O'Reilly on his Michelle Obama remarks: "I'm sorry if my statement offended anybody"
During the February 21 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, discussing the controversy surrounding his prior remarks about Michelle Obama, host Bill O'Reilly stated: "I'm sorry if my statement offended anybody. That, of course, was not the intention. Context is everything." Just prior, O'Reilly described his previous comments about Obama as follows: "While talking to a radio caller, I said there should be no lynching in the case -- that comment off [Supreme Court Justice] Clarence Thomas saying he was the victim of a high-tech lynching. He said that on 60 Minutes, you may remember." However, as Media Matters for America documented, during the February 19 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, O'Reilly said: "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels -- that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever -- then that's legit. We'll track it down" (emphasis added).
As Media Matters noted, on the February 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio program, O'Reilly said in reference to his earlier comments about Obama: "The word 'lynching' was used because I said it quite clearly. I'm not going to go on some lynching party against Michelle Obama; that's ridiculous."
From the February 21 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: "Back of the Book" segment tonight -- "The Dhue Point." Plenty of mail on Michelle Obama this week and tons of calls on The Radio Factor. As you may know, I believe Mrs. Obama was only referring to politics when she said that for the first time in her adult life, she is proud of her country. Now, if you look at both of the speeches that she made -- and I have -- the context is purely political. So I defended Mrs. Obama on both radio and TV.
While talking to a radio caller, I said there should be no lynching in the case -- that comment off Clarence Thomas saying he was the victim of a high-tech lynching. He said that on 60 Minutes, you may remember. I'm sorry if my statement offended anybody. That, of course, was not the intention. Context is everything.
Joining us now from New York, your ombudsgal, Laurie Dhue, with plenty of letters about Michelle Obama.
Sounds like he got the WRONG message, Snoopy. Racist Bill says that his "lynching party" remark to Michelle Obama was a "compliment."
I'd hate to hear what Bill would define as an INSULT towards Mrs. Obama.
THIS WAS NO APOLOGY!
The form of this non-apology is like this:
He: You are an idiot.
You: That's insulting. You should apologize.
He: OK. I'm SORRY you're an idiot.
By saying he was SORRY "if anyone was offended", then he would NOT be sorry if nobody had been offended. This level of non-offense could be reached, perhaps, at a meeting of the KKK, where BillO would have nothing at all to be sorry about.
So, there was NO apology here. BillO doesn't get it, and never will.
Plus, he didn't even MENTION that his joining a lynching party was CONDITIONAL ... that if it were shown that Michelle Obama meant what the radical rightwingers CLAIMED she meant ... that until today, she has been ASHAMED of her country ... then it would be OK to lynch her.
So BillO's statement here is a complete washout morally, ethically, and logically. In his mind, he's completely at ease with both the image and the action he suggested. And Clarence Thomas cannot save him.
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!
It's official; ALL Fox News Faces have to be sociopaths to borderline psychopath.
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
Tex, it is shocking to even HEAR right wing racist white supremacists like O'Reilly even SAY that "evidence" is required before lynching. The racist history of racism and white supremacy in America shows that only racism and racist white sociopathic tendencies to violence are all that's needed.
Knowing that Clarence Thomas is a self-hating anti-black conservative Negro white supremacist who hates and detests black people, he's exactly the type of slef-hating anti-black Negro conservative to throw O'Lielly a lifeline, unless Juan Williams threw him one first.
God Bless Snoop...
But I hope O'Reilly takes baby steps right over to his toilet and stuffs his head in.
This man is a disgrace to America.
Ha! BillO gets caught by MM editing his own radio remark.
Yet BillO has chastized others for editing his comments.
What's funny is that BillO's TV audience won't know the whole truth of what he said unless they come to a sites like MM...who BillO wrongfully paints as "dishonest". It's BillO whose being dishonest and with his own audience even. Has this guy no shame? Don't bother answering that...
I woouldn't say that just yet. Quoting the words of a PROUD African American Professor, Dr. Boyce Watkins of Syracuse University, Juan Williams is one of O'Reilly's and the racist white supremacist conservative right's "Happy Negroes."
Juan Williams is one of the most HATED Negro conservatives on black talk radio because he commands racist white supremacist "respect" from racist white supremacist conservatives.
"No, "I'm sorry" won't do. These far right loonies better get any thoughts of lynching or assassinating either Obama off their minds. If harm comes to either one, there will be war."
Heru, after the lying fascist racist theocratic white supremacist right sees this post, they will have the unmitigated hypocritical audacity of seeking to accuse you of trying to incite violence.
