Instead of discussing the 50^th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act or President Obama’s address about it yesterday, Bill O’Reilly seized upon some comments by Attorney General Eric Holder and pointed the finger of racism at him. This was not too surprising. It has become something of a Fox News tradition to “recognize” civil rights milestones with racial attacks on African Americans. 

There was no mistaking O’Reilly’s racial animus right from the start. He called his Talking Points commentary that opens every show, “Is Attorney General Eric Holder playing the race card?”  Any Fox watcher worth his or her salt knew what the answer would be. But in case you didn’t, O’Reilly gave you the answer:

(T)he heavy evidence is that Eric Holder is using his skin color as a shield to avoid explaining to the American people why he has been so ineffective on a variety of fronts. Or am I wrong?

It’s long past time to stop this kind of nonsense. Richard Nixon was treated far more harshly by Congress than Barack Obama. And his attorney general, John Mitchell was ruined over the Watergate investigation.

The truth is that Eric Holder has been treated gently by the national press and has not been subject to much scrutiny by the public.

This is far from the first time Fox has used a civil rights occasion to race bait. O’Reilly has “recognized” Martin Luther King’s birthday by playing the (white) racial victim and he used the 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s March on Washington to criticize African Americans. Sean Hannity has similarly “honored” King. He also racially smeared the funeral of King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, two nights in a row – by accusing the mourners of not appreciating all that then-president George W. Bush did for African Americans.

Sadly, O'Reilly's two African American guests gave him a complete pass on these tactics. More on that in my next post.

O'Reilly still from a screen grab.