In a conversation with a caller about the disproportionately few jobs and contracts that have gone to locals in the rebuilding of New Orleans, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said: "[T]he homies, you know ... I mean, they're just not going to get the job." O'Reilly made his remark during the February 27 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show in response to a caller who blamed President Bush for not creating jobs for people who live in the regions affected by Hurricane Katrina. Since the start of the rebuilding effort, more than 90 percent of the federal contract money for the recovery and reconstruction of the Gulf Coast has reportedly gone to companies based outside the three states that were most affected.
During the segment, the caller said to O'Reilly:
CALLER: George Bush doesn't care about American people. After Katrina, he passed a law making it so his contracting buddies could bring in a bunch of illegal immigrants, instead of putting Americans to work, plus it took them five days to get down there.
In response, O'Reilly said: “On the rebuilding of New Orleans, you've got to use contractors that can do the job. So, you can't -- you know, if you've got contractors who specialize in infrastructure rebuilding, you've got to bring them in.” He then added, “And the homies, you know, who you don't know -- I mean, they're just not going to get the job.”
From the February 27 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
CALLER: Okay, Bill. I'm going to expand on [rapper/producer] Kanye West's statement and say that George Bush doesn't care about American people. After Katrina, he passed a law making it so his no-bid contracting buddies could bring in a bunch of illegal immigrants, instead of putting Americans to work, plus it took them five days to get down there. Straight after [former President] Lyndon Johnson, who showed up the same day as the flood and put Americans to work.
Now, you look at this thing with the -- Dubai. He's out here waving a veto pen. Didn't even let the governors know. Didn't let other potential American bidders know. Didn't let hardly anybody know about this -- this deal.
O'REILLY: Well, he says he didn't know.
E.D. HILL (co-host): Well, wait --
CALLER: That even makes it worse, Bill. How can the administration --
HILL: American companies --
CALLER: -- approve this thing without him even knowing about it?
O'REILLY: Well look, [caller], here's the deal. On the rebuilding of New Orleans, you've got to use contractors that can do the job. So, you can't be -- you know, if you've got contractors who specialize in infrastructure rebuilding, you've got to bring them in. And the homies, you know, who you don't know -- I mean, they're just not going to get the job.
