Bill O'Reilly blasts 'disturbed' Herald blogger

A Fox News firebrand has labelled a Herald blogger "emotionally disturbed" in a segment aired on national TV in the US.

Bill O'Reilly used the 'Tip of the Day' segment of his long-running Fox News talk show The O'Reilly Factor to blast TV blogger Paul Casserly and the Herald over a brief preview of the show Killing Kennedy.

"[It is] based on the book by red-neck motor mouth Bill O'Reilly, who also wrote Nat Geo's rather good Killing Lincoln. I bet Bill can't wait for someone to knock off Obama," Casserly wrote.

O'Reilly said the segment showed Casserly was "emotionally disturbed" and called on Kiwis to stop reading his blog.

"The blogger is obviously emotionally disturbed, so why would a newspaper allow that kind of thing, that kind of hatred to be published?

"There comes a point when all good people have to walk away from garbage like that," he said.

Casserly said O'Reilly's accusation that he was "emotionally disturbed" was "probably the only accurate thing he's ever said".

"He's obviously been speaking to some of the medical professionals that I work with, so I'd like to know how he knows."

The preview of Killing Kennedy was meant to highlight O'Reilly's penchant for writing about dead presidents, rather than imply the pundit genuinely wanted Obama dead, he said.

"I was just saying if there was a book, he would be the man for the job. He'd be the obvious candidate, if he was up to the task."

He believed O'Reilly was exaggerating for dramatic effect in the segment criticising him.

"He's theatrical and that theatrical approach is to exaggerate things. He probably thought about it for all of 10 seconds."

- nzherald.co.nz