Olbermann Slams O'Reilly For "Lynching Party" Remark

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.

Watch:

Comments

[spankyee]

imus was fired because of his comments, thanx to al sharpton, well where is he now, why has he been silent re: the lynching remark by o'reilly, i believe that is worst than what imus said, especially since bush had remarked about the word the day before???????

[JanSP1971]

So.... is Fox going to do something about O'Reilly? I dought it, when is enough enough of folks like O'Reilly. He is one of the biggest problems in our country. ENOUGH OF O'REILLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sansego2000]

People that watch OReilly are the same people that watch reality shows, hockey games to hope to see a fight and go to races to hope to see a crash. Oreilly has nothing about the real issue it is just the dirt that he creates that people love.

[unclesmedley]

Geeez...

I kinda like Olberman and I really dislike O'Reilly, but this is nothing more than chickenshit, gotcha histrionics. Olbie's reaction to this little bit of thoughtless blather suggests a 911 redux. It ain't.

It was a poor choice of words--piss poor--but, to borrow a line from Bill Murray in Quick Change: He didn't irradiate anybody.

[ljsfolly]

OK for you who don't remember what a lynch mob was it was a group of out of control people who thought they could solve all of their problems by hanging someone of color. Never did see too many white folk hanging from those trees now did you? I only have seen videos/pictures and heard stories of hanging the black folks most for no reason other than their color. Now jump ahead to 2008. We have people with freakin guns going into schools/workplaces/malls and just killing people at randon for whatever their messed up brains tell them to do these horrid act for. Bill O has some fairly messed up people who listen to him and they take him seriously. Those of you who think this is a joke or don't take this as serious as you might if Billo said I'm going to go buy a couple of guns and shoot them dead, just because his brain is wired wrong and he doesn't see things clearly. He just thinks his distortion and insane thoughts are real and he has his following. I see this far beyond your joke or just talking. I see it as if he did say go get a rope and hang her for what she said. I see this as an open threat to Michelle Obama. If everyone didn't see BillO as a nutcase and the secret service who are protecting her have to now watch out for those nuts who will take BillO's word and whip themselves up and do something.

[SunCa]

This is racism in it's purest form. I don't think that it matters whether you are a Clinton or Obama supporter. These type of remarks are beyond decency. You know that O'Reilly knew vey well what he was saying. There is a history of lynching blacks in the South and he played on that. Extraordinarily disgusting. In my view, O'Reilly is lower than a snake.

[sansego2000]

There are two things about this comment OReilly made. Either OReilly knows what he is doing and is just a racist punk or he is just that stupid and ignorant to understand what he said. Either way the guy is too much of a moron to be on a supposed news show.

[jfh]

But Olberman thought it was OK for his buddy Shuster to say Senator Clinton was pimping her daughter.

Olberman can not have it both ways.

[CaseyBabes]

Olberman is locked into a goin' nowhere with a nowhere network so to get some sort of attention he slams cable's #1 -- O'Reilly. Face it, his shtick works for some odd reason as NBC puts him on air between football halves to slam players. He ain't funny there, either.

[indycar]

I guess that's why FOX NEWS tried to hire him, huh??

[nanotubz]

Bad analogy. College republican failing English, logic or both?

[ClaudiaJean]

You have your facts wrong, sir. Olbermann aplogized on air on behalf of his network.

[StephenJK]

Yeah, Olberman and the love-in of Obama lacks any inkling of critical thinking. Well, in the GE they will have to face the music. Then they'll sound shrill when they complain "NO FAIR!"

[Candace8383]

He didn’t
He in fact apologized for the remarks

[JackWOrf]

When DOESN'T Keith Olbermann slam O'Reilly? Olbermann bashes O'Reilly at least 10 times a night, every night, frequently labelling him as the "world's worst person".

I used to be a big Olbermann fan, but he's getting a bit tiresome. Lately he bashes Hillary every night and just heaps praise on Wonderboy, the master plagiarizer. And his wonderful wife, who is so deeply proud of everything that America stands for. Ha ha.

O'Reilly was just using a figure of speech which could just as well have been used against a white person.

Really. I get disgusted by all of this politically correct FASCISM.

Actually, I am still FURIOUS that those gutless chickenshirts fired Imus. I NEVER found Imus to be racist, and I used to listen to him every morning.

