Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly delivered a blistering prime-time special Thursday on NewsNation that painted San Francisco as a city in social collapse, the latest example of a high-profile conservative pouncing on the city’s problems to attack progressives.The veteran conservative commentator took aim at some of the city’s most powerful political players for the “permissive” politics he argued let homelessness, drug addiction and mental illness run rampant.“The people responsible for this catastrophe are former Mayor London Breed, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris — all of them committed to a progressive ideology,” he said at the top of the segment.The hourlong report, called “The Decline and Fall of San Francisco,” focused on the city’s ongoing struggles to combat chaotic street conditions and crime in the Tenderloin. O’Reilly focused on quality-of-life issues — open drug use, tent encampments and rampant theft — that San Franciscans also have long complained about. He interviewed former Mayor Willie Brown with pointed, and at times confrontational, questions about the city’s leadership since his mayorship ended in 2004.Brown defended San Francisco by arguing that its social problems reflected broader urban challenges seen in other parts of the country and by emphasizing the city’s long tradition of generosity toward those in need. He warned O’Reilly of oversimplifying the issues and trying to point a finger at whom to blame. “It’s not worth wasting time to expose whose fault it is,” Brown said. “I want to continue, as I’m currently doing, participating in altering the process. The city… is in transition, as most cities in America” are.
O’Reilly notably did not mention the city’s shift in recent years, as voters have embraced more moderate candidates and backed tough-on-crime ballot measures.
O’Reilly also did not acknowledge that crime dropped in San Francisco last year — after a significant dip the previous year. He didn’t get into the recall of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin — though he criticized him as a contributor to the city’s perceived disorder — or the city’s efforts in recent years to collaborate with federal and state partners to crack down on open-air drug dealing.Without providing evidence, O’Reilly argued that the city’s leadership is intentionally allowing the chaos to continue.“There are no two sides to the story,” O’Reilly declared at the outset. “This city has collapsed in the social order arena.”…