Bill O'Reilly doesn't seem to realize that racism isn't that terribly funny to most people living outside of the Fox bubble. As we discussed here last week, O'Reilly's henchman, Jesse Watters thought it would be terribly funny to go out and do some man-on-the-street interviews in New York's Chinatown, mocking Asian Americans and making it look like they're all illiterate, uneducated idiots with a bunch of highly edited video clips they threw together.
O'Reilly was asked about the dust up over the segment on this weekend's Fox News Sunday by host Chris Wallace, and what was his response? Blame liberals and pretend that those on the left were the only ones who found this sort of thing offensive, of course:
WALLACE: Speaking of bias, you and your show is getting hammered right now for Jesse Watters and the piece he did on Chinatown. Let’s show a clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSE WATTERS: Am I supposed to bow to say hello?
(INAUDIBLE)
WATTERS: I like these watches. Are they hot?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Now, you know this piece is being widely criticized as, quote, "racist".
O’REILLY: Do you want me to give you the accurate report?
WALLACE: Well, do you think it was over the line? Do you regret it?
O’REILLY: I would have edited it a little bit differently than it was edited. No, it wasn't over the line.
We ran that piece on Monday of last week, OK? Five million people plus saw it live. You know how many negative letters we got? Less than ten. You know how many phone calls came in to Fox News? Zero, as far as I know. We checked, OK?
It was 36 hours later that this outrage appeared. And where did it appear? Far left websites, far left (INAUDIBLE). I read every single one. They're all the same.
So, this is an attack on Fox News. That's what it is. It's happened before. I thought it was a gentle piece.
There were a few things in there I felt were over the line. The little old lady, I would have taken that out. I should have seen it before, but I’m so busy with the election that I didn't.
But Watters is a gentle satirist. He’s worked very well for us. And we're proud of him. This is an organized campaign. This is what they do. They've done it before.
Trump should hire Bill-O and Watters as his new advisers on Asian American outreach. They'd fit in perfectly with the rest of his campaign.
And as Priscilla at News Hounds discussed, the criticism of the segment was not only from the "far left" but a wide range of groups as well, and there were protests held right outside of Fox News. Don't expect the viewers on Fox to ever hear about that though.
