Conservatives Bill O’Reilly and Bernard Goldberg were on Fox News jumping all over the black people while slamming Michael Jackson (after his death) … it was kind of an all-you-can-eat buffet of hate for the two men. News Hounds has documented so much of the angry comments from Goldberg (nothing like a clearly-biased media critic) including defending Rep. Peter King’s reprehensible comments, bringing up the unproven child molestation charges against Michael Jackson to invoking the name O.J. Simpson to smear black people, in general, and Michael Jackson, specifically.
Here is one excerpt from the News Hounds blog:
Then Goldberg added, “What makes this thing with Michael Jackson so sad… is that it’s not enough for the elites to simply… honor him as a great American entertainer. They have to make him a black hero.”
So what, exactly is wrong with that? And what gives Goldberg the right to decide who should be a hero for anyone else? Sure, there are very troubling aspects of Michael Jackson’s life, especially in his later years, but over his 40+ year career, there was lots to admire. It wasn’t just African Americans who thought so. Who could listen to Brooke Shields’ heartfelt eulogy and not feel that there was plenty to love in Jackson’s character?
On the other hand, Goldberg, who, unlike Shields, did not seem to know Jackson, sneered, “A black hero of a man who bleached his skin to the point that at the end he was as white as you and me? It’s one thing to honor him as an entertainer. But as a civil rights hero? That just strikes me as ridiculous.” The truth is, Jackson wassomething of a civil rights here. As Rev. Al Sharpton explained, Jackson fans “grew up from being teenage comfortable fans of Michael to being 40 years old and being comfortable to vote for a person of color to be the president of the United States of America.” Also, Jackson broke an extremely important color barrier when his videos were played on MTV.
But “fair and balanced” O’Reilly did not point out those positive aspects of Jackson’s career. Instead, he allowed Goldberg to further and gratuitously malign the black community as he said, “Then again, to many black people, if you remember the reaction after he was acquitted, O.J. Simpson was a hero.”
“Here’s the sad part, Bill. Race in this country is the wound that never seems to heal,” Goldberg added. Yeah, and we can guess at whose feet Goldberg lays most of the blame.
The anger coming from Goldberg is the elephant in the room.
Here are a few takes I will leave you with:
I doubt many people are thinking of Rep. King as racist. He may or may not be racist, but he clearly is a crass jackass with little class.
Lastly, I will leave you with this from the same News Hounds blog:
Palin was, in fact, up next in the discussion. But unlike Jackson, Palin’s bizarre behavior was not to be mentioned, much less criticized. O’Reilly complained about “the glee” that CNN’s Rick Sanchez, whom he referred to as “that clown,” supposedly exhibited by asking reporter Candy Crowley whether Palin might have resigned from the governorship because she’s pregnant again. Maybe I missed it but I didn’t see any glee from Sanchez. But whatever it was, it paled in comparison to the kinds of attacks on Jackson made by Goldberg and O’Reilly right on that very show.
“You don’t have to express every thought that pops into your head and certainly not on national television,” Goldberg said, by way of “friendly advice” to Sanchez. Goldberg then ran through his list of “legitimate” kinds of speculation over Palin’s resignation: whether she quit to run for president or to make money in the private sector. “But it is not legitimate speculation to wonder out loud… if she’s pregnant.”
The reason I am citing this is because it is classic O’Reilly. Notice he singled out Rick Sanchez of CNN? In classic O’Reilly fashion, if you call him out he will use his platform to get you back at some point (if not repeatedly). If you recall, Sanchez lit into O’Reilly for lying about CNN’s coverage of the death of Pvt. William Long. Even when O’Reilly apologized for his falsehood he attacked Sanchez and is back on the attack again.
This was another case of paybacks from O’Reilly, who again abuses his Fox News platform to wage his personal battles against many who dare criticize him.
