O'Reilly's Take On Harlem Eatery Stirs Pot

(CBS)  By CBSNews.com's Brian Montopoli

---

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has raised some eyebrows by saying his experience at Sylvia's, a famous Harlem restaurant, was "exactly the same" as any other restaurant in New York City, "even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship."

O'Reilly also said: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' "

O'Reilly talked about his visit to Sylvia's last week on "The Radio Factor," his syndicated radio program. ("The Radio Factor" is distributed by Westwood One, which is managed by CBS Radio.)

"You know, I mean, everybody was -- it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all," O'Reilly said.

Media Matters For America, a liberal media watchdog organization, first reported the comments. Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Media Matters, told The Associated Press that O'Reilly's comments were "ignorant and racially charged."

On the Sept. 25 edition of "The O'Reilly Factor," his Fox News program, O'Reilly addressed the issue.

"Media Matters distorted the entire conversation and implied I was racist for condemning racism," he said.

O'Reilly added: "If a slime machine like Media Matters can get its far-left propaganda on CNN and NBC News, the nation is in trouble."

Bill Shine, senior V.P. of programming for Fox News, said discussion of O'Reilly's comments constitutes "nothing more than left-wing outlets stirring up false racism accusations for ratings. It's sad."

O'Reilly made the comments as part of a discussion of a dinner he shared with the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Sharpton spokesperson, Rachel Noerdlinger, said in an e-mail that Sharpton "was surprised that anyone would be surprised that blacks would act that way." She said Sharpton planned to ask O'Reilly onto his radio show Wednesday to discuss the issue.

Added Noerdlinger: "Nothing Mr. O'Reilly said at the dinner itself was offensive, according to Rev. Sharpton."

As part of his comments, O'Reilly said, "Black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves. They're getting away from the Sharptons and the Jacksons and the people trying to lead them into a race-based culture."

O'Reilly contrasted his experience at the restaurant with the image "white America" has of a black culture "dominated by Twista, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg."

[colonieny]

How super sensitive you guys are ! OOhhhh.

Come on do something important.

[adasher1]

Come on peeps....although O''Reilly is NORMALLY wrong, he did nothing wrong here.

[gmann401]

I think O''reilly thought he was at a restaurant similar to the one he was at in 2004 when reportadly obscene things were said and phone were solicited. But he was in fact at Sylvia''s a place of class where he just didnt fit in.

[socrates392]

socrates392 = frustrated queer

Posted by screen_ident at 07:47 PM : Sep 26, 2007

I love you too, screen ident! XOXOXOXOXOXO

[name_verify]

socrates392 = frustrated queer

[socrates392]

"Halleluja. Another white guy just figured out that black people are...people. I wonder how many of them are left? Posted by donkeyfarm00

DANG - another black guy just fell into that assumption that all white guys are prejudice!

Posted by speakinup at 07:10 PM : Sep 26, 2007

I don''t want to speak for donkeyfarm00, but I don''t think he ever insinuated that all white people were racist . . . just some. And considering Bill O''s comments, he''s clearly right.

[name_verify]

If some guy passed gas, but picked up the bill, then maybe ya got to ignore it.

[socrates392]

Nope, Oprah is very much behind Obama,and they are both from Chicago so why wouldn''''t they go to lunch. See you are the idiot, and do not put questions or your narrow mind ideas into my words.

Posted by starleo146 at 07:03 PM : Sep 26, 2007

Sorry, I assumed you were one of screen ids chums. You should also watch what you say because I doubt I was the only one who misconstrued your words.

[speakinup]

"Halleluja. Another white guy just figured out that black people are...people. I wonder how many of them are left? Posted by donkeyfarm00

DANG - another black guy just fell into that assumption that all white guys are prejudice!

[speakinup]

jaeidiaz - duplicates happen when you hit the enter key multipe times before your text is gone. Typically, we get sucked into doing this because we get frustrated because our PC appears to be locked up.

Then, some of us like to hit the enter key real fast so we CAN get duplicates. But, unlike you, they don''t apologize.