Media Matters claims to exist in order to comprehensively monitor, analyze, and correct conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. If you browse through their website however, you will see more attacks on conservatives than you will see corrections of ‘misinformation’. In fact, in many cases it is Media Matters themselves misinforming it’s readers, as they have in a recent article on Bill O’Reilly.

For starters I would like to point out that I am a big fan of Bill O’Reilly and have read all of his books. I am a regular watcher of The O’Reilly Factor for the simple fact that Bill doesn’t pull punches. While most commentators are obsessed with being politically correct, walking with two feet in one shoe in the hopes of not offending anyone, Bill is more than willing to say what he feels and let the chips fall where they may.

Media Matters is not happy about this approach, so they feel they must attack him. They start by outlining comments O’Reilly has made in the past with regards to race, including this comment regarding the backlash President Bush received when he called Barack Obama ‘articulate’:

“Instead of black and white Americans coming together, white Americans are terrified. They’re terrified. Now we can’t even say you’re articulate? We can’t even give you guys compliments because they may be taken as condescension?”

To me the above statement is one hundred percent correct, and I am proud of Bill O’Reilly for saying things publicly that most people only say in private. The fact is white America is afraid to speak about any issues even remotely pertaining to race because of the media frenzy which will inevitably follow. Media Matters offers a lame attempt at stirring up such a frenzy with Bill O’Reilly’s recent comments on his radio program. Here is how they summarize it:

Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia’s, Bill O’Reilly reported that 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.’ ”

It would appear from the above summarization that Bill was shocked that black people in Sylvia’s restaurant weren’t screaming and cursing, and were actually acting civilized. However if you listen to the attached audio file of the broadcast, or read the transcript from that broadcast you will see it is clearly not the case.

Bill was talking about the gangsta rap culture when he referenced patrons of Sylvia’s not screaming ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’ He in no way meant to imply that he was shocked by this, he was merely pointing out that many white people who have not visited predominantly black neighborhoods may be under the impression that the black culture is expressed accurately in rap music, which obviously it is not.

Bill O’Reilly has since spoken with CNN’s Out in the Open, host Rick Sanchez and said ‘there was no racial intent in what I said. It was a benign program. We didn’t receive one single complaint on any of our radio stations,’ and he says this is a hatchet job by Media Matters.”

Hatchet job indeed!

Sphere: Related Content

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Racism