Home
Archive
Columnists
Video
Blogs
Discuss
About
Search
Donate
Advertise
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Register to Vote: Rock the Vote, powered by Working Assets Wireless
Advertisement
  • AlterNetYour turn

Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.


Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.

Olbermann Slams O'Reilly's Michelle Obama/"Lynching Party" Remark [VIDEO]

Posted by Adam Howard, AlterNet at 12:32 PM on February 21, 2008.


In an ironic twist, Olbermann used the words of President Bush to excoriate O'Reilly's insensitive remark.
Olbermann Slams O'Reilly Lynching Party Remark

Share and save this post:
Digg iconDelicious iconReddit iconFark iconYahoo! iconNewsvine! iconFacebook iconNewsTrust icon

Got a tip for a post?:
Email us | Anonymous form

Get Video in your
mailbox!

 

UPDATE: On Thursday night Bill O'Reilly offered a smug, half assed apology (would he offer any other kind?) for his remarks about Michelle Obama. Of course, instead of calling them what they were---racially offensive and insensitive, O'Reilly gives himself a pass by saying he was merely using a term Clarence Thomas once used (when he said he was the victim of a high-tech lynching" on 60 Minutes). Ughhh...once again we have another version of the Don Imus excuse: "a Black guy said it first!"

*****

Last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann slammed Bill O'Reilly for saying on his radio show, "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence." In an ironic twist, Olbermann used the words of President Bush — who just last week said, "Some Americans do not understand the effect that references to nooses and lynching can still have" — to excoriate O'Reilly's insensitive remark. Check out the video to your right for more.

Digg!

Tagged as: o'reilly, racism, olbermann, radio, lynching, michelle obama, robinson

Adam Howard is the editor of PEEK.


Lies in the War on Marijuana
Marijuana Policy Project shoots down claims by the Drug Free America Foundation.
Post by ZP Heller. October 13, 2008.
Rachel Maddow on Leno: Politics, Palin, and Pat Buchanan
From Maddow's first appearance on "The Tonight Show."
Post by Staff. October 13, 2008.
Hockey Mom Sarah Palin Booed — at Hockey Game
From the "Who didn't see that coming?" department.
Post by ZP Heller. October 12, 2008.

Comments Turn comments off sitewide Give us feedback »
Comments closed.
The comments for this story have been closed. Thank you to everyone who participated.
View:
WE SHOULDN'T BUY INTO THIS
Posted by: VZEQICVA on Feb 21, 2008 1:48 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The media is hand crafting a race problem where there is none. O'Reilly at the center of it tells it all. I'm surprised that Keith Olbermann is reduced to playing this game. Michelle Obama is more than capable of handling herself. And Bush, as usual should just shut up. The problem is that the voters are in charge of this election and the overpaid media people don't like it. We're taking back our country. Thank,s ANNA

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» Enough is Enough! Posted by: foreverhope
» RE: nough is Enough! Posted by: Lauren
» RE: nough is Enough! Posted by: Lauren
» RE: Who is buying into what? Posted by: jimidee
» It is never too late Posted by: foreverhope
» Don't Pile on Anna please Posted by: foreverhope
Michelle Obama is RIGHT!
Posted by: Ellie1 on Feb 21, 2008 2:50 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
For the past 7+ years, this HAS been a bad, flawed nation. Anyone who denies this is an idiot. An angry woman? DAMN RIGHT!!! If you aren't angry, you haven't been paying attention. I am mad as hell, and have not saluted the flag of this flawed nation for as long as BUshit has been commander-in-thief. And I will not until January 20, 2009. Hooray for Mrs. Obama, she will make an aware, honest first lady-unlike the Repuke first ladies who only know two words-YES DEAR. As for Bill O'Lielly, anyone who has ANY regard for him or his network is a complete fool.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» Patriotism Is About Love Not Pride Posted by: foreverhope
Idiotic Mainstream America
Posted by: Cathyc on Feb 21, 2008 3:34 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
George W. Bush and Bill O'Reilly et al -AND- Keith Olberman are nothing but idiots.

Q: WHY does Olbermann feel the need to talk so fast? Is he on cocaine?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

right for the wrong reasons
Posted by: improperly_sedated on Feb 21, 2008 3:36 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
O'Reilly is racist as all hell. That visit to the restaurant revealed that better than anything. ("Goodness gracious! Black people behaving politely in a fancy restaurant! Using forks and not cursing! Who could ever have imagined such a thing was possible?!")

This comment though, as poor a choice of words as it may be, sounds more like it comes from normal current usage. People use the word "lynching" in all sorts of ways, and although they are expected to remember where the word came from and change their language when talking about a black person, sometimes that kind of selective self censorship just breaks down. It's not like the "n" word: there hasn't been a big campaign to delete it from the language.

