Background on the Woman Who Invited Bill O'Reilly to Palm Beach

During Monday night's segment about his appearance in Palm Beach (and the subsequent protests), Bill O'Reilly had his old friend, Wendy Murphy (pictured left) on the show to go over just how evil the evil liberals who don't like O'Reilly's comments about rape victims really are. Their conclusion: very evil.

But amid the discussion, Murphy mentioned that she invited Bill to help out the It Happened to Alexa Foundation. (Murphy is a foundation board member and represents Alexa Branchini.)

Well, Alex over at News Hounds has a little background on the woman responsible for bringing O'Reilly to the Sunshine State. Among other interesting details about this former NFL cheerleader turned prosecutor turned talking head:

For those who don't know, Wendy Murphy made quite a name for herself during the Duke rape case, trumpeting far and wide that of course the Duke three were guilty as hell of raping Crystal Magnum. According to KC Johnson, professor of history at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center (teaching 20th century US political, constitutional, and diplomatic history), his Lexis/Nexis search of her case-related appearances turned up at least 18 occasions in nine months where Murphy made demonstrably untrue statements as well as engaging in "a pattern of wholly unfounded speculation and... routinely denigrated due process." Even Foxnews.com got in on the act, harshly criticizing Murphy for defaming, and continuing to defame, the Duke lacrosse players even weeks after the charges were dropped, in defense of what the author called the "paradigm of victimhood" by which Murphy earns her living.

If anybody has any great ideas on how South Florida can thank Ms. Murphy for bringing Bill O'Reilly, I'm game.