O'Reilly to African-Americans: "The far left is using you here"

During the September 26 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, responding to a caller's claim that "I don't hear the outrage from African-Americans that they get used a lot" by "media outlets," Bill O'Reilly asserted: "Yeah, you're right, but I don't think they know. I don't think they know. But it's an excellent point you're making." O'Reilly later stated: "The more exposure we can get to this, the more black Americans we can reach ... and say to them, 'They're using you. The far left is using you here.' " O'Reilly was discussing a growing controversy over remarks he made following a dinner with the Rev. Al Sharpton at a Harlem restaurant. On the September 19 broadcast of his radio show, as Media Matters for America documented, O'Reilly said: "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."

On the same September 19 show, as Media Matters noted, O'Reilly also said: "I think black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves. They're getting away from the Sharptons and the [Rev. Jesse] Jacksons and the people trying to lead them into a race-based culture. They're just trying to figure it out: 'Look, I can make it. If I work hard and get educated, I can make it.' "

Earlier in his September 26 broadcast, O'Reilly had asserted that "selective sentences were taken out" of that discussion on his September 19 program "by Media Matters, a vicious, vile outfit, far left, and then used to try and brand me as a racist. Isn't that nice, huh? Isn't that nice?" O'Reilly's co-host Lis Wiehl later stated: "And the fallout is, is that no white person is going to want to bring up any kind ... of racial issues at all in this country. We can't have a dialogue about it."

O'Reilly later said: "There is no greater danger to the far left in America than Bill O'Reilly. I am the greatest danger. I am their worst nightmare -- and they are going to do anything and everything to destroy me, or try to. And it's a war. It is a war."

From the September 26 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: OK. We're talking about the controversy surrounding my remarks to Juan Williams and Lis Wiehl, who's here right now. We were dissecting why racism exists on the white end of the spectrum. We pinpointed the fear factor, demonstrated my grandmother as being the example of that, and then went in to a discourse that white America is not that different from black America.

In fact, there is very little difference in the mainstream of it now. As Dr. [Marc Lamont] Hill [Temple University education professor] pointed out, the circumstances are different but not the lifestyle and not the attitude that most African-Americans are not gangster rappers, they don't do this. And in the course of a hour conversation, we illustrated that and then selective sentences were taken out of that hour conversation and -- by Media Matters, a vicious, vile outfit, far left, and then used to try and brand me as a racist. Isn't that nice, huh? Isn't that nice?

WIEHL: Nice, very nice.

O'REILLY: Yeah, and then CNN, of course, bought into it and because of ratings reasons -- and they got killed, too, by the way.

WIEHL: And the fallout is, is that no white person is going to want to bring up any kind --

O'REILLY: Yeah, well, and that's --

WIEHL: -- of racial issue at all in this country. We can't have a dialogue about it.

O'REILLY: -- it's the Joe Biden-Barack Obama discussion all over again.

Let's go to [caller], in Alton, Illinois. Hi, [caller]. How are you doing?

CALLER 1: I'm doing great today, Bill. I listen to you everyday on the radio --

O'REILLY: Thank you.

CALLER 1: -- and I watch your television show. I'm an African-American, 38 years old --

O'REILLY: Hmmm-mm.

CALLER 1: -- and I think they selected phrases to make you sound that way.

O'REILLY: Of course.

CALLER 1: Because when I heard it on the radio this morning, I said: "There's no way Bill O'Reilly meant what they're trying to paint here." However, had I not watched your show every night and listened to your radio station every day, I probably would have had a different opinion.

O'REILLY: That's right.

CALLER 1: I probably would have felt upset about it also.

O'REILLY: And that was the strategy, [caller]: Get the people who don't know O'Reilly -- demonize him. And that has been the strategy for the past, you know, five, 10 years. But I appreciate your honesty, and I appreciate you listening and calling and telling me that. But that is the strategy on the far left.

The far left knows I'm kicking their butt. I'm hammering them. Culture Warrior, huge success. Goes into their precincts, exposes them. There is no greater danger to the far left in America than Bill O'Reilly. I am the greatest danger. I am their worst nightmare -- and they are going to do anything and everything to destroy me, or try to. And it's a war. It is a war.

Savannah, Georgia, [caller], go.

CALLER 2: Hey, Bill. How are you?

O'REILLY: Good.

CALLER 2: I wanted to talk to you about the -- the biggest problem I have is media outlets using an entire race of people to try to harm Fox News and one of Fox News' employees or spokesman, and I don't hear the outrage in that. I don't hear the outrage from African-Americans that they get used a lot.

O'REILLY: Yeah, you're right, but I don't think they know. I don't think they know. But it's an excellent point you're making, [caller]. If you are for border security, you are anti-Hispanic. If you are against gay marriage, you are a homophobe. If you say anything that departs from the far-left orthodoxy, they will demonize you as a bigot. That is the strategy. And when CNN and NBC News buys into the strategy and is a carrier of it, then you have what you have right now in America: a corrupt media.

And that's why this is good -- because the more exposure we can get to this, the more black Americans we can reach, [caller], and say to them, "They're using you. The far left is using you here."

—A.I.