In defending his controversial comments about race, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly claimed on the September 25 edition of his television show that “we didn't hear one complaint about the program that ran on more than 400 radio stations.” Similarly, in a September 26 article, the Associated Press reported that “O'Reilly said the [Juan] Williams conversation was carried on more than 400 radio stations and there wasn't one complaint from a listener.” While Media Matters for America has no way of determining whether O'Reilly received any private complaints, his discussion of race did provoke at least one public complaint from a listener. During the same September 19 broadcast in which O'Reilly made his controversial remarks, a caller told O'Reilly: “I think your spinning and bloviating does not do the black community justice. You're just giving fodder to your viewers who have a negative view of black people anyway, so your pointing out a couple of [rappers] Twistas and Ludacrises in the large general population is shameful.”

As Media Matters for America documented, during his September 19 radio broadcast -- which included a conversation with NPR senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams -- O'Reilly said, among other things:

O'REILLY: You know, and I went to the concert by Anita Baker at Radio City Music Hall, and the crowd was 50/50, black/white, and the blacks were well-dressed. And she came out -- Anita Baker came out on the stage and said, "Look, this is a show for the family. We're not gonna have any profanity here. We're not gonna do any rapping here." The band was excellent, but they were dressed in tuxedoes, and this is what white America doesn't know, particularly people who don't have a lot of interaction with black Americans. They think that the culture is dominated by Twista, Ludacris, and Snoop Dogg.

WILLIAMS: Oh, and it's just so awful. It's just so awful because, I mean, it's literally the sewer come to the surface, and now people take it that the sewer is the whole story --

O'REILLY: That's right. That's right. There wasn't one person in [the Harlem restaurant] Sylvia's who was screaming, “M-Fer, I want more iced tea.”

WILLIAMS: Please --

O'REILLY: You know, I mean, everybody was -- it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all.

Later in the program, as Media Matters documented elsewhere, O'Reilly had the following exchange with a caller:

O'REILLY: John, Indianapolis. What say you, John?

CALLER: I think your spinning and bloviating does not do the black community justice. You're just giving fodder to your viewers who have a negative view of black people anyway, so your pointing out a couple of Twistas and Ludacrises in the large general population is shameful. I think you're ruining people's opportunity to make income, and I wish black America would wake up and start boycotting these companies that you convince to boycott artists. Who are you gonna go after next?

O'REILLY: I'm going to go after anybody who rewards bad behavior, and just because you condone bad behavior is not going to stop me. What I think I'm doing is calling these people out who are injuring other Americans, and if corporate America is going to reward those people, then I'm going to bring it to everybody's attention. And -- I didn't call for any boycott. I never do that, except for France, and that's lifted. I just bring it to people's attention. Here's what they're doing. They make the call. You don't like what I'm doing, OK, fine. I think I'm doing the right thing. I think you're justifying bad behavior. I think you have your head in the sand.

We'll be back.

Nonetheless, while attacking Media Matters on the September 25 broadcast of his television show, O'Reilly stated:

O'REILLY: Recently on The Radio Factor, I did an hour on how racism is dumb, how it is driven by fear, and I even used my own late grandmother as an example.

Now you can hear that radio hour on BillOreilly.com. It's very interesting discussion. And we didn't hear one complaint about the program that ran on more than 400 radio stations.

Well, yesterday, Media Matters distorted the entire conversation and implied I was racist for condemning racism. Stunningly, CNN echoed the defamation on at least three of its programs.

Similarly, the AP reported on September 26:

O'Reilly said the Williams conversation was carried on more than 400 radio stations and there wasn't one complaint from a listener.

“This isn't about a racially insensitive remark,” he said. “Anybody can listen to the unedited version of the conversation on billoreilly.com. You want to think I'm insensitive to race, you go right ahead.”

The real story, he said, was about the “corrupt media culture” where outlets like CNN and MSNBC do stories about his remarks “because they're getting killed in the ratings.”