Instead of just acknowledging his upbeat comments about slavery were ill-chosen as a commentary about Michelle Obama’s DNC speech, Bill O’Reilly viciously attacked liberal critics as potential murderers who must be stopped. Of course, his years of demonizing Dr. George Tiller, which preceded his assassination, were entirely different. 

In case you missed it, O’Reilly felt the need to add on to Michelle Obama’s powerful speech at the Democratic National Convention in which she referenced our nation’s progress by saying she has watched her daughters play on the White House lawn from a house built by slaves. O’Reilly was moved to make what he called her “positive comment” a little more positive with some additional history in which he thought it important to note, “Slaves that worked there were well-fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government, which stopped hiring slave labor in 1802.”

As I wrote in my post, whether O’Reilly meant it that way or not, the implication was, “Blacks didn’t have it so bad as they want you to think.” It was also a suggestion that Obama had been undeservedly playing the victim. Even though she was not lamenting how bad slavery was but rejoicing in how far our nation has come. 

Talk about projection! Last night, O’Reilly spent the opening 12 minutes of his show whining and gnashing his teeth about his own plight at the hands of “far-left media deceivers designed to inhibit honest news coverage of the presidential campaign.”

In his Talking Points Commentary, O’Reilly complained he was “attacked by smear merchants” for his “100 percent accurate” remarks that provided “context to Mrs. Obama’s remarks and explaining how the administration of George Washington conducted itself in the construction of the executive mansion. Is not that important to know? Come on.”

Well, in that case, the next time O’Reilly is interviewed, the host should bring up Andrea Mackris’ lawsuit against him for sexual harassment in order to provide “context” to O’Reilly’s role at Fox News. Or a guest should bring up his spousal abuse that may have played a role in his loss of child custody the next time he lectures about black families. Let's see how O'Reilly appreciates that "context" and "honesty."

O’Reilly went on to complain that the “smear merchants” accused him of defending slavery (and it’s true, he didn’t. O’Reilly “merely” put a positive spin on it in a way that diminished Obama’s remarks).

For extra totally-not-a-racist points, O’Reilly included in this commentary an attack on Time’s Joe Klein for saying O’Reilly was “busy trying to gin up a race war by blaming Black Lives Matter for police shootings.”

O’REILLY: The Factor has reported accurately about Black Lives Matter and the provocations stemming from that group. The far-left zealots do not want that reported and despise anyone who does so.

[…] It’s dangerous. Propaganda and hate now dominate the media landscape and that will be demonstrated in the upcoming presidential campaign.

Whatever O’Reilly is trying to gin up, he certainly wants more than just racial animosity against Black Lives Matter. He has accused them of “killing Americans” and prodded presidential candidate Donald Trump to promise he’d prosecute them as provocateurs in the deaths of police officers.

And yet, despite years of smearing Dr. George Tiller with the label “Dr. Tiller, the baby killer” because he performed legal abortions, O’Reilly completely exonerated himself when Tiller was later assassinated. In fact, O’Reilly painted himself as the real victim.

Instead of bringing on someone who could explain why people were upset with his slavery remarks, O’Reilly followed up his self-serving commentary with two friendly Fox employees, Eric Bolling and Geraldo Rivera. Transcript below via Media Matters, with my emphases:

O’REILLY: This is designed though—this is designed, Geraldo, and you know this better than anybody, this is a designed attack, came out of Media Matters, spread to Mother Jones and the other smear publications, and then into the Daily News and USA Today, designed to diminish me and to harm the Fox News channel. That’s what it’s designed to do. 

[...]

There comes a time… I think the time has come now, where this whole network is going to have to band together, all of us, and we are going to have to call out the people who are actively trying to destroy this network, by using lies and deception and propaganda. We’re going to have to start to call them out by name, because that’s how bad it’s become.

[...]

It’s getting to the point of danger, Bolling. You saw—you saw the provocations, and that’s what I reported on, the racial provocations. And then we see black men killing cops. Now, cause and effect? You can’t do it 100 percent, but certainly you can discuss cause and effect. I’m afraid it’s going to happen with Fox News. Geraldo gets water dumped on him, what if somebody hit him in the head with a club?

Our reporters can’t go out on the floor? Jesse Watters goes on the floor of the Democratic Convention, and some photographer comes up and starts swearing at him and cursing at him right in his face? This is provocation.

Funny, I have yet to see O’Reilly condemn Donald Trump’s “provocations” against the press and others which have resulted in bodily harm.

And while I have never read a single article or post suggesting bodily harm, much less wishing it for O’Reilly, he announced, “They want me dead, Bolling, literally dead.”

That was too much even for Bolling, who doesn’t exactly shrink from inflammatory rhetoric. “They want to see you squirm,” he said.

“Why is now different?” Rivera asked, also suggesting that O’Reilly was over-reacting.

O’REILLY: They have failed to destroy this network in 20 years. We still dominate in the ratings, we still dominate in the public discourse. They are gonna use everything can now in the Trump vs. Clinton race – everything they can - because they know Trump gets a fair shake here where he doesn’t get a fair shake in 90% of the other venues. That’s why it’s stepped up.

Apparently, in O’Reilly’s self-aggrandizing mind, destroying Fox is merely a matter of killing him.

If Fox is in danger of being destroyed, it’s because of the malfeasance of Roger Ailes, the just-fired CEO, brought down, not by any liberal press outlet, reporter or blogger but by Fox’s own employees.

Watch O'Reilly's tantrum below, from the July 27 The O'Reilly Factor.