The O’Reilly Factor’s smearing of Dearborn, Michigan this week provoked just the kind of ugly reaction he and producer, Jesse Watters seemed to be aiming for. Let’s hope it doesn’t result in the same violence unleashed on a previous O’Reilly target, Dr. George Tiller.

As I previously posted, Watters went to Dearborn to mock, smear and fear monger about its large population of Muslims. Watters asked such obnoxious questions as, “What do you think is the higher power: the Constitution or Sharia law?” “Have you ever marched in an anti-terrorism rally? …Maybe you should,” and “Do you like Christmas?” But he also did his best to suggest that Muslims and Sharia law are taking over.

From The Arab American News:

Calling Dearborn the “Arabic capitol” of North America, Fox reporter Jesse Watters falsely alleges Muslims control the city council and the police chief is Muslim. Chief Ronald Haddad is Christian, and only two out of Dearborn’s seven-member city council identify as Muslim.  

Watters also asked a presumably non-Muslim man if he’d ever seen “any suspicious activity.” The man told Watters that a woman had been stoned last year and “Not too long ago, I read there’s an honor killing because a girl bought condoms.” He added, “Yeah, that keeps you on edge.” Watters made no attempt to verify the claim.

But according to Dearborn mayor Jack O’Reilly (not exactly a Muslim name), it’s baloney. The Arab American News reports:

“There are a lot of people who are going to watch that, and they’re going to believe that there is some truth to sharia law or honor killings or any of that nonsense that they were promoting,” [Mayor O’Reilly] said. 

… The mayor sent a letter to Bill O’Reilly, criticizing the show for “lack of sensitivity” and “factual errors.”

“While we share a common name and heritage, I am compelled to respond to your piece on Dearborn last night in which you were really spinning the truth,” Mayor O’Reilly wrote the host of the O’Reilly Factor. “While I understand that segment was intended to be lighter fare, its presentation of false ‘facts’ is dishonest and has unplanned, and very negative, consequences.”

Some of those very negative consequences are a rash of posts on Bill O’Reilly’s Facebook page urging that Dearborn be bombed, as captured in screengrabs by Arab American News.  Fortunately, those posts seem to have been deleted.

This is far from the first time death threats have followed O’Reilly’s smears. And in the unfortunate case of Dr. George Tiller? Actual murder.

O'Reilly and Watters should be ashamed but more likely, they’re high fiving.