*shakes head*

y'know

Actually I didn't -- never watched the show. I was shaking my head when I read Hilzoy's post on this -- now I'm totally agog.

Some of them were probably even articulate!

Articulate enough to say "motherfucker" instead of "M-Fer", even.

Mrs. NCP has been forced by this episode to conclude that, yes, O'Reilly's act is really just a performance piece. I don't agree, but the evidence is stacking up.

Cut the guy some slack. I'm sure some of O'Reilly's best friends are black.

Oh man. What was Juan Williams's reaction?

The full exchange.

Brillo Wirey.

After listening to the whole exchange, I can't see how it could be possible to claim it was out of context. Why isn't this O'Reilly's Imus moment?

Well, Imus' ratings were already shrinking well beyond what his slot could justify. It made economic sense to cut him loose.

Also, FoxNews regularly has Ann Coulter on to do her schtick. This is pretty weak tea (M-Fer) by comparison.

10: He says stuff like this every day! Ever seen Olbermann's 'Worst Person in the World Segment'? Half the time it's Bill-O.

12: Imus got done for stuff milder than what he said every day. It was a magical moment of "traction."

Imus got caught using street slang that had racist undertones, but he's no racist. He was just being his usual tasteless self.

He pulled it off worse, than say, Gary Oldman's character in "True Romance" could have. He was unconvincing. He was fumbling around language he knew nothing about. The PC police came in and pulverized his ass.

So he got the cane.

Juan Williams is such a dumbass, I swear to god.

I think my favorite bit of the O'Reilly thing, really, is the statement that "all the people up there are tremendously respectful." Williams should have hung up right there.

15: Yeah, Juan Williams drives me up a tree everytime I hear him. Such an idiot.

But near the end of the transcript, Williams' last line is "Please --". I can only hope that in his mind at least he preceded that with an unspoken "Cracka".

I doubt it though.

the thing with juan williams, who i know only from the linked foto, he looks like he might be part, oh, samoan. or something.
. . . .
ah! so i looked it up. he's from panama, for god's sake! not really black.

no, really, i've been dealing w this for my 40+ years of adulthood. many white racists reassign us dark skinned people, in their minds, to some group that's less hated, maybe even romanticized.
the thing is, though, you gotta call 'em on it. especially on national tv.

If only BOR had only said they were articulate and clean...

Shrill Mo' Highly?!?!

The MOST frustrating thing is that Juan Williams wrote Eyes on the Prize AND Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, two of the best books on the civil rights movement.

The dude knows racism when he sees it, yet he still allows himself to be used and abused on Fox News.

20: And his latest book seems to primarily be warmed over Cranky Old Bill Cosby talking points.

The exchange shows that O'Reilly is a clueless racist, as you put it so well, but one who is realizing that the gulf of ignorance - including his own, as he acknowledges - is one that can and should be spanned.

Yes, his comments are offensive, but he's trying. Step one in a (re)conciliation is to stop demonizing the other side and to humanizing them - to recognize commonalities rather than focussing on differences. O'Reilly should get credit for that at least, even while his "gee, whiz, blacks are regular folks not so different from us" effulsion is still thoughtlessly insensitive and offensive.

But far be it from me to let that get in the way of your demonization of O'Reilly. As we know, Republicans are evil, and not regular people like us.

O'Reilly has roundly earned this exact sort of demonization, it being his primary mode of discourse.

Never, ever, fuck with the people who handle your food.

Yes, his comments are offensive, but he's trying.

Yeah, the context of the faux-naif blithering about Harlem restaurants is a rant about how Black folks are supposedly "starting to realize" that Jesse Jackson is the enemy, and the content is absolutely bog standard paternalistic racist tripe. If that impresses you as "trying," you need to get out more. Seriously.

#25: I think even apo seems to indicate that O'Reilly was trying, even though "laughably inept".

#23: Yes, I agree that O'Reilly is fair game, even as I hope he (and me too!) will become less of a deliberate or clueless racist. By all means, have at him.

But let's not fall into the trap of believing that he and his ilk are a lower form of human being, who are more susceptible to racism, bigotry and reflexive tribal suspicion than the rest of us.

But far be it from me to let that get in the way of your demonization of O'Reilly. As we know, Republicans are evil, and not regular people like us.

You're the only one who has mentioned Republicans. Apo's post criticized the specific actions of a specific individual. You seem to be the only one generalizing beyond that.

And while we're at it, can I ask why you characterize apo's post as "demonization"? As far as I can tell, he's justifiably ascribing clueless racism to O'Reilly, not comparing him to Hitler or Stalin or something.

Didt'n you get the memo M/lls? Calling someone a "racist" is demonizing them -- the word has no meaning outside its pejorative sense.

But let's not fall into the trap of believing that he and his ilk are a lower form of human being

O'Reilly is a partisan hack seeking to use race as a wedge issue. Let's not fall into the trap of concern-trolling people who note this obvious fact by laughably and irrelevantly accusing them of "demonization."

Bill O Reilly is a loudmouthed egomaniac who does not let his guests to finish their sentences.

That bloated pig has no soul, and watching him makes me ill.

Why do people waste so much time talking about him? It only delays his profile from sinking back into the primodial slime from whence he came.

FWIW, my last two sentences of 22 were meant to be tongue-in-cheek overstatements.

BOR is so arrogant that he walks into a famous soul food restaurant in Harlem with AL SHARPTON and determines that any attention that draws is because of him. "they all watch The Factor"... right!

33: Yeah, I noticed that too, but I didn't want to demonize O'Reilly by pointing it out.

Update: Fox host O'Reilly says restaurant comments not racist

O'Reilly's actual quote was "What, me racist? Negro please."