Bill O'Reilly

I've been pretty busy in the past couple of weeks, so I missed this. I was reading about it last night and felt inclined to post. A couple of weeks ago, Bill O'Reilly came under fire (again) for making a remark that could be considered racist in some circles. He was talking about dining at Sylvia's (a restaurant in Harlem) with Al Sharpton, and said that he "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." A big bru-ha-ha resulted, but as far as I know, it hasn't evolved into an Imus moment, and we should be thankful for that.

Sometimes, I don't understand the purpose or meaning of a group like Media Matters. Media Matters is a liberal watchdog that calls out conservatives in the media, which is good and all. And they called O'Reilly out on the statements he made. But they've been doing that for almost as long as O'Reilly has been on the air, and to me, it just gets old. It's like the conservative listeners who used to listen in to Howard Stern's show so they could catch whatever offensive thing he said and rat him out to the FCC. This is America, so what if someone on the radio or television is offensive? If you don't like it, don't listen.

As for O'Reilly, I'm not a fan of his, but I think this statement (and others he's made) are based more out of ignorance than racism. The guy's lived on Long Island all his life, in a lily-white part of it. I'll say one thing for him, though. I do like how he has the cajones to stand up to these groups like Media Matters and the other press that is giving the story coverage. I still think he put his foot in his mouth, and all a group like Media Matters did was tell people what he said. But Imus showed that if you reach out to some of these people, and back down from what you say, they'll eat you alive. O'Reilly learned from that.

And lastly, I'm sorry, but I thought the "hey, m-fer, where's my iced tea" remark was hilarious.