Now we have to watch Joe Scarborough. Is that supposed to be an IMPROVEMENT over Imus? Is Joe Scarborough less "racist" than Imus? I NEVER heard Imus say anything racist, and quite frankly, I think that the nappy headed ho or hole or whore or wahtever was VASTLY overdone and an act of pure politically correct FASCISM.

Speaking of FASCISM, I'm still waiting for Mr. Wonderful Obama to call for a REVOTE in Florida and Michigan. Doesn't Mr. Wonderful believe so much in democracy?

Apparently Mr. Wonderful Obama only believes in the democratic process when it serves his purposes. The rest of the time FASCISM is fine with him. Obama has no problem FASCISTICALLY DISENFRANCHISING FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN.

So hey, Keith, how about pushing for a REVOTE in FL and MI, if you love Democracy so much. Is there ANYBODY left in this country who CARES about DEMOCRACY?

Time for a REVOTE in FL and MI, that COUNTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[primordialsoup]

FL and MI were aware of what would happen if they moved up their primaries. They broke the rules and they payed. Clear enough?

O'Reilly is a hate monger. Olbermann calls O'Reilly on his crap. Olbermann backs up everything that he says.

Michelle Obama didn't say anything about not being proud of what America stands for. Get your story straight.

[fuzzwald]

FASCISM???? You dont' know from FASCISM! I'll show you FASCISM!

--Adolph H.

[Candace8383]

Bill gets bashed because someone has to. He, Billyboy, is a liar and a fool and for years no one would say so.If Keith says it a thousand times he wont catch up to all the stupid things Billo says. So have at it Keith i enjoy everything you do

[preemptivelove]

re:
O'Reilly was just using a figure of speech which could just as well have been used against a white person.

Really. I get disgusted by all of this politically correct FASCISM.

*********

"lyching party" isn't a figure of speech.it's hate speech. it means only one thing. and he could have said dozens of other things to get a different point accross. the fact that he used this term, when speaking about a black woman whose husband is going to be the next president of the united states, was meant to mean only one thing. it was meant to intimidate and villify the obamas, and it was meant to justify hatred towards them and possible violence towards them. the fact that you don't find this a big deal only makes you look bad.

the term would not have the same meaning if used when speaking about a white person. this term, lynching party, means nothing to white people because white people weren't ritually lynched with impunity in this country. read a book or something. turn off your tv. you're obviously not learning anything helpful.

politically correct fascism???????? hahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahhaahhahaaha!!!!!!!!!!!

[choderson]

Keith Olbermann is your hero? Really? You might want to set the bar a tad higher. Johnny Knoxville has more insight than Keith Olbermann. Olbermann HAS to be the most disingenous punk on the tube (I watched it that night his audience lept from 526 people to 527). He's laughable. Look at Russert. Look at Brokaw. They look like they are going to puke every time this joke opens his cancer-ridden mouth when they are forced to share camera time with the Letterman wannabe.

[indycar]

you saw all that the ONE time you watched?

[thomdavis1]

Olbermann has the best show on TV---he is my hero.
bill-o is a criminal and not only does he need to be fired, he needs to be arrested for committing a hate crime.

[edwardjkd]

You have got to be kidding Olbermann having the best show on t.v.??? that's laughable and a losing cause in trying to debate it. Olbermann should stick to sports which he isn't very good at either. He's a joke in the political world and that is why his show lacks credibility and is falling in the ratings. Best show on t.v. give me a break!!!! hahahaha

[BOfever]

What hate crime would fall under an arrestable offense? Care to share with us?

[Kordo]

