Bill O'Reilly in George Tiller shooting

Abortion doctor George Tiller was killed earlier today in Wichita, Kansas. In response, Andrew Sullivan offers "O'Reilly's Target Shot Dead In Church" [1] in which he tries to lay the blame for the as-yet-unknown killer's actions on Bill OReilly. Showing his intense interest in the truth, he links to and quotes Wikipedia [2]

On Friday, November 3, 2006, Bill O'Reilly featured an exclusive segment on his show, The O'Reilly Factor, saying that he has an "inside source" with official clinic documentation indicating that George Tiller performs late-term abortions to alleviate "temporary depression" in the pregnant woman.[12] According to reporting data provided to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts for the year 1998, all of the post-viable partial-birth (dilation and extraction) abortion procedures performed in Kansas during that year were performed because "the attending physician believe[d] that continuing the pregnancy [would] constitute a substantial and irreversible impairment of the patient's mental function."[13] Tiller responded to O'Reilly's statements by demanding an investigation into the "inside source" through which the information was leaked, suggesting that Phill Kline, then the Kansas Attorney General, was responsible. Kline denied the charge.

Bolding added. He also links to this July 15, 2008 segment from the O'Reilly Factor in which Jesse Watters confronted governor Kathleen Sibelius. The transcript of that is here. They also discussed him in 2007 and 2006, but the latest mention of him on that show appears to have been over ten months ago. And, of course, O'Reilly never advocated violence against him in any way. And, whether it was good journalism or bad journalism, O'Reilly was engaging in journalism in the Wikipedia quote above; Watters was engaged in journalism; and O'Reilly was making perfectly legitimate commentary. And, no doubt in the intervening months there have been dozens of MSM stories about him.

I hesitate to call this the most disreputable thing Sullivan has ever said, partially because I'm not familiar with everything he's said and there might be something worse. However, he never went as far as accusing Sarah Palin of inciting murder, so this might in fact be very close to a low point for Sullivan.

[1] andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/a-far-right-assassination.html
[2] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tiller#The_O.27Reilly_Factor_controversy

Sun, 05/31/2009 - 12:30 · · Importance: 4