Bill O'Reilly, Media Matters, and the Eternal Happy Negro

Radical Left-wing smear machine Media Matters is engaged in a pathetic attempt to "Imus" Bill O'Reilly.

I expect that from the slimy, unscrupulous Media Matters.

More disturbing, though not unexpected, is the way the lib media have followed Media Matters' lead.

The Associated Press reports the story this way:

Bill O'Reilly says he's being smeared

True enough. That's what he is.

Why is he saying he's being smeared? BECAUSE HE IS.

It would be more truthful of the AP to run the headline, "Bill O'Reilly is being smeared."

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."

There is no controversy here.

All one has to do is listen to Bill O'Reilly's actual broadcast.

Listen here.

Taken in full context, O'Reilly's comments were not racially offensive.

What is offensive is the way some media outlets are distorting O'Reilly's words. It is clearly being done maliciously.

This story should have died at least by noon today, but some lib outlets are keeping it alive.

CNN won't let go of it.

Tonight on CNN's Out in the Open, the topic was "O'Reilly and Race."

How pathetic!

While discussing the fabricated O'Reilly controversy Boyce Watkins called Juan Williams the "eternal happy negro."

Because Juan Williams stood up for O'Reilly, Watkins turned on Williams, lashing out with what I consider to be a racially offensive remark.

In short, it's the creation of the controversy that's really disgusting, not what O'Reilly said.