Dear Mr. O'Reilly,

My name is Shaun Dudley. I was born in Tampa, FL, where I still live, and I'm 34 years old. My mother was born in Nashville, TN, my father in Atlanta, GA. I'm a southern white male who's voting for Barack Obama. My ancestors on my father's side were slave-owners ( my mother's family would have been as well had they been able to afford more than the clothes on their backs, and the dirt-patch they farmed). I offer these biographical details so that you will understand that for me the subjects of racism in general, and "lynching" in particular, are not abstract political concepts. They are very real, very shameful aspects of my heritage. Anacronistic as it may seem to you, sir, where I come from, Family is more than the small circle of relatives you see everyday, at Christmastime or at birthdays. Family is every man and woman who came before you, as far back as you can remember, or record. Their struggles and sacrifices and triumphs are the reason we are here today. Family is every man or woman who will come after us, forever. I am not ashamed of my roots. I take a great deal of pride in my family's history. I know that the word Honor is another anacronism, maligned and misunderstood these days as either a politician's "buzz" word, or the rhetorical refuge of thuggish cowards who's political and financial fortunes depend on them being seen as Great Warriors for Civilization. It is neither. Honor, I beleive, is at it's heart what Dr. King called the "content of your character". I'm a poor writer, but I want you to know, sir, how strongly I feel about this, so that you will understand when I say that Honor is not simply blind reverence for the attitudes of the past. It is not simply ignorant triumphalism, or self-aggrandizing revisionist history. It is the living, breathing expression of my family's highest ideals. My family, my children, will carry this stain on our honor for all time. Long after racism is dead and buried, long after Mankind has forgotten that such a crime was ever committed in this country, my family will live with the knowledge that, at that point in our history, and despite all our loud cries of "freedom" and "justice", someone named Dudley kept other human beings as slaves. I don't know if I can fully convey to you the magnitude of that. Now, I don't intend to spend my life in sackcloth and ashes, flagellating myself for an atrocity I had no hand in. Nor do I intend to shirk the truth, and call atrocity by any other name. To my great sadness, I cannot change the past. However, with the clear guide of my family's example (and the help of a few million friends :), I can change the future. Your 15 minutes are up, Mr. O'Reilly. You and your ilk are already in history's dustbin. That you haven't the wit to realize it simply illustrates your uselessness to the American Experiment. You have no Honor.

-Shaun Dudley

[PerryWhite]

Obama's ancestors were slave owners, too.

[BlackWidowPilot]

PW,

and?

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[TheRealMacDaddy]

Young man you are NOT a poor writer. I very well could have written exactly what you have as our backgrounds seem to be so similar. Only not as elegantly.

I am older, 52, I live in Clearwater, Florida (Florida has been my home for all my life except the 20 years I spent in the Army) and my father was born and raised in Homerville, GA. I too support Sen. Obama for the Presidency. Our country needs to move FORWARD, not remain in the same place or to devolve into times gone by.

Thank you for a great posting.

[CindyKay]

Very Well Said.

[ttog]

Mr. Shaun Dudley.
Your post is offensive and disgraceful.
Whether you know it or not, you are in fact FLAGELLATING yourself. It's a good thing most Americans don't share your pathetic and shameful opinion of the history of the white people in this country. YES, we can all agree that having slaves was HORRIBLY ATROCIOUS, but your own comments fully prove how misguided and ignorant you really are.
You acknowledge that there will come a time when racism is dead and buried, yet your family will always be labled and have to live with the guilt that, at one time, you were slave owners. HOW PATHETIC.
With all due respect, you are a perfect example of what is wrong with this country.
You accuse O'Reilly of being racist for making a lynching comment which he has used MANY times when referring to white people, yet you yourself admit to having a family who has owned slaves.
You know NOTHING about O'Reilly and whether he is racist or not, you are just taking out your own GUILT and SELF-LOATHING on a man you know nothing about. And how sad that a man like you whines about the guilt of prior generations of your family having slaves.
THat was a different time. ALL of us have family members from prior generations that have done HORRIBLE things. I"M of German Heritage. Should I feel guilty and responsible for the millions of Jews that the Germans killed? How about the Japanese and the tens of millions of Chinese they killed.
Do you actually think it's normal and even responsible for all of us to look back in our heritage and feel guilty and responsible for something that they did wrong back then, even when it was socially acceptable at the time?
How ridiculous you sound.
I"m proud to say I accept NO responsibility for the actions of people I did not help bring into this world.
Based on your comments, shouldn't native Africans accept responsibility for participating (then and NOW) in the slave trade. Shouldn't the parents of black criminals accept responsiblility for the actions of their kids, or does your GUILT cloud your logic? I could go on and on.
If you don't see how ridiculous your comments are after reading my post, you are beyond help.

With all due respect, your thought process here is dangerous and irresponsible. It also does NOTHING to help you or this country.
If you feel so terrible about it, why don't you insititue your own reperations payments to the black race. You can give it to the poorest black families in whatever town where your family owned slaves.
It's very disconcerting to know (while there are only a few) that there are people who think like you do out there. I"m ashamed of you, being a fellow American.

