Bill O’Reilly rips Stephen Colbert as ‘deceiver’ who damages America

Papa Bear is angry -- and Stephen Colbert is the target.

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, the No. 1-rated host in cable news, has gone on the warpath against Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert, whom he slammed as a “deceiver” who is damaging America.

On Tuesday’s show, O’Reilly went after Colbert for a recent comedy bit that lampooned O’Reilly’s arguments against gender and marriage equality. The Fox News star -- whom Colbert has jokingly dubbed “Papa Bear” -- accused the funnyman of distorting his positions.

“His analysis is delivered under the guise of comedy,” O’Reilly said, but Colbert is nevertheless “one of the biggest mouthpieces for the progressive movement.”

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Well, maybe not that big. O’Reilly also slammed “The Colbert Report” for having “only about a million” viewers.

“He is the darling of the far-left Internet,” O’Reilly said.

O’Reilly has a long and complicated history with Colbert, whose on-screen persona as the obtuse host of “Colbert Report” is at least partly based on the Fox News star. O’Reilly sometimes wants to be in on the joke but at other moments -- such as Tuesday -- seems to have trouble hiding his irritation.

Which of course does little except give Colbert more material to work with, as the recent #CancelColbert controversy demonstrated.

What do you think of O’Reilly’s attack on Colbert?

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