Bill O'Reilly Runs Ads for the Same Anti-War Movie He Claims "Hurts Our Troops"

This post, written by Matt Corley, originally appeared on Think Progress

For two months now, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has been using his various media perches to criticize and attack Brian De Palma's controversial new film, Redacted, which was financed by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. The film centers around a fictionalized portrayal of "the true story of a group of U.S. soldiers who raped and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered members of her family."

O'Reilly kicked off his campaign against the film with a column in September, saying the filmmakers "should be ashamed" because "they are hurting their own country." He sharpened his attacks last week, calling for a boycott of the "vile," "anti-American" film during multiple segments on his show. In a second column, O'Reilly compared Cuban and DePalma to Charles Manson:

There is no excuse for "Redacted." The incident is based on a true story, but those who committed the crimes are in prison for life. You don't celebrate this kind of aberration with a movie-you don't brand the U.S. military with this stigma.

Charles Manson is an American too, but does he represent this country in any way? Of course not. And I believe even the odious Manson would not make a movie like "Redacted."

Watch a compilation of O'Reilly's attacks on Cuban and the ad he aired to your right.

According to Cuban, the point of the ad buy was to see if the issue "really was important to Mr. O'Reilly, or whether" he "would say whatever he needed to say to get more people to watch." Cuban said he had no problem whatsoever obtaining the time:

I had someone call FoxNews and tell them specifically, unequivocally that we wanted to run an ad for the movie Redacted. The same movie Bill OReilly was so upset about.