Posted on 09/26/2007 4:00:36 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan
NEW YORK - Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly said Wednesday his critics took remarks he made about a famed Harlem restaurant out of context and "fabricated a racial controversy where none exists." He criticized the liberal group Media Matters for America as "smear merchants" for publicizing statements he made on his radio show last week.
O'Reilly told his radio audience that he dined with civil rights activist Al Sharpton at Sylvia's recently and "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference" between the black-run restaurant and others in New York City.
It was just like a suburban Italian restaurant, he said. "There wasn't any kind of craziness at all," he said.
O'Reilly told The Associated Press that Media Matters had "cherry-picked" remarks out of a broader conversation about racial attitudes. He had told listeners that his grandmother — and many other white Americans — feared blacks because they didn't know any and were swayed by violent images in black culture.
"If you listened to the full hour, it was a criticism of racism on the part of white Americans who are ignorant of the fact that there is no difference between white and black anymore," he told the AP. "Circumstances may be different in their lives but we're all Americans. Anyone who would be offended by that conversation would have to be looking to be offended."
His radio show was a conversation with Fox News contributor Juan Williams, author of a book about the coarseness of some black culture. Williams defended O'Reilly during a Tuesday appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor."
"It's so frustrating," Williams said. "They want to shut you up. They want to shut up anybody who has an honest discussion about race."
The controversy was similar to one that enveloped presidential candidate Joe Biden last winter. When Biden praised rival Barack Obama as "articulate" and "clean," many saw this as a way of conveying these were unusual characteristics for blacks.
Sylvia's manager Trenness Woods-Black told the New York Daily News that O'Reilly's remarks were "insulting" and showed he has little knowledge of the black community.
At one point on the radio show, Williams mentioned that too many people see little else in black culture beyond profane rap. "That's right," O'Reilly said. "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, `M.F.-er, I want more iced tea.'"
Karl Frisch, spokesman for Media Matters, said it is typical for O'Reilly to criticize his group for merely reporting what he says.
"We didn't call him a racist," Frisch said. "We said his comments were ignorant and racially charged and we stand by that."
O'Reilly said the Williams conversation was carried on more than 400 radio stations and there wasn't one complaint from a listener.
"This isn't about a racially insensitive remark," he said. "Anybody can listen to the unedited version of the conversation on billoreilly.com. You want to think I'm insensitive to race, you go right ahead."
The real story, he said, was about the "corrupt media culture" where outlets like CNN and MSNBC do stories about his remarks "because they're getting killed in the ratings."
"The O'Reilly Factor" is seen by more people — 2.2 million average this year — than its direct competitors on MSNBC and CNN combined. MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann averages 721,000 viewers in the time slot while CNN's 8 p.m. show averages 611,000, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Sorry forgot to invite you to this party.
He is being smeared, but what comes around goes around.
He may have “stepped in it” but that website smears all the conservatives it can, all day long.
Rush, Hannity, Savage, Fox news, Coulter....are attacked by media matters all the time. That’s all they do.
I don’t understand this. What is being said about this situation regarding O’Reilly (whom I do not care much for and have not watched for years) is wrong. Is it okay if it is done to someone who is not liked much?
I think that the nanny nanny boo boo attitude is not a smart one.
Giving power to outfits like Media Matters (Clinton/Soros)and its tactics is very short sighted.
Good one! You beat me to it!
Why you got that “elk” in your name?
“The cumulative effectiveness of FreeRepublic outweighs Bill Blowhard O’Reilly any day.”
LOL! Delusions of grandeur approaching psychosis.
After all, FreeRepublic has been SO nice to O’Reilly! MAJOR, capital /S
Careful who you trash talk and personally attack on every thread possible. It may come back to bite you. Buncha hypocrites.
I like Bill, you are mean, but you are from Texas so I guess that’s OK and sort of natural.
That is a racist statement.
Frankly I trash CNN every time I get the chance ~ just to keep the grease in my keyboard warm and slick. Good for the fingers.
The problem here is that O'Reilly hires writers and editors and he just sits there and reads garbage sometimes. The ony way he can ever make amends to us is to do a housecleaning of those writers and editors ~ make sure he doesn't have anybody there working undercover for the Clintonistas or the commies over at the DNC. Then he has to hire new people.
That's after crawling on his bare knees through a quarter mile of broken glass.
Problem is, with both networks spewing lies, what does either one broadcast that’s real? Who can you trust?
Pot-Kettle-Black, couldn’t have happened to a better smear -merchant than O’Reilly who definitely knows the art of smearing when he feels justified in doing it.
They wave too each other under the walls separating the stalls at the restrooms don’t they?
Last year I would have cared. Now I don’t.
Go hit the showers with your falafel, Bill.
Both claim "hypocrisy" is worth a death penalty, and the Moslems are, of course, directed by the Koran to "slaughter the hypocrites".
Wondering why you used the term?
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