By then, the Al-Arian story, thanks to the post-Sept. 11 interest in all things terror-related, as well as the professor's ill-fated appearance on the "The O'Reilly Factor," was big news again. But what the Tribune has never told its readers is the role Fechter played in helping O'Reilly's producers prepare for the show. He provided them with translations of a solicitation letter Al-Arian wrote seven years ago, as well as a composite videotape of meetings from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Tribune editor-in-chief Gil Thelen defends the information sharing, calling it nothing more than a "professional courtesy," and denies the paper needed to inform readers of Fechter's role as he covered the aftermath of Al-Arian's TV appearance, including the death threats, his paid leave and then his firing.

But Dean Mills, dean of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, disagrees, saying, "If a reporter or newspaper played some role in another medium's program which became a news event, then they have an obligation to include that fact in their coverage."

When prepping O'Reilly's producers, Fechter never mentioned Judge McHugh's definitive ruling, which completely exonerated Al-Arian and WISE. "I felt confident that Dr. Al-Arian would be capable of pointing out the judge's writings on his own," wrote Fechter in an e-mail response to Salon. "My interest is in getting answers to questions [Al-Arian] does not want to face and that other reporters choose not to ask."

Incredibly -- or maybe not so incredibly -- O'Reilly's producers apparently never bothered to look into the legal disposition of Al-Arian's case. John Sugg, now senior editor of Atlanta's Creative Loafing newspaper, recently talked to Fox producers when they contacted him about appearing on the show for a follow-up segment about Al-Arian. "They said they did not know there was exculpatory information or that a judge had examined this stuff," says Sugg. "They felt like O'Reilly got blindsided."

So much for the no-spin zone.

For weeks, O'Reilly played up the Al-Arian interview, returning to the topic 14 different times. Despite assuring viewers "we researched it pretty thoroughly," he routinely bungled the facts.

For instance, during his original interview O'Reilly insisted former Tampa resident Tariq Hamdi was "on the [FBI] list of suspected terrorists," which is simply not true. On subsequent telecasts O'Reilly insisted that "to this day," Al-Arian "has contacts with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad" and remains "very tight" with the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Those are allegations not even Fechter or Emerson have dared to make.

Neither O'Reilly nor his producers returned calls for comment.

By the time USF fired Al-Arian, O'Reilly was trying to wash his hands of the situation: "I'm getting blamed for this guy losing his job. I don't want that blame on me," he told viewers.

O'Reilly's belated profession of blamelessness is ludicrous, but there's plenty of media blame to go around.

Tampa Tribune columnist Daniel Ruth helped by painting a picture of an unrepentant professor still spouting hate when he recently wrote that Al-Arian made highly inflammatory, anti-Israel comments at a rally in 1998. Ruth was off by a decade: Al-Arian made the remarks, which he now says he regrets having made, as a 30-year-old in 1988, the year the intifada began. The Tribune has yet to correct that error.

Certainly the veteran terrorism expert and NBC news consultant, Steve Emerson would take credit, not blame, for Al-Arian's firing. Despite the fact no charges have ever been brought against the USF professor (on the contrary; he's met personally with both Presidents Clinton and Bush in recent years), Emerson has been branding Al-Arian a terrorist for close to a decade. During a 1996 speaking engagement in St. Petersburg, Emerson, citing anonymous sources, assured the audience that Palestinian radicals at USF were involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Testifying before Congress that same year, Emerson said that materials seized at Al-Arian's home constituted "one of the largest acquisitions of raw terrorist material ever found in the United States."

And during a 1997 speech Emerson laid it on thick, insisting, "From the safety of [his] Tampa office, Mr. Al-Arian operated a terrorist organization, raising funds, recruiting terrorists and bringing them into the country, devising terrorist strategies, and actually directing specific terrorist attacks." Again, Emerson's unspecified sources made it impossible to verify these sensational charges. Of course, if Emerson had real evidence to support them, Al-Arian wouldn't be sweating an appearance on the "The O'Reilly Factor" today; he'd be doing hard time.

Despite that string of hollow indictments, producers at NBC's news magazine "Dateline" didn't hesitate to usher Emerson on the air last October for a segment to -- what else? -- accuse Al-Arian of aiding terrorists.

In her introduction, NBC's Jane Pauley recklessly stressed a connection between Al-Arian and Sept. 11: "We're told that it's probable, if not certain, that there are still terrorists among us. Now investigators say there is evidence that an organization with ties to Middle East terrorists may have been operating in Florida for as long as a decade."

The "investigators" turned out to be ... Steve Emerson. In fact, NBC never interviewed a single law enforcement official for its Oct. 28 report. The "Dateline" piece consisted entirely of Emerson, who was given a prime-time platform to air his creative accusations. (Al-Arian refused to appear on the show.)

Emerson told "Dateline" reporter Bob McKeown that Islamic Jihad "had essentially relocated to the United States in the city of Tampa," where it was operating as "a shadow government" for the terrorist group.

Emphasis on shadow, since neither the FBI, the INS, the CIA, USF nor the Tampa police were ever able to uncover it. Only Emerson.

Of course, Emerson never mentioned that Judge McHugh had looked at these allegations in 2000 and found no wrongdoing. It's not clear whether McKeown even knew about the judge's ruling.

Neither "Dateline" producers nor McKeown would comment about the segment. Hussein Ibish, communications director at the American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, says he called McKeown twice after the piece aired, but never heard back. "If I'd been responsible for such a shoddy piece of journalism I wouldn't want to be held accountable," says Ibish. "It was indefensible."

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