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Bill O’Reilly has elevated the art of lying to guru status.  If one was so inclined, you could literally pick out his lies from just about every single episode of the Factor.  I am not so inclined but when the buffoon lies as blatantly as he did last night, well, it requires mention.  Here’s how it came down.

Last week, at a town hall meeting, Republican Senator Tom Coburn responded to a woman who was concerned about the new health care bill incarcerating people for not obtaining insurance.  The Senator responded with…

“The intention is not to put anybody in jail.  That makes for good TV news on Fox but that isn’t the intention.”

O’Reilly, defender of all things Fox, had this to say to Coburn last night.

“[Y]ou don’t know anybody on Fox News — because there hasn’t been anyone — that said people will go to jail if they don’t buy mandatory insurance.”

“[W]e researched to find out if anybody had ever said you are going to jail if you don’t buy health insurance. Nobody has ever said it. What it seems to me is you used Fox News as a whipping boy when we didn’t qualify there … you were wrong to do that, Senator, with all due respect.”

Of course, there was no research, at least not by O’Reilly’s staff.  Research is not something Fox is known for.  But if they had, they might have come up with…

November 13, 2009, O’Reilly Factor:

O’REILLY: Couldn’t they do [liposuction] at the same time [as your appendectomy]?

BECK: No, they wouldn’t. No. I don’t have universal health care.

O’REILLY: No, let’s get — well, you will soon.

BECK: Or I’ll go to jail.

O’REILLY: Are you going to be a conscientious objector to health care?

BECK: You know, this is the first time in history in our country where, just to be a citizen, just to be — just to not go to jail, you have to buy something.

November 12, 2009, The Glenn Beck Show:

BECK:  “if you don’t get into their government health care, there will be jail time.”

February 4, 2010, Fox and Friends:

RUSH LIMBAUGH: “This is not even a health care bill. This is a bill that raises taxes 14 times; puts people in jail, potentially, if they don’t have health insurance mandated by the government to buy. This is an avenue to control every aspect of life.”

November 10, 2009, Sean Hannity’s show:

HANNITY:  “Dick Morris was on the program last night. Penalties for people who don’t get government-mandated health insurance, uh, jail time, a possibility?“

There are more examples but you get the idea. Coburn had it right but O’Reilly could not care less.  Should he make mention of this MediaMatters piece tonight, he’ll simply refer to MM as a George Soros controlled liberal smear site and that will be that.  End of story.  The right have trained their sheep with Pavlovian mastery.  The mere mention of the phrase ‘liberal mainstream media‘ instantly discounts anything a non-wingnut source says.  No point for O’Reilly’s groupies to actually check what MM wrote and discover that they are quoting directly from transcripts of Fox shows.  All that matters is that MM is branded a “liberal” source and that satisfies their little minds.

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