NY's WABC interviewed Harlem restaurant patrons about O'Reilly's comments
On the September 24 edition of Eyewitness News on WABC in New York City, co-anchor Liz Cho introduced a segment in which reporter Jeff Pegues spoke with patrons of Sylvia's, the famous Harlem restaurant, about Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's comments following his recent trip to the restaurant with Rev. Al Sharpton. Cho stated:
CHO: Shock tonight over comments made by conservative and controversial talk-show host Bill O'Reilly. On his daily show, O'Reilly made disparaging remarks about African-Americans after eating at a well-known and beloved restaurant in Harlem.
Between interviews with customers outside the restaurant, Pegues aired two clips of O'Reilly's comments while displaying the Media Matters for America item from the website:
O'REILLY: I 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.
[...]
O'REILLY: There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, "M-Fer, I want more ice tea."
Pegues concluded his report from Harlem by noting that CNN had reported O'Reilly's response to the controversy, calling it "a hatchet job by Media Matters":
PEGUES: O'Reilly's remarks found on the Media Matters website. You might remember that that's the same organization that raised concerns back in April about remarks made by radio talk-show host Don Imus about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Tonight, according to CNN, O'Reilly responded to the controversy and the criticism by saying, quote, "There was no racial intent," and, quote, "This is a hatchet job by Media Matters."
Pegues also noted that WABC would continue its coverage of O'Reilly's comments on September 25, prompting co-anchor Bill Ritter to state, "Yeah, we haven't heard the end of that."
From the September 24 edition of WABC's Eyewitness News:
CHO: Shock tonight over comments made by conservative and controversial talk-show host Bill O'Reilly. On his daily show, O'Reilly made disparaging remarks about African-Americans after eating at a well-known and beloved restaurant in Harlem. Eyewitness News reporter Jeff Pegues is at Sylvia's restaurant with more. Jeff.
PEGUES: And Liz, Sylvia's management isn't commenting tonight about Bill O'Reilly's comments, but some of their longtime customers are talking about it. Some of the people we spoke with tonight are outraged, but you be the judge. Did he go too far?
[begin video clip]
PEGUES: Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly stirring up controversy tonight in Harlem. It's what he said about a visit to Sylvia's, a famous Harlem eatery, that has some people upset.
Are you offended by what he said?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't say offended. I would say that I'm concerned that people are still in that type of mind-set.
PEGUES: Listen to some of O'Reilly's comments. They were made during his radio show on September 19th, when he discussed a recent visit to Sylvia's with the Reverend Al Sharpton.
O'REILLY: I 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.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would you be surprised? This is not that type of establishment, otherwise she wouldn't be in the business that she's in. I mean, Bill Clinton has eaten here.
O'REILLY: There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, "M-Fer, I want more ice tea."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not offended at all. What I'm really glad about is that he voiced this so that white America can hear this.
[end clip video]
PEGUES: O'Reilly's remarks found on the Media Matters website. You might remember that that's the same organization that raised concerns back in April about remarks made by radio talk-show host Don Imus about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Tonight, according to CNN, O'Reilly responded to the controversy and the criticism by saying, quote, "There was no racial intent," and, quote, "This is a hatchet job by Media Matters."
We'll have more on this tomorrow. We're live in Harlem. Jeff Pegues, Channel 7 Eyewitness News.
RITTER: Yeah, we haven't heard the end of that. Jeffrey, thank you.
I hope this turns into another Imus situation, great job MMFA. Maybe some advertisers will pull the plug on OReillys radio show. He will never get off FOX but radio may be a good start. Great job WABC.
Hopefully it will do something even more important--show people the insidiousness of racism today. To all those who down play racism today maybe this will open up their minds to the fact that racism is still festering in our society. This is a look inside the mind of a true racist...one who has been well educated, experienced different situations and people, traveled the world...and still in his heart believes that another race is somehow inferior to his own. It truly boggles the rational mind his thought process.
Unfortunately I am not convinced that will happen. I believe o'reilly will claim ignorance due to his lack of contact with AA's on a daily basis and let it go with that. The ol' "I didn't really know things changed cause I never see it" excuse.
Lack of contact (which I don't think is the situation here) will not lead you to racist thoughts. I grew up in an affluent all white town. I had no real personal contact with black people until I was in high school. I may not have had much knowledge of AA culture but the idea that black people were inferior never crossed my mind. I'm sorry but the idea that no contact is an excuse for racism is bunk.
I hope you didn't think I was making an excuse, cause I agree with that. By itself, no. But if he was exposed to racial tendancies and grew up in a lily white area with the same beliefs, that would reinforce his ignorance on the subject.
Snoopy, didn't mean to imply you endorsed the excuse. I was commenting on the excuse, itself. Never thought you endorsed it...sorry I didn't make that clear.
"But if he was exposed to racial tendancies and grew up in a lily white area with the same beliefs, that would reinforce his ignorance on the subject."
That might be a reason...it's not an excuse. I grew up under EXACTLY the conditions you describe and I'm not a rascist...either closet or in your face.
"The Ugly American"? Thy name is O'Reilly.
His radio show seemed likely to be cancelled in a few months due to low ratings before this controversy.
Maybe that's why he's doing this? Maybe his theory is "who cares what they think of me as long as they tune in"?
Bill-O's radio show, according to some of what I've read, may already be on the chopping block, depending on who you ask, of course.
But Fixed Noise? Heck no, Murdoch will not give up his cable cash cow over something like this.
Man, MMFA got O'Reilly this time. I can't wait to see how he's going to spin this in his Talking Points Memo tonight. It should be interesting. He'll probably drag in Juan Williams, and Williams, being the weak, sycophantic "liberal" at Fox News, will take up for O'Reilly and say he finds nothing wrong with O'Reilly's comments. One of "the blacks" will come in and save the day for O'Reilly with this one, just watch.
Man, MMFA got O'Reilly this time.
With all due respect to MMFA, O'Reilly gets full credit on this one.
With all due respect to MMFA, O'Reilly gets full credit on this one.
Good point. I think giving too much credit to MMFA would be too much for O'Reilly's ego.
It will be interesting to see how he plays it. It could be grotesquely ugly, or he may not even touch it.
This just hit cnn.com with another commentary by that fat black guy
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2007/09/25/chetry.martin.oreilly.comments.cnn
this is spreading :-*
I'm sure O'Reilly will try to say since not one person who is interviewed says they are offended by his remarks they were harmless.
Nothing could be further from the truth but his audience will eat it up.
"Hatchet job?" Media Matters reported what he said quoting him directly! What's the defense to that? "How dare you repeat my own words verbatim to make it appear that I said something I really didn't say?"
This is akin to O'Reilly's Peabody Award controversy. O'Reilly denied claiming he'd won Peabody Awards at Inside Edition (he hadn't) and denied ever saying he had made the claim. Of course, there are numerous clips of O'Reilly making that claim -- he ended up looking like a total jackass, just like he does now because of his new "black people are just the same as regular people" monologue.
This is why I just laugh everytime O'Reilly calls MM a smear site. They quote his own words with context, exactly and without drawing conclusions about him personally. If he feels like he's looking bad, he has only himself to blame for it.
On numerous occasions O'Reilly has said he wishes US law allows people to sue when mean things are said about them. He's not talking libel or slanders...just mean things in general; things he believes smear him. He'd love to be able to sue MM but he doesn't have a leg to stand on since MM only reports his own words. The only hatchet job here is what O'Reilly does to himself with his own big mouth.
Yep, ole Bill has stuck his foot in it on this one. The really sad part about this is that he still doesn't think that what he said was wrong, that his words were somehow taken out of context. No Bill we all know exactly what you meant. What's with these guys with not being able to take responsibility for what they say? Are their egos that big/fragile?
Yes their egos are that fragile.
The whole responsibility thing is very strange for any neocon. They also tend to declare victory early and often.
Sociopaths are notorious for trying to deny their actions. And it is an ego disorder.
With all of the "so-called" hatchet jobs being done by MMFA, you would think that an axe sharpening business would advertise here.
According to the Conservatives/Republans, MMFA makes Paul Bunyan look like a ginsu knife salesman. Get over it Republans, your guys say it, MMFA prints it....YOU DECIDE
MMFA is destroying America by quoting the exact words of the nation's finest thinkers and posting them on a website.
What a hatchet job!
How insidious the Left is!
"And we went to Sylvia's, a very famous restaurant in Harlem. I had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful. They all watch The Factor. "
Yeah, I'm sure The Factor is the no.1 show in Harlem.
Hey folks, this is the thinking of the neocons at Fox News Channel. Bill's view of black people is what he sees on television and in the movies. Bill is just ignorant of black people.
But put the blame on Bill Shine and Roger Ailes and the rest of these idiots. These neocon hacks don't believe in diversity on the air. CNN and MSNBC have more minorities on the air than Fox News. All you see is "Fox Blonds."
Shine had the gall to send out news releases decrying the treatment of O'Reilly in the "leftist" media. What this foolish neocon hack won't tell you is the discrimination that exixts at this network.
Media Matters should do a story on the lack of diversity at this channel. The suits at Fox News catered to their core audience of cross burners and noose carriers.
Fox News is an embarrassment to News Corporation. Bossman Murdoch needs to cleanup this station badly.
HAHA I like when he read O'Reilly saying "This is a hatchet job by Media Matters." Kind of like in Dr. Strangelove when one of the generals reported that Jack D. Ripper muttered something about "precious bodily fluids" before cutting off communication. Oh boy this O'Reilly character is really something else.
This is incredibly funny.
Typically, on local newscasts, the reporters get the most energized people to say things backing up the reporter's point of view.
Here we have 3 "unidentified" interviewees asked if they were offended. The responses:
1. I wouldn't say offended...
2. Why would you be surprised? (MMFA's word, not BOR's)
3. I'm not offended at all.
Must have been a slow news day in NYC if these remarkably tame responses are what made it to the air regarding the "controversy".
Tomorrow night: Paper or Plastic? What will the people say?
"some of the people we spoke with tonight are outraged...". looks like your theory is wrong. they decided not to go with those people.
No one has to say a word about whether O'Reilly is a racist or not. Just listen to his speech and then you decide. Poor thing is so steeped in it that he does not even recognize how totally offensive his crack was. In his mind, no doubt, he missed the point entirely, but his on camera statement says it all. " Loose translation - "Not bad for a black restaurant, eh?"
Come on you guys. I'm a democrat who doesn't really care for O'Reily and I even got his point. I don't believe for one moment that most of you actually believe he's racist. the guy is way to smart to be so blatantly racist in front of millions of viewers
if you cant beat him, destroy his reputation! this is complete bull. mediamatters is stirring up contraversy when the whole discussion was based off contraversy. The "watch dogs" off this website have lost all their credibility with me and many of my focus group friends and colleagues. there was nothing racist about oreillys statements. because some people on the far left are overly sensitive, they feel that any discussion about race should be BENIGN, or impotent . the biggest problem with race relations in this country is the fact that no one wants to discuss it. just point, and convict! i dare anyone to listen to the ENTIRE interview. media matters for everyone, not just to those who think like yourself (directed towards the media matters editors)....