As it stands, black talk radio has ESCALATED their already ongoing war against the right wing and black talk radio's ongoing war against right wing conservative talk radio.
It figures that you would act as the O'Lielly apologist.
As it stands, black talk radio, starting with Chicago's WVON-AM 1690 http://www.wvon.com, specifically Roland S. Martin and the black talk radio audience of WVON, all know that O'Lielly's apology is as bogus as a two cent coin.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-cent_piece_(United_States_coin)
Try again!
It would depend on what is meant by "bogus".
In much the same way that vending machines or transit bus lines are not obligated to accept pennies, anyone can legally refuse a two-cent piece as legal tender and demand payment using another denomination, especially since the two-cent piece is long out of circulation and has fallen out of favor. Thus, it's bogus.
Reminds me of the famous quote:
"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
No, the Merriam Webster definition of "bogus" is "not genuine: COUNTERFEIT, SHAM". As my Wiki reference points out, there are legitimate 2-cent pieces out there, and those are not "bogus" by the dictionary definition.
This whole series about one word in my post about black talk radio seeing through O'Lielly's insincere apology is a diversion rooted in linguistic semantics.
Your obsession to talk about whether or not I should have used the word bogus is an attempt to divert attention from the central and most important point I made, which is that uncompromised unapolgetic black America and uncompromised unapologetic black talk radio are rejecting O'Lielly's insincere apology.
It would depend on what is meant by "bogus". In much the same way that vending machines or transit bus lines are not obligated to accept pennies, anyone can legally refuse a two-cent piece as legal tender and demand payment using another denomination, especially since the two-cent piece is long out of circulation and has fallen out of favor. Thus, it's bogus.
Meaning that although my original comment was correct, it's a moot point in the larger context of my post. That context was that Bill O'Reilly's apology to Michelle Obama was 100% insincere.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-cent_piece_(United_States_coin) Try again!
Ok, Bill O'Lielly's opinion is as bogus as a THREE cent coin!
An error in my figure of speech doesn't change the fact O'Lielly's apology is STILL bogus!
No, he didn't say he was sorry for what he said. He said he was"sorry if" his "statement offended anybody". Typical non-apology.
How do we know his "apology" (if at all) was sincere and made in good faith?
Or was he under orders from Keith Rupert to create the aura of apology to distract attention from possible scandal?
Instead of mea culpa, the guy says youa too sensitive (and that causes him sorrow).
It's a dead giveaway that someone's not actually apologizing, but only trying to simulate the appearance, when they follow the word "sorry" (or "apologize") with the word "if"...
No, let ME guess. You're gonna let O'Reilly, who talks freely about lynching black people, continue to speak for *you*, POV, regardless. Because your so classy like that. This is your guy. Give him a break, he said he'd lynch her only if there was a good cause!
Hateful comments like this, said over and over again, only need a cursory, "oops, sorry if you thought that was wrong, sensitive idiot," to keep a vanguard position on a major news network. If that.
Is that your take?
I'm sure you won't respond.
Watershed, speaking of questions the racist white supremacist right wing won't answer, here's a question that I'm going to ask you that the right wing STILL refuses to answer:
If a black talk radio host, like Clifford Kelley of WVON-AM 1690, had said that they would wait before inviting Cindy McCain to the South Side of Chicago to be killed in a drive-by shooting, and then Kelley apologized, would the racist right wing make excuses for Kelley, and then accept the apology?
Huh?
I think you're fighting the good fight, but your myriad posts are mostly inscrutable and therefore spamlike. Slow down, guy.
Huh? I think you're fighting the good fight, but your myriad posts are mostly inscrutable and therefore spamlike.
Spamlike? I'm asking a legitimate question, and the lying right refuses to answer. Most likely because the answer they have for my question is 1000% indefensible. Any other reason they give for not answering is a lie, if they give a reason at all.
Let me guess. Right Wing PointofView is acting as another one of O'Reilly's apologists. Big non-surprise.
If a black talk radio host, say "The Black Eagle" Joe Madison or Warren Ballantine of Radio One who owns the black talk radio network XM 169/THE POWER, and/or black talk radio host Roland S. Martin and/or Clifford Kelley and/or Dorothy Tillman and/or Salim Muwakill of Chicago's black talk radio station WVON-AM 1690's http://www.wvon.com had said they wanted to wait before they invited Cindy McCain to the SouthSide of Chicago to be killed in a drive-by shooting, and then apologized, you and the rest of the right wing conservatives wouldn't accept any of their apologies. You'd not only demand these black talk radio hosts be fired, you'd demand that their black radio stations be taken off the air.
