Bill O'Reilly: Conservative Media Shouldn't Have Rushed To Back Cliven Bundy

Bill O'Reilly reflected on Cliven Bundy's racist comments on Thursday, suggesting that certain members of the media should have vetted the rancher more thoroughly before throwing their support behind him.

Bundy was recently involved in a government standoff in which he resisted paying government fees for allowing his cattle to graze on federal land. Sean Hannity and Fox News covered his story extensively. Bundy's incendiary comments about black people, however, prompted Hannity to speak out against the rancher.

On Thursday, O'Reilly said there was a lesson to be learned from the situation: "Be careful who you partner up with."

O'Reilly was speaking with contributor Bernie Goldberg, who complained about “all those people on the far right who turned him into a poster boy to make the case against government overreach.”

The Fox News host — who had previously compared Bundy to Occupy Wall Street protesters — said that his own show has covered the issue "accurately."

"If you are going to partner up with somebody ideologically, you gotta know who that person is," O'Reilly said.

(h/t Mediaite)