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.
Shoe's on the other foot?
You can dish it out but you can't take it?
Walking a mile in a our shoes now?
What goes around comes around?
(anyone else have any other fitting cliches?)
He is being smeared.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. I hope he goes down.
Well Billy considering what you did to both the Swift Boat Vets and Free Republic, forget anyone here rising to your defense.
Karma, Bill......Karma.
Well, I guess what goes around comes around for the dog in the manger, isn't that so, Mr. O'Reilly?
(Pass me my loofa, goddamit)
Bill has some of the thinnest skin of all ‘public figures’. He almost always cries and complains when someone says something he doesn’t like. Especially when something is said about him.
O’Reilly is right. Desperate networks are targeting #1 to help their own sagging ratings.
Hillary can't get elected with talk radio and Fox Talking Heads in place.
Imus, O'Rilley? then would be next. I do not under estimate the Clinton Machine....
The cumulative effectiveness of FreeRepublic outweighs Bill Blowhard O'Reilly any day.
As for presidential elections, his smearing of the Swift Boat Vets in the last one helped Kerry. To hell with him.
You pretty much covered it.
Too bad, Billy Boy - but be sure to cherry pick our remarks about this and take them out of context if it will help your skewed self-esteem.
I’m sure the Swift Boat Vets feeeeel your pain.
Yes, Bill you have been smeared. Now when I think about your own smears of the Swift Boat Vets and more recently of Free Republic, I just can’t work up too much sympathy for you. It seems that the left-liberal MSM and ‘Rats that you pandered to then will turn around and stab you in the back, won’t they? Goes to show you how useless it is to try to pander to friends of Jon Cary and Al Sharpton and Hillary..... you should have figured out who your real friends COULD have been a long time ago, Bill.
Well, Bill’s been such a good friend to our little community here on FR, let’s take up a collection and mount a public defense.
Oh, wait.
He's had plenty of opportunity to correct his errors and hasn't, so I can only assume the misinformation was intentional. Therefore, I don't give a hoot what happens to him or his stupid program.
I heard him on the radio last night calling CNN's actions "dangerous" during an "presidential election year." False? Yes. Slanderous? Yes. Dangerous?! No. Plus, O'Reilly needs to check his calendar because the election isn't until NEXT YEAR!
What a dope. He deserves exactly what he's getting.
The man is simply a foreman for the continuation of the racist democrat party plantation mentality.
How’s that working for ya??
Bill, you stepped in a big steamin’ pile of your own making. Quit whining, and deal.
Yeah. Kiss my grits, Bill!
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