Michelle Malkin VS Bill O'Reilly over HotAir blog smear - CrooksAndLiars joins the fight

Michelle Malkin VS Bill O'Reilly - Anatomy of a showdown courtesy of HotAir. It's worth noting Malkin is a frequent contributor to the O'Reilly Factor. HotAir.com is a popular conservative blog founded by Malkin.

We begin with O'Reilly's "smear".

VIDEO: O'Reilly on blog coverage of Sonia Sotomayor

Video: O’Reilly smears Hot Air
Ah, there’s nothing like yanking a comment out of context and using it to smear the entire site, even though neither Ed nor I have ever referred to Obama as "Hussein." Bonus points to O’R for referring to the comment in question as a "blog posting" even though it’s anything but. And before our lefty commenters ask, yes, I have defended Kos from similar charges.

Now Michelle Malkin's response

VIDEO: Michelle Malkin - Is Obama targeting Republican Chrysler dealers?

Michelle: Thanks for smearing our site, O’Reilly
Sit back and marvel as the boss segues righteously from a rant about whether Obama is targeting Republican-owned Chrysler dealerships for closure into an indictment of big-media denigration of blogs, using last night’s sandbagging on the Factor as an example. The obvious questions at this hour: Will taking a shot at him on air force him to respond tonight? And how long will we have to wait for the inevitable retaliatory Jesse Waters ambush interview outside Michelle’s home?

Update: CrooksAndLiars, a liberal counterblog joins the fray softly agreeing with HotAir but also showing little sympathy for its founder Michelle Malkin

"Hot Air" and Michelle Malkin get a taste of their own medicine: Bill O'Reilly smears them
I do agree with Hot Air that O'Reilly smeared them, but I have no sympathy for them, because Michelle Malkin is the queen of using this tactic. Malkin then went on Fox and complained, and righties are asking for a retraction from BillO. Good luck with that, and too bad. You set this up, and now you get to taste what you cooked.

Everyone knows that comments on blogs do not equal what I or any other blogger means when they post. I never even curse in my posts (who would have guessed, since I'm a dirty f*&king hippie). And if Malkin wants an apology she should start by apologizing to all of us first.

Bill O'Reilly returned to the air with a light apology to Malkin whilst asserting his "maverick" persona by not backing down to his conservative critics.

VIDEO: Bill O'Reilly apologizes to Michelle Malkin and HotAir (sort of)

BILL O'REILLY: Wow Ms Malkin is upset because I did not identify the "Hussein" comment was made by a civilian not her or her staff and that's true. I should have been more precise. But we often cite hateful civilian comments on blogs and say they should be edited like we do on billoreilly.com that's the point...