Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres thanked an unlikely ally in the JCPenney Penney controversy on Wednesday: Bill O’Reilly. REUTERS

Ellen DeGeneres thanked an unlikely ally in the JCPenney controversy on Wednesday: Bill O'Reilly.

The comedian and talk show host thanked the Fox News host for defending her against the anti-gay organization One Million Moms, which claims DeGeneres should not be a spokesperson for JCPenney because she is openly lesbian.

There's somebody else who actually defended me that I'd like to mention: Bill O'Reilly, she said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. I already sent out a tweet to thank you.

After playing a clip from The O'Reilly Factor, she added, And you didn't really make it clear if you were going to shop at JCPenney or not, but if you do, you can use my employee discount any time you want. That's for you, Bill. Thank you so much.

The show's guest, Modern Family's Julie Bowen, later said she was so happy with O'Reilly, she could make out with him.

O'Reilly, known for his conservative views, had lashed out at another Fox News contributor that supported One Million Moms' JCPenney boycott.

He told Family-Pac Federal Vice President Sandy Rios Tuesday night that trying to get another American fired because of her lifestyle was not in the spirit of America.

This JCPenney thing is a witch hunt and shouldn't happen, O'Reilly said.

O'Reilly also compared One Million Moms's anti-gay campaign to the toxic hostility of McCarthyism.

If you remember with the McCarthy era of the 1950s, and they were trying to hunt down communist sympathizers and not let them work and put them on a blacklist...what is the difference between the McCarthy era of the '50s and the Million Moms saying, 'Hey, JCPenny and all you other stores, don't you hire gay people. Don't you dare.' What's the difference?

One Million Moms, a project of the American Family Association, first called for the Texas-based retail giant to fire DeGeneres last week because they felt an open homosexual spokesperson was not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store.

JCPenney stood by their hire in a statement. Meanwhile, DeGeneres got tons of laughs in her response to the organization, published on her website ahead of Wednesday's episode.

Normally I try not to pay attention my haters, but this time I'd like to talk about it because my haters are my motivators, she said. DeGeneres read from a statement by OMM, which accused the company of jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon

First of all being gay or pro-gay is not a bandwagon, she said. You don't get a free ride anywhere. There's no music and occasionally we'll sing 'We are Family,' but that's about it.

One Million Moms' campaign to get Ellen sacked appears to be backfiring, according to its Facebook page. The site is filled with messages vowing to go shopping at the retail giant and messages of encouragement.