So while we could spend all day compiling quotes that demonstrate how much of a racist Bill O'Reilly is (that could be amusing!) I don't think this one quite makes the cut.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» Irish Catholics are NOT racists Posted by: foreverhope
» RE: O'Really? Posted by: jimidee
» RE: How do you know? Posted by: jimidee
» RE: How do you know? Posted by: Lauren
WTF???
Posted by: zizizzi on Feb 21, 2008 4:24 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
WTF??? She doesnt deserve to be lynched unless...

O'Reily should be strung up by his testicles.

Is it just me or did dubya seem intoxicated in this video?
It sounded like his speech was slurred.

I think he must have been, to be able to say what he said...

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: WTF??? Posted by: foreverhope
» RE: WTF??? Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN
So I can't accuse your run of the mill idiot of going on a witch hunt anymore...
Posted by: ABetterFuture on Feb 21, 2008 10:05 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...because it might offend the witches in the states?

WTF ever.

Language used to have meaning. It has been perverted to the whims of a shrill few.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Bill O' would do well to study history,
Posted by: bitsfick on Feb 22, 2008 2:44 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
when my father was a young man, not all that many years ago, the help wanted columns routinely said Irish need not apply. The so called Irish potato famine was not caused so much by the failure of the potato crop as much as the British government taking the crops that did survive by gun point sending them to England, leaving the Irish to starve. The English have he same opinion of the Irish as Bill O' has of blacks. As to the remark that all Irish Catholics are racist, I don't know that that is true, but all the Irish Catholics that I know are virulent racists.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» IRISH CATHOLICS ARE NOT RACISTS! Posted by: foreverhope
Evidence and lynching
Posted by: QCao009 on Feb 22, 2008 4:30 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The fact that Spin O"Reilly can use the same two words in a sentence and link them in his twisted mind shows us just how low we have sunk in ceding to the Bushies their standard of what morality and decency is.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Shill O’Wrongly plays the Race Card.
Posted by: williameon on Feb 22, 2008 5:48 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is he a card carrying Racist Nazi Fascist Pig?
Or
Just a Dogma Spewing Prostitute?
Both!
Guilty as charged!

Divide and conquer.
Separate the Largest Group of people in this Country
Two Hundred and Ninety Nine point Nine Million People(The POOR & Middle Class) into tiny powerless Groups.
How do you do it?
Use the most advanced Conditioning/Programming techniques available.
Repetitive Hypnotic, Conscious and Subliminal Propaganda.
Blast it out of every form of media at once.
In unison.
On message.
Direct from Minister Rovian at Propaganda Central.
Agitate them.
Get the Citizenry to fight amongst themselves.
Blame everything on some defenseless, powerless scapegoat
And
By Lying.
Spy on your opponent so you know everything he is doing.
Make his money worthless by hyper inflating the economy.
Sound Familiar?
Focusing their attention on anything but, The Truth?
There are millions of different ways to do it and they are using them all.
With all the time and resources in the World.

Dredge up Racist Toxic Waste and spew it all over The Cor‘pirate’ Contrived Media.

Shill O'Wrongly is a Gas Bag.
Shut him off.
Never mention him again.

Is this is the best they have to offer?
Prostitutes?
Gas Bags?
Operatives?
Mercenaries?
and
Assassins?

Your Tax dollars at work.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Jealous of O'Reilly's ratings?
Posted by: KAEL on Feb 22, 2008 5:53 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I don't watch any of you, but there is nothing in this exchange that pertains to racism. If Obama doesn't come out in favor of O'Reilly on this, he's lost my vote. Even your intro text talks of insensitive, which it was. But your exchange goes way beyond that. It can only be intended to take out O'Reilly. Stop wasting our time.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: But who asked YOU? Posted by: jimidee
» RE: But who asked YOU? Posted by: Quannah
bigtime
Posted by: pnut on Feb 22, 2008 6:35 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Orilley gets his support from fox news and the republican big wigs, I do not know one sane person that likes orilley, if NBC backed Keith like fox backs orilley and us democrats would back Keith then we would have one great news man on our side. all we hear on fox is how smart orilley is I for one am tird of the bull --it, NBC get with it put Keith out front where he should be. BillDavidson

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: bigtime Posted by: Quannah
Kelev
Posted by: Kelev on Feb 23, 2008 7:50 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Keith Olbermann is the biggest jerk, the latest jerk, who is paid to blast his hate-filled narrative, with obvious nervous rage-induced "ticks" and facial expressions. Keith Olbermann, the Worst Person on Earth in my opinion as well as millions of others. Accusing Bill O of hate or racial slurs - we endure Olbermann's slurs aimed at anything/anyone who doesn't share his dark values and views - everytime we are unfortunate enough to misplace our remote.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Kelev Posted by: Quannah