Bill O’Reilly didn’t need to ask an actual liberal why the left hates Fox News. He and conservative Charles Krauthhammer have it all figured out for us. Hint: Fox is so great, liberals are so terrible and the 2016 election. Not mentioned? The continuing revelations about O’Reilly’s fabrications.

In his Talking Points commentary, O’Reilly cited a new Quinnipiac poll showing Fox is the most trusted news source. He didn’t mention, of course, that Fox is also the least trusted. How can that be? Partisanship. Conservatives love Fox while everyone else’s vote gets diffused. As Dylan Byers explained, “Yes, more respondents said they trusted Fox News than another network, but the total number -- 29 percent—pales in comparison to the combined total of mainstream networks like CNN and the broadcast channels.”

O’Reilly took a weird detour in his victory lap to attack David Axelrod for coming on The Factor to promote his book. “Then to show his gratitude, Axelrod begins trashing Fox News, saying we are not a real news organization,” O’Reilly continued.

“That was a mistake,” O’Reilly warned. “Being two-faced? Not a legacy builder, Dave. Perhaps he just made a verbal mistake. If so, we are ready to accept Mr. Axelrod’s apology.”

Which sounded kind of like a threat to me.

“The fact is that Fox News is now a deep threat to the progressive movement and the far left despises us, so they are in full attack mode, desperately trying to marginalize FNC,” O’Reilly said.

O’Reilly never mentioned what the “full attack mode” is, exactly. I doubt he meant Axelrod’s comments. More likely he meant the continuing drips of discrediting information about his truthfulness and integrity. Some of the latest have come from CNN, former Fox colleagues, his biographer, other former news colleagues and even two orders of nuns. Media Matters has been hammering O’Reilly especially hard.

So what a coincidence that O’Reilly focused much of his opprobrium on Media Matters – without mentioning a word about why he might have an axe to grind.

O’Reilly noted that John Podesta recently left the White House to work for Hillary Clinton. O’Reilly called Podesta a “long time political mercenary” with a “history of associations, including one with the Media Matters organization, the chief attack vehicle for the left.” 

O’Reilly went on to suggest that some of the hatred for O’Reilly, I mean Fox is because he’s such a threat to Hillary Clinton’s election.

There is no question that powerful people in Washington are using websites to smear political opponents. …Hit pieces fly around in cyberspace and then find their way to the mainstream media which gleefully promote the defamation for blatantly ideological reasons.

According to O’Reilly, the economic struggles of CNN and MSNBC also make them “hungry to participate in the attack process.”

“So hating Fox News is about competition, power and money at the highest levels,” O’Reilly ominously declared. “We dominate the prime time news cycle. Not good news for progressive politicians, the liberal media and crazed zealots on both sides.  Therefore, meetings are held, strategies devised, political assassins hired.  Is there any doubt for whom they are gunning?”

Later, in a discussion with Fox’s Charles Krauthammer that immediately followed O’Reilly’s commentary, he said, “But Podesta and the Hillary Clinton people know that they’ve got to try and marginalize FNC in some way and, therefore, you can see the cabal they’re putting together.”

O’Reilly also boasted:

Here, we’ve been very, very cognizant of giving (Obama’s) side of the story. But lately, there isn’t a side of the story against terrorism. There’s no side of the story. He’s packed it in and the terrorists are running wild. So I can’t give him his side of the story ‘cause there isn’t (one) there. But before we tried to.

So O’Reilly alleges a left-wing cabal without providing evidence, he makes a veiled threat to David Axelrod for not appreciating Fox enough, he takes some gratuitous swipes at President Obama – and still hasn’t answered the many questions that have arisen about his truthfulness.

THAT – and much, much more – is why the left hates Fox, Bill.

Watch it below, from the March 9 The O’Reilly Factor. I'm also including an embed of the entire Outfoxed documentary, in case anyone needs a refresher.