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Bill O’Reilly doesn’t think we should lynch Michelle Obama… yet

Jill

Verbatim:

“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”

I’m pretty sure that a sentence along the lines of “I don’t want to go on a lynching party, unless…” is never ok.

46 thoughts on Bill O’Reilly doesn’t think we should lynch Michelle Obama… yet

  1. So, O’Reilly now believes a lack of pride in this country is grounds for public execution. Right? I’m not missing something, right?

  4. Awww, he wants a cookie for *defending her*.

    From <a href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/20/bill-oreilly-i-dont-w_n_87616.html?HuffPost

    David Tabacoff, O’Reilly’s executive producer, has defended the remark. “What Bill said was an obvious repudiation of anyone attacking Michelle Obama,” he said, according to Fox spokeswoman. “As he has said more than ten times, he is giving her the benefit of the doubt.”

    The man is unfucking believable.

  5. Hmm. Perhaps he’s not calling for a “lynch-party” against Michelle Obama (just yet), because she hasn’t screamed, “motherfucker, bring me more fuckin’ ice-tea, and fuck the U.S. of A. and NASCAR!,” while speaking at an Obama campaign rally (eye-roll). I suppose if Michelle Obama starts wearing more pearls and skirts, volunteers to publicly disbar herself, brings “pro-America”-themed baked-goods to every campaign rally, talks like one of Scarlett O’Hara’s slaves, and wears the same vacant, fixed-smile expression a typical “politician’s wife” is supposed to wear (i.e., Milady McCain and several others), then–just then— O’Reilly will call of the “lynch-party.” Asshat. Ooh! Keith Olbermann just gave him Worst Persons in the World for it. 🙂

  6. So making a statement that is logically equivalent to “if this is how the woman really feels, then I want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama” now counts as giving the benefit of the doubt?

  7. *sigh*

    Is it okay to just curl up in a fetal position now?

    I am tired…so tired and have no sense of pride.

  9. How is it that this man still has a job?

    Because millions of Americans really like listening to someone call a successful black woman a nig***.

  11. You’re not paying attention to context. I mean, I’m assuming he prefaced this by saying “If I were a racist, evil asshole I might say something like . . .” Oh wait, he didn’t? Hm, I’m out of excuses.

  12. Just playing devil’s advocate: even if you agree with her sentiments and her right to say them, that is a fucking STUPID thing to say when your spouse is running for president. Even though it might not personally bother you, it’s going to bother a lot of Americans who otherwise like Michelle (and by extension, Barack).

  13. How can he be so tone-deaf? He makes the guy who said Hillery was pimping her daughter look like Mr. Sensitivity.

  14. Jeska, I think you’re off the point there a little bit. Sure, what she said might have been unstrategic, stupid, irritating, whatever (I don’t even know what it was that she said)… It’s still WRONG to make casual references to lynching black americans, lynching being part of a system of murder, terrorism, oppression and control wielded against black people for over a hundred years, preceded by a few hundred years of violence and terrorism in other, even more extreme, forms.

  15. i am in utter dismay. lynching was not solely murder, it was torture. It was humility. It was injustice. It was dismemberment. It was burned corpses. It was castration. It was men. It was women. It was innocent. It was and is one of our nation’s darkest sins.

    It was not funny. It is not funny and should not be used calmly, loosely, metophorically, whatever. This is not a slip of the tongue, it’s racist and needs to be dealt with.

    I am on my way to newshounds.com to complain to fixed noise. I hope you all do the same. Here’s the link

    http://www.newshounds.us/2008/02/20/oreilly_doesnt_want_to_go_on_a_lynching_party_against_michelle_obama_unless.php

  16. Jeska, compare:

    “I don’t want to order her off to the gas chambers, unless there’s evidence, cold, hard facts…”

  17. From what I understand the whole brouhaha is over a dilibertly edited remark whith one word taken out that tiotaly changed the meaning of the quote. What she said was ‘for the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country. …’ What was palyed was ‘for the first time in my adult lifetime I am proud of my country. …’ Quite a difference eh?

  19. “Just playing devil’s advocate: even if you agree with her sentiments and her right to say them, that is a fucking STUPID thing to say when your spouse is running for president. Even though it might not personally bother you, it’s going to bother a lot of Americans who otherwise like Michelle (and by extension, Barack).”

    All of which clearly makes it okay to talk about lynching her, because advocating race-terrorism is a completely sane response to a stupid statement that bothers you. Also, pogroms were okay because the Jews had this obnoxious habit of refusing to eat pork, which bothered a lot of Christians, and sometimes they said stupid things about the messiah not having come yet.