[BlackWidowPilot]

ttog,

it is you who are mistaken, it is you who is wrong, as your most specious rhetoric so shows.

Your inability to identify with the sufferings of others is apparent to Ray Charles (a deceased blind man). Your hero O'Liar is a staunch defender of the despicable, degenerate "Gang of Pedophiles" that Senator Obama and honest American patriots like Mr. Dudley and Mr. Ranft are fighting against.

Here's part of the record of the party of the Busheviks you and O'Liar so staunchly defend:

http://www.armchairsubversive.org/

The only thing you have to be ashamed of, ttog, is yourself.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Kordo]

"Do you actually think it's normal and even responsible for all of us to look back in our heritage and feel guilty and responsible for something that they did wrong back then..."

I'm sorry you misunderstood. I said nothing about Guilt, or Responsibility, for the simple reason that I feel neither. But if I take pride in my family's courage & principles, as I do, then it seems to me fundamentally dishonest not to acknowledge their mistakes. I doubt we'll see this the same way.....

cool post, tho. "pathetic", "dangerous", and "irresponsible". TRIFECTA, BA-BY! W00T!!!

[edwardjkd]

very touching Shaun, but you too drink out of the kool-aid jar. Get over yourself and look at the context of what Mr O said and not just what you want to hear.

[stanjz]

Bill O'Reilly and the people who make excuses for him will have to answer to their maker. Bill O'Reilly is always defending Christmas so here are a few words from Christ for you.

" And I tell you must give account on Judgment Day for every idle word you speak. Your words now, refelct your fate then; either you will be justified or condemned! Mth 12:36,37

[OneLiberalLady]

The more egregious conduct of O'Reilly was perhaps not in the lynching remark, hard as that is to believe. It was in allowing the unnamed caller to continue speaking after she bluntly stated that O'Reilly's own producer, who had presumably heard her proffered information, had advised her not to bring up the topic. And then she went on to sling rumors about what an unnamed friend of hers had observed about Michelle Obama.
Now THAT was unquestionably poor journalism on O'Reilly's part. He should never have let the caller continue after it was clear that his own producer considered the material unacceptable.

[johnnyjust]

Poor Keith...he always looks so 'limp' when talking about O'Reilly. Isn't it amazing that his "Worst People in the World" bit seems to always focus on conservative talk show hosts with bigger ratings than his. Still trying to compensate.

[arvada]

they seem to focus on the worst people in the world

[StephenJK]

They are the only deserving targets of that title.

LOL

[Waitaminute]

All the conservative (racist) talk show host share the same dumb racist viewers and listeners. Liberals have many other interest.

[frappe]

Liberal and conservative media apparently live by two distinct standards. Had the same remark been made by a so-called liberal media personality, the entire media apparatus would be in a tizzy, screaming for the offender's head and I am sure he would be fired from his public position within a very short period of time. But when a conservative commentator makes an outrageous remark, the very same media seems to just let it pass, like a gentle breeze on a summer's night.

Yes, we have two standards in America when it comes to "political correctness". First, liberal commentators are held to a very high standard. Then we have our so-called conservative commentators (Bull O'Really, Rush Lamebrain, Sean Insanity) who appear to be held to a much, much, much lower standard.

In one case, we see a left-leaning commentator, David Shuster, crucified and dragged through the coals for several days on the air for his slip-of-the-tongue "pimping" remark. Within 24 hours, he profusely apologizes for his insensitive remark.

Then we have the other side of the coin -- the dark side -- where Bullshit O'Really explicitly and knowingly uses the word "lynching" when speaking about a black American, Michelle Obama. This is absolutely outrageous and O'Really should be dragged through the coals of public embarrassment to a far, far greater degree than David Shuster had to endure for his petty remark. Instead, we hear barely a sound. The only media personality who publicly commented on the remark was Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. Did anyone else hear any criticism from other quarters? I surely didn't.

Why the two standards? Shameful.

[Advocate123]

Bill Maher can say whatever he wants whenever he wants.

Keith Olbermann also made terrible comments about the President, and he is supposed to be the NEWS man on MSNBC. It is about time that he just come out and say that he delivers commentary from a liberal prospective.

[Waitaminute]

No, i haven't heard a word.