Lisa emails:
A Muslim-American, Dr. Imad-ad Dean Ahmad, was invited to appear on Bill O’Reilly’s TV show tonight to take “the anti-Bush stance” against a Muslim-American supporter of Bush. A few hours ago, Dr. Ahmad publicly stated, “I was actually in the car being driven to the show when his deputy called me and informed me that although they would identify me as a Muslim supporter of [Michael] Badnarik, that I was not allowed to mention Michael’s name on the show! I declined to accept those terms and they had the driver bring me back.”This is the third time since June that Mr. O’Reilly’s “no spin zone” show has done something like this to either Badnarik or a supporter. Mr. O’Reilly seems to be free with mentioning Ralph Nader’s name quite often on his show, but he seems to be terrified to mention either Mr. Badnarik’s name or the Libertarian Party on his show.
A replacement for Dr. Ahmad was found, Khalid Turaani, the founder of Arab-American Republicans Against Bush, but it seems that despite the Factor’s best laid plans, things went agley.
They called him 30 minutes before taping and asked him if he would take the anti-Bush position on the show. He agreed and they rushed him down to the studio. They kept pressing him as to whom he would vote for and he kept dodging the question, saying he would say that on the show. Kerry? No, he said, I’m a conservative, I would never vote for Kerry. At the studio they pressed real hard and he admitted that he planned to vote for Badnarik. When he say the panic in their eyes he realized that despite their “fair and balanced” claims, they were Bush supporters. They tried to dissuade him from mentioning it on air, but by then it was too late to do to him what they did to me. He went on the air and said that a vote against Bush need not be a vote for Kerry and that he would vote for Badnarik, the Libertarian.Mr Turaani’s actual words were: “I don’t want to cut off my nose to spite my face by not liking Bush and jumping in the lap of Kerry. No – I will vote Libertarian and I think Badnarik is going to be a good choice for people who don’t like Bush.”
Horror of horrors, both the L and the B word were mentioned! But what does Brave Sir William care? After all, he is an independent, right? Or perhaps he’s just another carrier of water for the Big Government Republicans. Keep this in mind when you complain about liberal media bias. It’s not really a liberal vs. conservative thing, it’s more truly a big government vs. freedom thing.