TORONTO — Fox News Channel commentator Bill O'Reilly wants it known he's not really as rabidly controversial as he's being portrayed by other media outlets, including at least one in Canada.

On Friday, O'Reilly took exception to reports that he is an "ultra-conservative" and that he does not like Canada. In recent days, the outspoken American TV personality has been involved in a running dispute with Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper, and in particular its TV columnist, John Doyle, who wrote that Fox News should be allowed on Canadian cable and satellite services because viewers in this country could use a good laugh.

O'Reilly also complained about several points in a Canadian Press story on Thursday.

"Hey you pinheads up there, I may be pompous, but at least I'm honest," O'Reilly was quoted as saying in a New York Times story. But the commentator says he was referring to Globe & Mail staff, not Canadians in general, who he says are good people.

"I got nothing against the Canadian people but in the last few years you've swung dramatically to the left," he says. "And we in America have some questions about that."

Doyle says he still finds O'Reilly hilarious.

"He's been stung by Canada because a writer at a Canadian newspaper said he was entertaining in his operatic arguments and revealed that many of his followers are only capable of writing abusive, foul-mouthed responses to those they disagree with," says the columnist.

"He's a joke and Canada needs to see this joker. We won't take him seriously and that's what really annoys him."

Meanwhile, O'Reilly denies reports that were published widely - including in the New Yorker - that he physically threatened Jeremy Glick, a guest on his show, a relative of a victim of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and an opponent of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. He says it didn't happen and that there are no witnesses who can say it did.

Reports quoted Glick alleging that after the broadcast, O'Reilly threatened to tear him to pieces for being anti-American.

"Ridiculous, absurd," O'Reilly maintains. "Twenty people in the room. He was escorted out and that was the end of him.

"Not one human being, outside of this man, who is a known far-left activist, not one name verifies what he said."

O'Reilly also says the broadcast happened more than two years ago - in Dec. 2001 - not last February, as reported.

Further, he denies reports that he invited his supporters to initiate the write-in campaign that saw hundreds of hostile e-mails flood Doyle's e-mail inbox at the Globe & Mail. In fact, he says he openly deplored those e-mails but that Doyle failed to mention that.

As for an account that he is perceived by many as "an ultra-conservative shark on a political feeding frenzy," he says no one has ever called him that.

"Shark, sure, fine. Just call me a shark, I'm happy. Sharks will be mad, I'm happy. Ultra-conservative? Absurd."

O'Reilly resents the image he has in Canada of a "right-wing loon who is running around out of control." He says he is the victim of a left-wing smear campaign, but that the American far right doesn't like him either, noting that G. Gordon Liddy attacked him recently.

But O'Reilly believes the Canadian media to be "primarily a left-wing concern" and says he has hundreds of letters from Canadians who agree with him. He says between 85 and 90 per cent of the Globe & Mail's editorial opinions would be considered liberal in the U.S., including such issues as drug decriminalization, gay marriage, detainment of prisoners in Guantanamo and support for Iraq.

He says one thing would settle all arguments he's had with the paper's TV critic and that is if Canadians could only see Fox News and judge for themselves that it is not rabidly right wing, as has been suggested. An application has been submitted to the CRTC by the Canadian Cable Television Association.

"If you had us up there to balance CNN, you'd give people a choice, they'd hear other points of view. Not conservative points of view - this is not a conservative network."

He also stands by opinions he's expressed on several recent Canadian issues. He says he understands the mayor of Vancouver is setting up free heroin clinics in the city.

Not quite. A safe-injection site is open in the city's drug-riddled downtown eastside and researchers hope to set up another clinic to provide free heroin to addicts to see if prescribing the drug can improve their lives. City approval has been received, but the study still needs Health Canada's blessing and government security standards must also be met.

But the biggest bone O'Reilly has to pick involves two U.S. army deserters who are seeking asylum in Canada. He has argued that if Ottawa grants that asylum, the U.S. should boycott Canadian products in protest, a move that he says could cripple the Canadian economy.

"That's the big issue right now, that Americans expect these people to be extradited back here."

Two American servicemen recently went AWOL from their units and, claiming political refugee status, fled to Canada to avoid deployment to Iraq where they believe the war is illegal under international law. They will face the Canadian immigration and refugee board.