Ya know, it can be a fool's game to defend Bill O'Reilly, and for a couple reasons - he's perfectly capable of defending himself, and there are certainly those moments when
ol' Bill is indefensible.
But today, I defend Bill.
This is a highly amusing act, because O'Reilly has attacked me on the air a couple of times. He once called me a "left-wing journalist with an agenda..." I loved that
best of all, for it was so joyously, ludicrously wide of the mark. He used to refer to me as "that guy" too. He couldn't bring himself to call me by name.
But this isn't about me. It's about Bill. He was attacked by a self-described "progressive" media "watch-dog" site called Media Matters. Apparently these people at MM have nothing better to do than spend their days and nights looking for conservative bias in the media, and now - are you ready for this? - they've come after Newsday.
Newsday!
And by direct association, me, whose byline was on that article.
This time, I'm actually on this guy's side.
Here's what MM posted on their site: "The headline of a Newsday article on Bill O'Reilly's controversial remarks about a Harlem restaurant run by African-Americans asserted, 'O'Reilly lashes out at CNN over misquoted report,' but the article provided no examples of a 'misquot[ation],' nor did it quote O'Reilly claiming to have been 'misquoted.' The article also stated that 'Mediamatters.org released a partial transcript' of O'Reilly's comments. In fact, Media Matters provided the relevant transcript and audio clip of O'Reilly's remarks, which included the full context of his statements."
Now, let me give you a little lesson in journalism, Media Matters Person. When you quote someone out of context - as you did - it's the same as misquoting them. You may as well make up their words, because the import is the same - a disingenuous conveyance of information that had no bearing on the speaker's intent.
Second, let me take issue with the weasel word "relevant." In fact, it WAS a partial transcript, both print and audio. The print transcript that MM has on its website is in fact HEAVILY redacted, and the audio - or at least the audio posted Tuesday when this whole thing exploded - was only a small portion of a conversation that lasted an hour.
What did Bill say?
Here's my own transcript of the conversation and any mistakes are mine alone. There are many small elisions here and there, but I've tried to be faithful to the general tone, tenor and context of the conversation. (This is about eighteen minutes of the full hour - the RELEVANT eighteen minutes.)
My summation: It's O'Reilly’s standard-issue anti-rap diatribe. I've heard it before, and so have you. And if he’s guilty of anything here, it's of being a flat-footed white guy with a tin ear. But he's always been guilty of that, so what else is new? The comments about Sylvia’s were – of course – silly but part of a much broader context which I think renders them harmless. Anyway, draw your own conclusions:
O'Reilly posted the audio of the entire Sept. 19 hour in question on his website. The context? O'Reilly's talking about the O.J. Nevada case, and his guest is Juan Williams, the respected NPR (and Fox News) columnist, who just wrote a book called "Enough," about a "culture of failure" in some quarters of the African American community.
0’Reilly: "One of the problems [in America] that'll never be solved is the problem of prejudice that Americans show for fellow Americans, over race, sexual orientation...it's here, primarily because of parental intrusion, that so-and -so is bad and you should not like them...'"
“It comes in all races, there's no solution to the problem and the only thing the government can do is to make sure that the prejudice does not intrude on a person’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and if it does, it should be controlled as a legal matter...last night O.J. - and he's a villain, everybody thinks he killed [ex-wife/Ron Goldman] - Dennis Miller was on last night, and talking about whether they [the Las Vegas cops] were hammering Simpson [because he’s black] and I don’t think there’s any outrage on the behalf of the African American community [O’Reilly added that he’d be “stunned,” per Miller’s contention, that there’d be riots if O.J. was convicted.]
“When I interviewed jurors on the case, two black jurors [going back to the original case], they thought the cops were out to set up a famous black man. Ok, that was race-based….
“Black people in this country understand that they’ve had a very tough go of it. Some can get past it. Some can’t. I doubt that there’s a black person who hasn’t had a personal insult because of the color of their skin. I don’t think there’s anyone…You have to accept that fact…some deal with it in a variety of ways, so it’s there. I think it’s getting better – that black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves and getting away from the Jacksons and the Sharptons, who are trying to lead them into a race-based culture. I was up in Harlem, had dinner with Al Sharpton, a very very interesting guy…at Sylvia’s, and had a great time...All the people up there are tremendously respectful…. everyone was very nice. I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s and every other restaurant in New York – exactly the same... That’s really what this society is all about…there’s no difference, no difference…
“Now, when I was growing up, my parents lived in Brooklyn and moved out to Levittown after World War two, a whole bunch of people moved out to Levittown. Because they got low mortgages and were able to buy homes. There was prejudice in my neighborhood, but my parents were never like that. I never heard that.
“My grandmother on my mother’s side was prejudiced against blacks. I used to tell her, grandma, you don’t even know any black people. You’ve never spoken to a black person in your life. She said no. Saw all the perp walks on TV…and was afraid of them, didn’t understand the culture, and the fear was translated in hostility, irrational hostility. My grandmother was old school – not well-educated…I used to kid her about it [and] said I played on a football team, and the black guys protected me [he laughs]…’they’ve blocked for me, grandma… They’re good guys.' But in her heart, she couldn’t assimilate the situation. It was based on fear.
“It’s breaking down, but it’s [being] replaced by other misunderstandings, cultural rap stuff. People don’t like this language, glorification of drugs, alcohol, prostitution, and can’t understand why this is being embraced by a subculture. But you know, I think it’s black people that don’t like it…it’s driven by a very small demographic, younger men. I think black Americans are appalled by a Snoop Dog, and all this crazy stuff. Maybe I’m wrong. When you look at what Motown was, and how good that was. I ran into Nat King Cole’s widow a few months ago. How great was this guy. Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson…How great were they? There was so much to admire, and then you trot out all these gangster rappers – they get all the media attention. Denzel Washington, one of our finest actors? How much do you hear about him? That’s the media too, controlled by white companies who put out this trash. White CEOs… But at this juncture, people understand how O.J. is. He’s a sociopath. He’s a bad guy. If he gets sentenced and convicted…
“OK, the rest of the hour we’re going to talk about this. Then Juan Williams comes on. [He asks Williams] Am I making a mistake?
Williams: “No, I’m just thrilled you’re taking this up [but] surprised you’re up at Sylvia's…
O’Reilly: “No, no I like soul food…it was great…” [They then talk about rap culture – O’Reilly’s usual diatribe…]
Williams: “…It’s a vile poison, literally a corruption of the culture, but a majority of white audience who are into rebellion, who think it’s just a kick, but it’s a different dynamism…
O’Reilly: “The young white kids don’t have to struggle to get out of the ghetto.
Williams: “It’s inauthentic, not in keeping with the great black traditions of struggle and achievement..
O’Reilly: “I went to the concert by Anita Baker..the blacks were well-dressed, and she came out, and said look, this show is for the entire family. We’re not going to do any rapping here. The band was excellent, well dressed, in tuxedos [but] this is what white Americans don’t know. They think the culture is dominated by Twista, Ludacris and Snoop Dog.
Williams: “It’s just awful..
O’Reilly: “…Not one person in Sylvia’s was screaming m’fer, I want ice tea. It was like gong into an Italian restaurant, in an all-white suburb. In the sense, they were sitting there and having fun, not any kind of crazy stuff…
Williams: “I don’t think your grandmother was wrong. If you watch TV today, so many shows that are minstrel shows…it’s ignorant, stupid, and vile, and makes them out to be emblematic of black Americans…"
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