    This is before you even get to the implausibility of O’Reilly otherwise liking either one of them–I’m sure the guy who casually throws around lynching comments would be completely fine with a black president–rather than just looking for a chance to get his race-bait on.

  20. No matter how misguided Michelle Obama’s initial comment was, it’s not even in the same galaxy, stupidity-wise, as what O’Reilly said. Was he asleep through the entire Kelly Tilghman incident last month? Is he really so dense that he doesn’t know how pissed people get when the word “lynch” is just carelessly thrown around?

    And I agree with preying mantis — the very idea that O’Reilly would ever give Obama (either of the Obamas) a fair hearing, shrug, and say “No harm, no foul” is ridiculously naive.

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  22. I never said that the statement he made was okay. I was responding to the comments in this thread – I pretty much figured that it goes without saying that using the word “lynch” in reference to a black woman is wrong.

  23. O’Reilly’s comment bares his racist soul. Has he ever made a reference to lynching about non-blacks that he opposes? The last thing Michelle needs is a bachanded so-called defense from a blowhard like O’Reilly. Keith Oberman addressed this comment on his show. The other news shows seem to be staying away from it. Amazing that her comment was misconstrued and blasted over the airways for days. She had to publicly clarify her statement. O’Reilly, on the other hand, is receiving little media attention for what he said. Imus lost his job for calling those athletes “nappy-headed hoes,” but O’Reilly is barely being chastised. Her comments referenced her new-found pride in our political goals and willingness to support and agent for change, regardless of the name or face of the candidate. However, even if she meant what she said in a general sense, who could blame her? Her experience as a woman, for too long a second-class citizen in America; as an African American, her knowledge of slavery’s generational assualt on the psyche and economics of the people of her race;a the ongoing unbridled corruption weaved into American politics; comments by people like O’Reilly going unchecked and unpunished even nowadays. Seriously, anyone who thinks a country, that is made up of humans, all of whom have have flaws, could be unflawed, is absolutely oblivious. O’Reilly is a nut, and an embarrassment to our country. He reminds us of our country’s flaws. He needs to be fired, stripped of his microphone, and banned from public media – the racist insidious jerk. We are ready to hear something real and reflective of what we truly think and feel as decent human beings who are proud to be Americans, and make our positive intentions realities to the best of our abilities.

    By the way, so what about McCain. Let the man run his campaign without these ridiculous distractions. None of them should be expected to be perfect. We just want whoever our new president is to do the very best he can politically. One possible snafu does not define a person’s whole character. The media can’t get enough of talking about nothing. I respect what I know of McCain even though I support Obama, but l still wish they would leave the non-substantive issues to rest. What about our soldiers and the innocent Iraqi citizens suffering in this war. Are they not important anymore?! What about the real news out there, the good and the bad?! See, America is wonderful, but far from perfect… I love it anyway, and I love this site that I just discovered!

  24. The post is really about O’Reilly’s statements, not what Michelle Obama said. So I’m sorry to continue the OT, but I can’t let Jseka’s comment go. It’s going to bother a lot of white, privileged Americans. By leaving out “white, privileged,” you are minimizing the importance of not so privileged voters. It will really resonate with a lot of black voters, I imagine. It resonates with me as a queer, feminist, progressive white woman.

  25. In a sane and rational world , his remark would result in his immediate dismissal and legal charges. Bill O’Reilly lives in a different world of ratings and ad revenue, and in his world, as long as he caters to his coterie of insane racists, he is golden. Barrack’s handlers now need to turn their attention to Michelle. In the post primary race, it is her against McCain’s Stepford wife Cindy. The rightwing attack engine is already revving up now that they have written Hillary off. So as much as Michelle may not like Hillary, she had better be prepared to repeat Hillary ’92. There is nothing the right hates more than a successful woman backing a successful man.

  26. “I was responding to the comments in this thread”

    Which one(s)? All the ones I’m seeing before yours don’t deal with her comment so much as the fact that his blase call for a lynch-mob in response to it is unbefuckinglievable.

    To clarify, what position, exactly, are you devil’s-advocating for? To which part of “Jesus fucking Christ, I can’t believe he went off on national broadcast about lynching a black woman!” do you think there might be a cogent, valid counterargument?

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  29. What is with this whole “if you ever say America is not 100% right, you must hate America” attitude? I just hope when I’m a Professor, I don’t have to teach any of the kids of these right-wingers, because I can only imagine the discipline issues their kids would have if they take this attitude toward parenting: i.e. they must molly-coddle their kids because if they love their kids, that means they can’t criticize, discipline or otherwise try to straighten up their kids?

