Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Falafel Boy is gonna hunt you down!
“[N]o longer will these smear merchants be allowed to get away with it, as long as I’m in the chair. As long as I’m here, I’m hunting them down. And that means everybody.”
Here’s the question. Has Bill O’Reilly finally lost it, or is this business as usual?
More from Media Matters (the Bugs Bunny to O’Reilly’s Fudd):
“I’m going to go right where they live. Every corrupt media person in this country is on notice, right now. I’m coming after you.” He went on to warn: “You smear somebody and you can’t back it up, you’re gonna get it. … You go after somebody’s family, you go after them and smear them with defamation that you can’t back up, I’m coming to your house. I’m coming to your house. You’ll have a camera up your nose. OK?”
Elmer‘s Bill is responding to the Media Matters exposé of his (O’Reilly’s) earlier comments on Sylvia’s, a Harlem restaurant. Apparently, Bill was stunned by the fact that the restaurant’s clientele was, um, jes’ like us good clean white folk. He
“couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship.” O’Reilly added: “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’ “
In case you missed it, Bill is going to hunt down the media because they reported what he said. “Out of context,” he claims, but you’re free to read his comments in context at the Media Matters link and judge for yourself.
His recent comments aside, there’s little doubt in my mind as to O’Reilly’s racism. Check this out from Gawker: What Does Bill O’Reilly Really Say About Black People? The pie chart is telling: better than 90% of his comments are either condescending or outright negative. If you discount “articulate,” the only positive characterizations are “nice” and “courageous” (6% total). And “articulate,” as Chris Rock has pointed out, can easily be seen as condescension — “Oh, he speaks so well!”
Media Matters has many concrete examples of O’Reilly’s racism. Here’s a choice one:
On the September 13, 2005, broadcast of The Radio Factor, O’Reilly claimed that “many of the poor in New Orleans” did not evacuate the city before Hurricane Katrina because “[t]hey were drug-addicted” and “weren’t going to get turned off from their source.” O’Reilly added, “They were thugs.”
O’Reilly’s recent gaffe on Sylvia’s patrons may not be as obvious as Imus’s “nappy-headed hos” comment, but it’s consistent with a pattern of behavior. How much longer will Fox tolerate this idiot?
D.
P.S. Yeah, I know. Stupid question. But as you’ve probably figured out from the Thirteen, I’m short on inspiration today.
I like how he thinks that going to hell comes before being executed. Or maybe, he’s ranking the consequences in order of severity? What a buffoon.
I disagree regarding Media Matters. I think they took the statements out of context (probably purposefully, from what I know of them). I heard the entire O’Reilly segment at issue. Add to that people like Juan Williams and even Al Sharpton coming down on O’Reilly’s side, and I think things are pretty clear. I don’t think it was a gaffe, I think Media Matters wanted to try to stir up trouble where there wasn’t any.
Anyway – O’Reilly is a blowhard, obviously. Fox is going to tolerate him as long as he’s bringing in tons of cash to the network, which he is doing. Media Matters is a pretty dishonest group, though, and I wouldn’t give too much credence to what they have to say about anything. Sorry.
Fox LIKES this idiot.
I’m politically right of you, (but I’m Canadian so it doesn’t matter) and O’Reilly makes my skin crawl. He’s not as odious as Coulter, but that’s damning him (and damning him hard) with faint praise.
Hi Lydia! Welcome to B&W.
And HI SCOTT! Long time no see. We’ll have to disagree on this one — as I stated, I don’t think this is as bad as the Imus incident, but that whole “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’” bit? Come on. Unless you think an awestruck “Wow, black people are JUST LIKE US!” doesn’t betray an underlying racist bias. As for Media Matters’ dishonesty . . . care to back that up? From what I see, they report on what people say and let their words speak for themselves.
Hi Dean. O’Reilly is worse than Coulter because more people listen to him. Less than there used to be, but there are still lots of folks who leave their sets tuned to Faux.