NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > News > Bill O’Reilly lashes out at Jason Whitlock over racist rant - or not turning up to his Fox show

Bill O’Reilly lashes out at Jason Whitlock over racist rant - or not turning up to his Fox show

Racially charged column has Fox News pundit fuming

ANTOINETTE KELLY,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 8:08 AM

Updated Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 8:08 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

27 Comments

Bill O'Reilly appears on the Fox News show, "The O'Reilly Factor,"

Photo by Jeff Christensen/ AP

Every theater needs its props, but things can get tedious if they don't appear when needed. That's the lesson from this week's O'Reilly Factor, when the Fox News pundit lashed out at Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock who declined his invitation to appear on the show.

According to Variety, O’Reilly immediately took issue with the curt - and racially tinged - response his debate request received.

'I was summoned to testify before speaker of the house Bill O'Reilly, the Fox News entertainer,' Whitlock wrote in his calculated to offend column.

'I don’t have to shuffle off to the big house when summoned. O'Reilly is not Boehner, Pelosi or Obama. He’s a TV entertainer who has spent the weeks after the election crying about the end of the ‘white establishment’ America, the end of the days when an upstanding white man felt entitled to summon whomever he wanted whenever he wanted to the big house to dance. I don’t dance,' Whitlock wrote.

O'Reilly was incensed to hear himself described in terms reminiscent of a Southern plantation owner before the Emancipation Proclamation, but it's also likely he was equally offended by Whitlock's decision to dismiss him as 'a TV entertainer.'

Whitlock’s response was pure racism, O'Reilly said on his show. 'Whitlock implying that I am some kind of slave overlord - and he gets away with that kind of garbage, in fact, he gets paid to spout,' he added.

But critics would suggest that so does O’Reilly. Despite its offensive comparisons, Whitlock's column did make an undeniable point: O'Reilly's show often provokes conflict between the combative host and his often startled guests, and that gives O'Reilly the home team advantage because he calls the shots and can edit the exchanges.

Without the participation of guests like Whitlock, O'Reilly is forced to turn to fallbacks like Bernie Goldberg, Juan Williams and other familiar Fox faces to stand in for invited but uninterested guests.

'The O’Reilly Factor isn’t a courtroom, and there’s nothing that says its host has a God-given right to confront his critics,' Whitlock wrote. 'Moreover, if you do venture into the lion’s den, the game is rigged, since O’Reilly and his producers control every aspect of the appearance.'

O'Reilly dismissed Whitlock's racially charged rant with incredulity. 'We are living in a country that is rapidly changing. Rules of civility are pretty much finished,' O'Reilly said in his Talking Points Memo section.

O'Reilly added that people like Whitlock deserve pity, but they need to be exposed. 'They are liars and they are abusing freedom of speech,' he added.

Nster.com

E-mail

27 Comments

See all comments

AncientSeeker | Dec 25, 2012, 06:45 AM EST

It was funny seeing Bill O’Reilly lashing out at Jason Whitlock over a so called racist rant, it was dark humor, entertainment for us as well! Whitlock's response was aimed at making a bully mad enough to make a fool of himslef in public,which is a street trick. Which was really a f__k yourself you right-wing-nut gesture by Whitlock. All this because a black amereican did not want to be a target for the trap, which is what most folks think any visit to fox-fix news is on their Spin Zone torture chamber. You see O'Reilly runs with the affluent, the rich Irish here, who are obligated by bomblastic self worth to all wrap themselves in flags and religion, that would be the sign they had arrived, in their bloated, narrow minds! Where as all my Da's relatives'friends who actually worked for a living were all enlisted WWII veterans, they were teamsters, while they hated Kennedy, the old man, even my Da throught him pro-facists, but his sons Joe, John, Bobby and Ted were 100% drag-down kick-ass democrats who were loved and admired, in memory still! O'Reilly and his Irish have tarnished our dismissual of upper classes superiority for bootlicking! After the destruction of our unions here the Irish teamsters went to other proffessions, as they do not like working for pencil pushers, or anyone if they can help it. These days foreigners have corporations here that carry more weight then a plain working stiff, that is why O'Reilly caters to them, not us. That kind of dandy is always close to the money worshipers, guess that makes many seem less demanding, or too sensible.

Report abuse

Joe Kelsall | Dec 21, 2012, 08:34 PM EST

O'Reilly is a bigotted oxygen thief! People in the UK are incredulous thhat US citizens take him seriously. UK citizens use his Youtubbe videos for light entertainment. Whitlock was right not to give this ignorant bully an interview.

Report abuse

rose528 | Dec 19, 2012, 04:31 AM EST

the racist is ignorant bills not Whitlocks, a stupid old man who thinks he is important

Report abuse

CeltNYC | Dec 17, 2012, 09:09 PM EST

Seanomelb: What is your "excuse" for mass murder then? I was stating what the media, whom you appear to believe sacrosanct, reported extensively about the murderer's mental problems. As for assault rifles, I'm not too keen on them either but an Ar-15 is not classified as one. Our conversation is pretty much over as this was a horrific tragedy on Friday and this has nothing to do with Whitlock/O'Reilly.

Report abuse

seanomelb | Dec 16, 2012, 06:01 PM EST

Nothing wrong with Knife control. I use the term assault rifle because the press reports from CT said it was.It was a magazine which allowed the user to fire multiple shots and assault 26 people.'Mental health issue" what a feeble excuse for mass murder.