    People always quote Carl Schurz, “my country right or wrong”. It would be good to remember the full quote: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” … n.b. “set right”. But you can’t set your country right if you believe your country never to be wrong and claim that those who admit when our country is wrong must hate America. But then again, the likes of O’Reily would just say that Schurz was one of those commie-pinko immigrants who never really liked America …

  30. I have a hard time believing O’Reilly did this unconsciously — that even racists use the term ‘lynch’ casually all the time. I actually rather wonder if he wanted a liberal firestorm against him to get him headlines.

  32. Anyone else notice the code word O’Reilly’s caller threw in there? “Militant.” As in, Michelle Obama is one of those angry “militants.”

    At least we have a little inkling of where the attack will be coming from.

  33. What is with this whole “if you ever say America is not 100% right, you must hate America” attitude?

    Don’t you know we’re at war????

    Actually, this seems to be a thing lately: they’ve criticized Obama for not wearing a flag lapel pin; they’ve stressed his ferrin’ background and upbringing in Indonesia; they’ve intimated that his mother must have been a Communist because the only interracial couples getting together in the early 60s were COMMUNISTS!!! With Michelle, it’s very hard to make a native-born black person out to be an *actual* foreigner (unlike Latin@s) because they’ve been around so long, but by damn, we can make her out to be some kinda America-hating militant Black Panther rabble-rouser!

    Hell, they even tried to get at McCain that way, claiming he couldn’t be president because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. Except for the part where it was a US military base, and IIRC a US possession at the time and his parents were US citizens, and what with his father being an admiral and all.

  34. He really said that eh? Just like he expressed shock that people at Sylivia resterant weren’t screaming Motherfucker bring me some ice tea!” Is this the 1930’s? What a f**king ignorant, racist remark.

  35. Actually, Schurz was quoting the earlier words of Stephen Decatur, a U.S. naval commander in the early 19th century. I’m sure our founding fathers would’ve recoiled in horror had they known that our armed forces had been infiltrated by an America-hating communislamofascist traitor of his nefarious ilk.

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  38. I honestly don’t even see how her comment was unpatriotic. What I love best, though, is this underlying sense I get that he doesn’t really trust that she’s in total control of her own thoughts. He could have said, “Before I judge, I’d like her to explain what she meant by that statement.” But nooooo. We are dealing with Bill O’Reilly, after all.

  39. Is he really so dense that he doesn’t know how pissed people get when the word “lynch” is just carelessly thrown around?

    No, he isn’t. Of course he isn’t. Why in God’s name would you hear something so threateningly racist and wonder if it was caused by stupidity? If O’Reilly pushes you up against the wall in an alley and brandishes a knife, are you going to wonder if he’s so “dense” he doesn’t know that might scare some people? Or will it dawn on you that just maybe, scaring you is the point?

  41. I commented elsewhere – I’d be interested to see him try this. When he tries to saunter past the Secret Service detail, noose tossed jauntily over his shoulder, I think they might have certain objections.

  42. I don’t mean to speak for sophonisba, but maybe the point was that particular scenario (in the post) is how O’Reilly intended people to feel when words like lynch get thrown around by someone with such a wide flock of sheep…ahem, audience. He was doing it deliberately to make people feel scared, which is just part in parcel of his “bully” personae.

  43. Also remember this is not the first time O’Reilly has pulled his bully tactics with the Obama campaign in particular. Remember the infamous vid of O’Reilly pushing one of Obama’s staffers? This is the guy’s mentality.

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  45. Please.

    Bill O’Reilly may not have made used the best word he could have used, given the history of the word “lynching” and its role in American history. But all of this righteous indignation is overdone. What he was actually saying is that Michelle Obama shouldn’t be tagged as an embittered, beligerent racist unless and until some hard evidence surfaces (like the alleged “whitey” tape). I think in this regard, O’Reilly was actually trying to be fair and was defending Ms. Obama, although admittedly he could have used a word like “crucify” or “condemn” instead.

    We have far too many people in this country walking around with a chip the size of a Mack Truck on their shoulder just waiting to be “offended”. Get over yourselves.

  46. Wow Dan R. I have a feeling that you are a big O’smelly fan. The point is that if he knew that she was kinda unpatriotic he would go in a lynching party to track her down. I am sick and tired of people defending this bigot. Fox news MAKING FUN of assassinating Obama! If anyone deserves a bullett in the fucking head, it’s Bill O’reilly and also the heads of Fox news!

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