Not bad bill.
What kind of criterial are you setting for good enough POV. Good enough for this instance? Good enough considering his history? Good enough to indicate a change of heart?
Heru, your challenge is even better!
In fact, let's have O'Reilly call for a lynch party on the South Side of Chicago, and/or do it on Chicago's black talk radio station WVON-AM 1690 http://www.wvon.com.
WTF!? So his revisionist version of his comment was that he was referencing something that Clarence Thomas said 17 years ago? That's some truly ridiculous back-peddling.
Absolutely Clams...
What on earth is this raisin brain trying to say? Maybe Billy didn't get a rattler when he was a baby and now he's trying to get back at the human race?
I have no idea what he's talking about either. Thomas wasn't lynched in any sense of the word. I felt his "high-tech lynching" comment was playing the race card while whining about actually having to prove himself worthy of the highest court in the land.
Maybe O'Reilly thought he could use the word inappropriately because Thomas did. Maybe he's confusing the voices in his head with what he actually said on the air. He's probably just lying in a desperate attempt to save face.
I have no idea what he's talking about either. Thomas wasn't lynched in any sense of the word. I felt his "high-tech lynching" comment was playing the race card while whining about actually having to prove himself worthy of the highest court in the land.
Maybe O'Reilly thought he could use the word inappropriately because Thomas did. Maybe he's confusing the voices in his head with what he actually said on the air. He's probably just lying in a desperate attempt to save face.
Black Agenda Report's Editor In Chief Glen Ford http://www.blackagendareport.com, as well as Black Commentator.com http://www.blackcommentator.com and black columnist George Curry http://www.georgecurry.com have all written at least one piece denouncing Thomas' hypocritical and right wing racist playing of the race card. Type Thoma' name in the search engine, and you will hear Thomas get verbally barbecued.
The only citation I found for the "high-tech lynching for uppity Blacks" quote was from Thomas's Hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee from Oct. 11, 1991 (link below). I guess he must have repeated it on 60 Minutes recently?
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new-yitna?id=UsaThom&images=images/modeng&data=/lv6/workspace/yitna&tag=public&part=24
Yep. I think this link goes to the whole interview...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/27/60minutes/main3305443.shtml
The only citation I found for the "high-tech lynching for uppity Blacks" quote was from Thomas's Hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee from Oct. 11, 1991 (link below). I guess he must have repeated it on 60 Minutes recently?
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new-yitna?id=UsaThom&images=images/modeng&data=/lv6/workspace/yitna&tag=public&part=24
Glen Ford, editor-in-chief of Black Agenda Report http://www.blackangedareport.com did an article where Ford BARBECUED Thomas not just for his racist white supremacist race playing lynching comment, but Ford also barbecued Thomas' overall racist hatred of his own black race. I'll have the specific link for you in a later post.
"Michelle Obama should understand that words have meaning."
"Michelle Obama should understand that words have meaning."
Wow, that's the most non-sensical phrase I've heard in a long while. So I guess he doesn't believe in Etymology?
Oh, this is rich. I just found this over on newshounds.us. Last night O'Reilly actually said this:
"Michelle Obama should understand that words have meaning."
Nothing Bill O'Lielly says, be it racist or anything else, surprises me anymore.
Bill O'Lielly is cut from the same kind of racist white supremacist slime mold that a racist white supremacist female teacher from the 1950's was cut from. This teacher taught black talk radio host Coz Carson of WVON-AM 1690 http://www.wvon.com. When Coz was a boy, that racist white supremacist teacher told him "You read good for a (racist slur against blacks)." O'Lielly and his racist white supremacist fans, and many of the right wing conservatives on this board, are the same kind of racist.
It's most likely the best you're going to get out of him. Some progress, perhaps, his gargantuan ego must be stinging right now.
Hopefully, he will stop and think next time before he sloppily utters words that have such an offensive and hurtful meaning, he will censor himself, maybe. And that is a good thing.
Tommy, your comment comes from the mistaken belief that O'Reilly's apology was sincere. It wasn't. It was counterfeit.
I'd like to see Bill repeat what he says is not a racist comment on a black talk radio station, and then listen as black talk radio hosts like Joe Madison and/or Clifford Kelley and/or their resoective black talk radio callers verbally barbecue him.
This is a first indication that the shift is coming.
