Still more O’Reilly remarks write-ups…
The New York Daily News’ Errol Louis says Bill O’Reilly deserves applause…
The New York of Woody Allen and Jerry Seinfeld is very different from the Brooklyns portrayed by Spike Lee or Bill Cosby - and they, in turn, are a world away from the Italians-vs.-Puerto-Rican gang warfare of “West Side Story” or the insular Queens depicted in the old hit show “All in the Family.” One way of breaking down barriers is to talk to one’s own tribe - often in a native dialect guaranteed to jar the ears of outsiders - and explain that “those people” aren’t so different after all.
That’s what O’Reilly was trying to do: tell a segment of his conservative, angry-white-male audience that Harlemites aren’t as violent, crazed and immoral as they’ve been led to think.
That’s also what he meant when, talking with Williams, he described a concert by R&B diva Anita Baker by noting that “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.”
It’s easy to condemn O’Reilly for acknowledging the obvious truth that many people hold ignorant, untrue, unflattering opinions about blacks. It’s much harder to go out on a limb and try to meet people where their bias lives, and nudge them a step closer to the light.
I wish more people would try.
“Conservative, angry-white-male audience”? Where’d he get that from? All kinds of people listen to Bill on the radio and on TV, which he would know if he actually listened to the Radio Factor and the people who call in, or watch the letters segment on TV.
For starters, I’m not angry or male and I listen and watch.
Comment by Laurel — October 1, 2007 @ 12:47 am
Laurel, this sounds like what Phil Donahue tried to do a few years ago. He (a flaming liberal) would have on opposition, and instead of just saying that they were conservative, he labeled them as angry white men (or something like that). I believe it was Steve Malzberg and Pat Buchanan, among others, who were labeled as such.
I’m not angry or male, either, but I watch O’Reilly and listen to Rush. It’s a technique of the left to demonize those with whom they disagree.
Comment by Missy — October 1, 2007 @ 1:15 am
I think BOR should be applauded for not only the segment being talked about - but showing us in glaring ways how the LEFT does twist things! The best example I’ve seen in many years.
Comment by john — October 1, 2007 @ 7:48 am
This whole issue is a non-story. Al Sharpton and some of O’Reilly’s biggest detractors (who normally jump at any opportunity to attack BOR) have dismissed the incident and stated that O’Reilly’s comment was not offensive in its given context. His words may not have been the best chosen, but this evil, but I don’t believe that this racist intention that some have suggested was there.
Comment by Caufield — October 1, 2007 @ 8:58 am
I liked what Jesse Jackson said when he was on O’Reilly’s show. He said that it’s ashamed that something so unimportant was taking airtime away for the much more important 50th anniversery of the Little Rock 9 desegragation story. He stopped O’Reilly in his tracks when he quietly said “you’ve already told everyone here how you feel now let me talk”.
Comment by DonDeAgo — October 1, 2007 @ 1:20 pm