Report abuse

CeltNYC | Dec 16, 2012, 12:46 PM EST

Seanomelb: We need knife control too judging by the Chinese madman who just stabbed 22 children and elderly women the other day right? Also an Ar-15 is not an assault rifle so your facts are off. I am not sure what kind of gun control you want so please elaborate? The CT case was a mental health issue as well. Pretty pathetic and low tactic to blame people like me for a massacre.

Report abuse

seanomelb | Dec 14, 2012, 05:44 PM EST

And as Celtnyc ponders on gun control another 20 children wre killed by an assault rifle. The NRA are responsible for more children dying. They (NRA0 condone the ownership of assault rifles making them culpable in mass murders.

Report abuse

CeltNYC | Dec 14, 2012, 02:08 PM EST

Eiramach: Catch up with your own posts! You wrote that there are numerous cases of black teens killed by white males yet the newest Florida case is an anomaly and the older case, Zimmerman, turned out not to be a white male. FBI stats and reality prove your anti-white blood guilt on white males is fallacious. You also confuse the issue as O'Reilly was later commenting on Whitlock's reaction to his invitation to the show and not the initial anti-gun article. There is no epidemic of white males against black teens which is pure fantasy. If you really want to get into the truth about black crime in America then you would probably cry. O'Reilly is right that there is a loss of traditional America, mostly due to the anti-European 1965 Immigration Act. This is far from a positive as the white males you hate created this through the enlightenment. The current downhill trajectory of America, politically, economically, socially, is not to be celebrated. Enjoy your fantasies of those angry white males making all the trouble for women and others you classify as victims.

Report abuse

eiriamach | Dec 14, 2012, 09:54 AM EST

CeltNYC, catch up with the news. Florida's "make my day" law has reaped another black teen victim shot by a white male who admits to being angered by the teen's loud music. O'Reilly "invited" Whitlock to discuss his related rant against the NRA, so that rant is relevant to the current discussion. O'Reilly is certainly lamenting his loss of white male privilege (though with his wealth he still has plenty of privilege remaining). Read his recent statements about the loss of "traditional" America with the power of the vote shifted toward ethnic minorities and women (see Pew statistics on who elected Obama). Your insults are misdirected and groundless: I consider the current sociological and political changes we are experiencing to be an achievement of "Western culture and tradition," a ratification of the American idea, which I celebrate and certainly am not "against." O'Reilly would like equal opportunity to remain a "formal" component of American justice, in the law but not achieved in reality; I celebrate our coming closer to the "substance" of justice in finally extending equal opportunity and voting rights to all.

Report abuse

anglo-norman | Dec 13, 2012, 06:16 PM EST

Of course if O'Reilly was Liberal he would be fully Irish according to some people on this Board. I don't care too much for O'Reilly but he is right on this one. The Truth shall set you free....

Report abuse

CeltNYC | Dec 13, 2012, 06:16 PM EST

eiriamach: Shameful post. Let's start with the fact that you missed O'Reilly was referring to Whitlock's reply to his offer of appearing on his show as being anti-white and not his screed on gun control. Further you make a racist statement about "angry white men" targeting African-American teens. Where are your facts? See the FBI stats and see that it's black teens shooting black teens. In your worldview one case of the "White Hispanic" Zimmerman with Trayvon is an epidemic. From your opening sentence I am sure you didn't bother gathering the facts about that case either before spouting that drivel. It is clear from the canard about "white male privilege" that you have read some Gramscian type low brow academia and added that to your far left worldview. You write about education but you've only been indoctrinated and that's quite sad. I am sure you wouldn't be writing about "Han male privilege" if you were in China so it's good that more people are waking up to those such as yourself who are clearly against Western culture and tradition and are anti-white. Quite sad.

Report abuse

PiperMac52 | Dec 13, 2012, 05:29 PM EST

O'Reilly is right on regarding Jason Whitlock who is emblematic of what is wrong with the media these days. He has made some inane statements tying gun violence to racism etc. His views are subjective and slanted through the prism of race in every regard. Keep speaking truth to power O'Reilly.

Report abuse

McNamara31 | Dec 13, 2012, 09:22 AM EST

trconnors said it best and I feel the same. O'Reilly and Hannity are "sell outs" to all things truly Irish. They are mere puppets for their puppet masters Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch.Both will say anything and sell their souls for the big bucks and never care of the consequences.

Report abuse

eiriamach | Dec 13, 2012, 01:46 AM EST

Jason Whitlock's newsworthy "rant" was anti-gun, not anti-white guy. He compared the NRA to the KKK, with reason, considering the number of African-American teens killed here by angry white men with guns. These cases are shameful tragedies. In turning down O'Reilly's "invitation," Whitlock used another racially-charged comparison, casting O'Reilly as a slave master in 19th century America summoning his household "N" to explain himself. O'Reilly might not realize, in his nostalgia for "traditional America," that centuries of slavery in the USA are also a shameful part of our history. Whitlock is raising consciousness, probably at the price of sacrificing his own career. It's his choice to do so, and it's a classic use of free speech. You may not like the comparison he used for O'Reilly, but it hit the mark. O'Reilly's lamentations over the demise of "traditional America" are undeniably code for loss of white male privilege. Antoinette Kelly should have placed the words "racist rant" in scare quotes in her title. O'Reilly's calling it a "racist rant" certainly does not make it a "racist rant"; it was a rant against O'Reilly's racism. More's the pity it won't educate Bill O'R.

Report abuse

Nicomax | Dec 13, 2012, 12:45 AM EST

Billo and his crowd can't seem to understand that when you force people to come to your country and labor for free, save getting room and board only enough to keep you alive and working, those descending from these slaves still hold a grudge. Plus, the woeful Jim Crow era only aggravated these feelings even though they were declared emancipated.

Report abuse