Besides the non-apology, his weaseling out by saying that Clarence Thomas used the word is pretty pathetic too.
As was discussed on another thread, the word "lynching" is generally used to criticize the would be lynchers, not as an acceptable practice. Thomas used the phrase "High Tech Lynching" to describe (right or wrong) what he saw as a polished up version of the old-style scapegoating of a black man, a miscarriage of justice.
The fact that BilldO is trying to justify his idiocy by claiming that Thomas condemned his accusers with the same word that O'Reilly is using to describe his own efforts to smear Mrs. Obama, well, that takes cluelessness to a new level.
On the other hand, more than one wingnut has posted here to prove that, as lame as BilldO's squirming is, there are some who can be fooled by it.He knows his audience.
They're very uncomfortable. They already have a plan of how they're going to bring Obama down. It's going to be an interesting race if he gets this nomination because a lot of folks are going to be forced to tell on themselves. Someone one as educated as O'Reilly knows "lynching" in most contexts is inappropriate in the realm of public thought. O'Reilly is going the way of Hannity and Limbaugh. They all drew their line in the sand and it was his turn to declare his loyalties. Just imagine how contrary conservative perspective on Obama's support being cultish would be if it was a conservative candidate.
Damn right they're uncomfortable.
again, lufa boy makes an apology...that isnt
he basically said...im sorry if i offended anyone, but if i offended you, you are an idiot.
btw, how exactly does one defend someone by misquoting them. michelle obama said "really proud"
sad thing is, his audience is made up of old racists, so he wont even be suspended
I don't want to go on a caning party against Bill O’Reilly unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how this Plastic Paddy really feels. If that's how he really feels -- that lynching black Americans is the only way to squelch their dissent, whatever -- then that's legit. We'll track the Cat-lick down and crucify him.
geez! for about .003 seconds, i was almost convinced; it was an unintended poor choice of words, and he didn't mean it the way it came out. that was the worst .003 seconds of my life! .003 seconds i'll never recover.
as i review, again, his original comment and now his "apology", they re-affirm my very, very low estimate of him, as human being and right-wing apologist. he's a twinky. worse, he assumes his audience is a bunch of twinkies as well. ok, he's probably right on that.
nope, the only thing he "apologized" for was that some of us got offended, which is clearly our problem, not his.
I was thinking the same way. It seemed to me like what he might have been doing was saying that other people are lynching her - and what he meant to say was that by finding out her true feelings then it wouldn't be a lynching on his part. It would be "legit", then. But that's not what he said, of course. Even if that was his underlying point his phrasing is doubly inappropriate, and his "Harlem restaurant" spiel makes for some history of racism so it's hard to give him the benefit of the doubt.
And I think if he had really meant it that way, he could have explained it pretty easily, and he would have understood the concern instead of calling someone who wanted an apology a "left-wing loon" and ultimately issuing this insufficient apology.
CPINVA,
In part, you said "for about .003 seconds".......
If I remember right...... that's like an eternity for Commander Data on the starship Enterprise..... or something like that
The only kind of apologies given today are the kind that say the person is sorry only to someone they may have offended.
I'm not only blaming O'Reilly, but everyone from the left, right or center.
"What ever happened to the apologetic apology? The one where you say, 'I'm sorry', 'I'll try to behave in the future."
The only kind of apologies given today are the kind that say the person is sorry only to someone they may have offended."
Not quite true. Another favorite whipping boy of MMFA, Don Imus at least mouthed the words of a genuine apology,
Note that he says he understands why someone would be offended in addition to condemning his own remarks.
He also met with the team, which accepted his apology, and went on Sharpton's show to be pummeled by him.
(Speaking of Sharpton, why does MMFA--along with other sites--continually give him a pass for being an O'Reilly enabler. It was shameless the way Sharpton essentially said that it was OK for O'Reilly to have made the remarks he made at Sylvia's restaurant. He didn't give Imus the same consideration. Maybe it was because Imus had a Sharpton parody character on his show, The Reverend Al.)
BillO prefaced his O'Reilly Factor comments with a simple "While talking to a radio caller, I said there should be no lynching in the case..." Be sure to read the real whole transcript here.
What he SHOULD have said in all honesty is...
Today a radio caller had the audacity to bring up a different subject than what he told my “screeners” his topic would be. I was ambushed! He suggested I apologize to Michele Obama for my disrespectful lynching analogy. Boy was I pissed that he caught me off-guard! I refused to apologize and called him a "liar" and a "far-left loon". This is what I do. Since then, because of the outrage of my childish babbling rant, management here at Faux News has insisted I address the issue. So here I go…
what an amazing a-hole!
