Writing about gay marriage and the vote in California Hertzberg says, quote, “Like a polluted swamp, anti-gay bigotry is likely to get thicker and more toxic as it dries up…. Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, said the other day (on the air, to Bill O’Reilly), “I think are is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us….”Now just O’Reilly’s face on the screen:

What Hertzberg did not tell New Yorker readers is that that conversation with Speaker Gingrich was about gay violence against a Christian missionary in San Francisco. It had nothing to do with the gay marriage vote, only militant reaction to it. Hertzberg does this kind of dishonest stuff all the time, because he knows many of his readers never watch “The Factor” and Gingrich and I are easy targets for his distortions. Hertzberg owes Newt Gingrich a written apology for taking his remarks completely out of context. And The New Yorker magazine should be ashamed to publish a dishonest guy like this.End of segment. After modestly accepting congratulations from several colleagues (and some ribbing from David Remnick, our editor), I went to my office as usual. The next day, Wednesday, Remnick got an e-mail from one of O’Reilly’s producers, Ron Mitchell. Can you bear to read the whole thing?

I have contacted Alexa Cassanos about this, but also wanted to send this directly to you.

Bill O’Reilly has taken issue with certain statements that appeared in Mr. Hertzberg’s piece from your December 1st issue.

Mr. Hertzberg, who recounts a recent installment of The O’Reilly Factor, has accused former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of being an anti-gay “bigot” while ignoring the context of the conversation between Speaker Gingrich and Mr. O’Reilly. It seems unlikely that Mr. Hertzberg actually saw the show, but relied upon 2nd hand accounts of that conversation.

I have included a timeline and transcript of what happened. It is clear that Speaker Gingrich is referring to several well-publicized accounts of gay marriage proponents engaged in activities such as storming a church in Michigan and assaulting a Christian group in San Francisco. He is not referring to an entire group of people.

We believe that Mr. Hertzberg owes Speaker Gingrich an apology and are asking for a statement from you on this matter. I am sure that you will agree that a serious allegation like this deserves your immediate attention.We’re still in Mitchell’s e-mail. There’s more—his “timeline and transcript”:

1-On the November 14 edition of The O’Reilly Factor, the following exchange happened between O’Reilly and Newt Gingrich: > > O’REILLY: .he didn’t have the power that she has. And he didn’t have a husband or a wife like he does.

OK, now the culture war, I know you’ve been flying around the country and doing stuff. In the last three or four days, really nasty stuff. I mean, you know, hyper. We’re going to show you some of the video. A woman getting a cross smashed out of her hand. We had a church in Michigan invaded by gay activists. We’re going to show you the video on Monday of that. We have exclusively. We had a guy in Sacramento fired from his job. We have boycotts called on restaurants. I mean, it is getting out of control very few days after the election. How do you assess that? GINGRICH: Look, I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants impose its will on the rest of us. It is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government, if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact, and frankly for that matter if you believe in the historic version of Islam or the historic version of Judaism, you have to confront the reality that the secular extremists are determined to impose on you acceptance of a series of values that are antithetical, they’re the opposite of what you’re taught in Sunday school.>

2-On November 17, MediaMatters.org posted the following headline and summary:> > Gingrich: “[T]here is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us” Summary: Discussing actions by individual protesters of Proposition 8, Newt Gingrich stated: “I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion.” >

3-In the December 1 issue of The New Yorker, Hendrick Hertzberg wrote this in his piece (p.27):> > Like a polluted swamp, anti-gay bigotry is likely to get thicker and more toxic as it dries up. Viciousness meets viscousness. “Look,” Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, said the other day (on the air, to Bill O’Reilly), “I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence… . I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact.” For diversity’s sake, he added that “the historic version of Islam” and “the historic version of Judaism” are likewise menaced—which is natural, given that gay, secular, fascist values are “the opposite of what you’re taught in Sunday school.”

This sort of sludge may or may not prove to be of some slight utility in the 2012 Republican primaries, but it is, increasingly, history.>

Ron Mitchell

Senior Producer, The O’Reilly Factor

Fox News ChannelRemnick’s reply, later that day:

Dear Mr. Mitchell,

Thank you for your email. I’ve read your note carefully, and more than once, and, of course, have read Hendrik Hertzberg’s piece again. It’s simple: I stand behind, and with, Mr. Hertzberg; that is, as the editor of the magazine, I have no problem with the piece he wrote. Any other back-and-forth would likely be more productive with him.

Respectfully yours,

DavidThat evening, the Wednesday, December 3rd, edition of “The O’Reilly Factor” came and went with no video of me and the guy with the microphone. That seemed to be that. Then, at about half past midnight last night (i.e., shortly after Wednesday became Thursday), I checked my e-mail one last time and found this, sent a couple of hours earlier by someone called Steve:

Subj: Don’t Lie in your editorials Dude!

When the gays and dykes crash into churches to impose their idealogy violently on average americans and destroy signs of opposing views, that’s fascism!!!

Get your facts right before you spout propaganda!!Gathering from this that O’Reilly had found some usable footage after all, I turned on the TV. Luckily, his program is rebroadcast from midnight to 1 A.M. Sure enough: