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Sabiana
Regular Poster
Username: Sabiana
Post Number: 203
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 27, 2007 - 11:33 pm: | 
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Bill O' Reilly Talks About Race
(September 25, 2007)
O’Reilly is an amazingly nimble talent, and part of his skill is how persuasively he communicates that he is completely uncensored and incapable of guile or calculation.
That description of Bill O’Reilly, from a 2006 New Yorker profile, may help explain how the right-leaning TV personality’s remarks on Sept. 19 about a visit to a famous Harlem restaurant may have ended up sounding off-key to some and offensive to others.
Here’s the sound bite that every report we’ve seen picks first:
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, primarily black patronship.
Media Matters, the liberal group that is drawing attention to this episode, has posted a transcript that lets you see the whole thing for yourself and allows Mr. O’Reilly to finish his thought.
Apparently, he was working his way through a tribute to the American Dream and the Melting Pot, familiar points for the talk show host who often touts his working-class Irish American roots. More from Mr. O’Reilly:
And that’s really what this society’s all about now here in the U.S.A. There’s no difference. There’s no difference. There may be a cultural entertainment — people may gravitate toward different cultural entertainment, but you go down to Little Italy, and you’re gonna have that. It has nothing to do with the color of anybody’s skin.
By then, it’s too late. While trying to dramatically prove a point about equality on his radio show by retelling how he himself was convinced, Mr. O’Reilly admitted that he once believed that not all restaurant managers and patrons were created equal.
The transcript then jumps to a later point in the show, when Mr. O’Reilly sounds some more foul notes. The conversation now includes Juan Williams, an NPR correspondent, and is focused on comparing hip-hop’s image and the reality of black America. In that context, he was surprised once again, this time by what he saw at an Anita Baker concert at Radio City Music Hall:
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.
Mr. Williams heartily agrees, and Mr. O’Reilly flashes back to the first scene to provide yet another sound bite that sounds so much worse when served without the background that he’s comparing rap and reality:
There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, “M-Fer, I want more iced tea.”
Of course, the comparison is deeply questionable, as one blogger sharply argues:
Congratulations, Bill. It took you half a century to figure out that Flava Flav does not represent the behavior of all black people. Next week perhaps you’ll learn that every Jewish person doesn’t act like Jackie Mason and every white person doesn’t act like Larry the Cable Guy.
CNN wondered whether this was Mr. O’Reilly’s Imus moment, but the two episodes are very different. While Imus was rather straightforwardly dissing the Rutgers female basketball team in racial terms, Mr. Reilly is guilty of being sheltered, old-fashioned and possibly exhibiting a casual racism. And those were views he once had — remember, he was reporting a conversion of sorts.
A reaction that came in a local TV segment last night seemed to capture the sentiment. An African-American man at Sylvia’s asked about his reaction to Mr. O’Reilly’s statement, said, “I wouldn’t say offended. I would say that I’m concerned that people are still in that type of mind-set.'’
Think about how you’d react to a relative imitating either Mr. Imus or Mr. O’Reilly; how will this play out? And what should Mr. O’Reilly tell Al Sharpton tomorrow night when they appear together on Fox News?
The Lede
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 10070
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007 - 12:37 am: |
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O'Reilly is deviousness personified, portraying himself as a well-meaning individual attempting to educate other white people about how civilized blacks can be. And he's milking the issue for all its worth in order to boost ratings for his TV show. |
Schakspir
Veteran Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 1172
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007 - 01:10 am: |
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My first reaction was: no shit, Mr. O'Reilly.
What else did he expect to see in a classy black restaurant other than people actually eating food?
Maybe in an Irish pub(which I avoid, because I'm afraid of vomit on the floor, blood on the walls, flying beer-mugs, everybody stinking drunk off their ass and wearing derbies and vests and with mutton-chop sideburns)I might expect to see something of what O'Reilly expected to see at Sylvia's.
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Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 2697
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007 - 06:47 am: |
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"And he's milking the issue for all its worth in order to boost ratings for his TV show."
You are so right! I've been following the whole thing and O'Reilly has been droning on and on and on and on about the far left press, out of control liberals and their smear merchant outlets (New York Times, LA Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, Media Matters, FAIR, Washington Post, et al). This week, he has been passionately raving about Media Matters and CNN for their alleged efforts to brand him a racist.
For more than a week, he went on a personal Jihad against the dailykos.com, ranting and foaming at the mouth every day about this so called extreme left wing sewer of slander and Bush hating. If you really want to watch O'Reilly do an enraged beefy faced mad man jig, just print or say anything that criticizes him (or Bush). The man has zero tolerance for criticism or questioning of his intolerant right wing ideology, obnoxious behavior and rude bullying of guests. Once he gets wind of it, he will come after you -make no mistake about it!
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Jmho
Regular Poster
Username: Jmho
Post Number: 283
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007 - 10:06 am: |
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So true, Cynique. I really thought he was just saying whatever on his radio show, knowing what he was saying he didn't really mean. But now the entire thing is being taken way more seriously than deserved. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 5350
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 29, 2007 - 10:17 am: |
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He knows what he is doing.
The racists who are his base love talking like this.
Sylvia's should have refused to serve him.
"We ain't got no corned beef and cabbage, you Mick bastard!" they should have told him. |
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