As someone who intends to vote for Obama, I'm going to simply ask that MMFA stop "helping" him with these silly topics. O'Reilly said nothing that he needed to apologize for. In fact, Bill O. was DEFENDING Michelle.
My worry is that MMFA's "help" is going to do for Obama what it did for Hillary. By posing as knee-jerk reactionaries who jump on any little slip by an opponent, MMFA makes us progressives look thin skinned and weak.
In my opinion, one of the reasons that Hillary is OUT of the running for prez is due to the over-blown crybaby ranting at MMFA.
Please, help Obama by stopping your "help" - Obama is a big boy and can defend himself.
Just a few days before this comment by O'Reilly, amid the festivities at the annual White House event celebrating African-American history month, President Bush said that “lynching is not a word to be mentioned in jest. As a civil society, we should understand that noose displays and lynching jokes are deeply offensive. They are wrong. And they have no place in America today.”
I don't think anyone can convince me that BillO did not hear - or at least read or hear about the President's speech on race relations. For a guy who would normally jump on anyone as "a traitor" or "Nazi" should they go against the wishes of his hero, GW - it's disgusting and hypocritical for him to do the same.
Why does Bill O'Reilly HATE his president and his country so much as to not only use the word in reference to an African-American woman a week later, but refuse to admit it was wrong?
In fact, Bill O. was DEFENDING Michelle.
Yeah right, he was defending her by putting off his lynching of her until he got further evidence! I don't care who your supporting, read his comments again. Waiting before deciding to lynch IS NOT defending her!
"As someone who intends to vote for Obama, I'm going to simply ask that MMFA stop "helping" him with these silly topics. O'Reilly said nothing that he needed to apologize for. In fact, Bill O. was DEFENDING Michelle."
Big lie! O'Reilly's words and actions proved he was intending the exact opposite. O'Reilly was at worst seeking to incite violent acts against Michelle and/or Sen. Obama himself.
Now, let's flip this script, and say, if a black talk radio host, like "The Black Eagle" Joe Madison http://www.joemadison.com of the national black talk radio network XM 169/THE POWER had said on his radio show "Now, I don't want to invite Cindy McCain to the South Side of Chicago to be killed in a drive-by shooting before knowing all the facts about Cindy McCain saying that we should reinstate racial segregation" or something along those lines, and Madison claimed that he was defending Cindy McCain, would you accept Madison's defense, or would you and the other conservatives would not only demand that Madison be fired, you'd also demand that THE POWER and other black talk radio stations be taken off the air? So far, every conservative I've asked this question has refused to answer it.
If a black talk radio host, like THE POWER's Joe Madison "The Black Eagle" http://www.joemadison.com (O'Reilly FEARS Joe Madison), and/or Clifford Kelley of Chicago's black talk radio station WVON-AM 1690 http://www.wvon.com had said on either of their shows that they wanted to wait before they invite Cindy McCain to the South Side of Chicago to be one the receiving end of a drive-by shooting, all of the racist white supremacist conservatives, and the dis-likes of all of the right wing racist conservative talk radio hosts, INCLUDING O'Reilly, would not only demand that one or both black talk radio hosts be fired, they would demand that black talk raido be taken off the air!
Right wing conservatives want black talk radio taken off the air anyway because in part they believe that black people have no right to speak, and have no right to have their views aired, without their racist white supremacist "permission".
Tell me, did the dis-likes of the self-hating anti-Black right wing conservative Negroes like Juan Williams and/or Rashonda Barber and/or Larry Elder and/or Shelby Steele suggest to O'Reilly that he make this racist lynching comment?
Wouldn't put it past ANY of the self-hating anti-Black right wing conservative Negroes like Elder or Steele or Williams to have some complicity in O'Reilly making these racist comments. Any one of them isn't above asking O'Reilly to make this racist comment.
Ha! BillO gets caught by MM editing his own radio remark.
Yet BillO has chastized others for editing his comments.
What's funny is that BillO's TV audience won't know the whole truth of what he said unless they come to a sites like MM...who BillO wrongfully paints as "dishonest". It's BillO whose being dishonest and with his own audience even. Has this guy no shame? Don't bother answering that...
Steve, most of Bill O'Lielly's audience are all just as big or bigger liars than O'Lielly himself continues to be! Most of them are also the same kind of racist white supremacists as well.
Not only do none of them have shame, none of them have decency, either.