Lynching Party

Bill O'Reilly spent all three hours of his February 19th radio broadcast talking about Michelle Obama's "first time I've been proud" comment. O'Reilly said:

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 nation or a flawed country, whatever — then that's legit.

It's reassuring to know that Bill adheres to strict ethical guidelines on when it is and isn't "legit" to carry out a lynching. Or maybe this was just Bill's clever way of demonstrating how public figures sometimes choose the wrong words and end up saying things they don't really mean.

Nah. There are a lot of adjectives you can apply to Bill O'Reilly. "Clever" is not one of them.

But "racist" is. This is the same guy, after all, who just a few months ago, after dining in the Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, commented on how normal it was, "even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." He elucidated:

There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, "M-Fer, I want more iced tea." You know, I mean, everybody was — it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all.

If Don Imus' infamous racist comment warranted a temporary suspension from the air waves, then it seems only fair that Bill O'Reilly should now be permanently exiled to another planet. Preferably in another solar system.

Here's some commentary by Keith Olbermann and Eugene Robinson:

(Click below to play video)