Well, hello. Don’t you seem clean and articulate for a black man!Photo: Getty Images
The folks over at Media Matters, who spend all day sifting through transcripts of conservative pundits’ radio broadcasts looking for faux pas, have struck pay dirt yet again. Where? The O’Reilly Factor, of course. Apparently, yesterday some old biddy called up ol’ Bill’s radio show, all bent out of shape about Michelle Obama’s saying on C-Span that “for the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country.” For the first time? The caller was aghast, like, How dare Michelle not be grateful for the good things America has done for her people! What about Brown v. Board of Education? The right to vote? Hell-o. “I have a friend who had knowledge of her and said to me months ago, ‘This is a very angry,’ her word was ‘militant woman,’” the caller, whose name was Maryanne, told O’Reilly. His interest was piqued. “What I want you to do then, Maryanne… I want you to stay on the line,” he said. “If indeed Michelle Obama is angry about something, if she has a history, we would like to know that.” Then, tamping down his excitement, O’Reilly muttered that of course they’d have to check the facts first. After all, “I don’t want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there’s evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels.
“If that’s how she really feels — that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever — then that’s legit. We’ll track it down.” Lynching party? Track it down? We already know what his defense is going to be: It was taken out of context. It was just an expression that Bill accidentally used, because he doesn’t even see color. In fact, he loves the blacks. He is best friends with Al Sharpton! Remember that time they went to Sylvias? Yeah. Someone’s about to get lynched, all right, and it ain’t Michelle Obama.
Bill O’Reilly [Media Matters]
