WASHINGTON - September 25 - Yesterday, Rick Sanchez, host of CNN's Out in the Open, reported that Bill O'Reilly attacked Media Matters for America for documenting racially charged comments he made on his nationally syndicated radio program, calling it a "hatchet job." The prominent conservative cable news and talk radio host is furious that Media Matters has brought his damaging statements to the public's attention yet again.

"O'Reilly's attack is hardly surprising. Without fail, his automatic response to scrutiny of his ignorant comments has been to attack the messenger," said Eric Burns, Chief Communications Strategist at Media Matters for America. "O'Reilly is enraged that Media Matters has once again shone the spotlight of public attention on his racially charged remarks, holding him accountable for his own words."

Pursuant to its mission of comprehensively monitoring and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media, Media Matters simply posted O'Reilly's comments in context. Media Matters supplied the audio of O'Reilly's statements, recorded directly from the broadcast, accompanied by the relevant section of the transcript of the program.

Media Matters documented O'Reilly's racially insensitive comments from the September 19 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly. Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, O'Reilly stated that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." O'Reilly added: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' "

In fact, this is not an isolated incident. As Media Matters has documented, O'Reilly has a history of making racially charged remarks on his radio and television programs.

Media Matters Items on O'Reilly and Race

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