Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, along with her attorney, Benjamin Crump. I think Bill O'Reilly meant well and that his sympathy and concern for Fulton was genuine. But his main interest was not in Fulton but trying to persuade her to speak out against Rev. Al Sharpton and a condescending concern that she wouldn't accept a not guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial.
I don't know about you but when I see Fulton on television, I want to know details about her and her son. How is she coping, what she does for a living, does she have other children, details about Trayvon and his girlfriend, etc. But O'Reilly seemed mostly interested in the racial angle and averting a race riot. Finally, near the end of the interview, O'Reilly said, "What I don't want is that whatever the verdict may be, I want the American people - just like you said Miss Fulton - to accept the system."
Fulton murmured something in agreement off camera.
"To accept the verdict," O'Reilly continued. "But if you see something that's not right as it's unfolding, please let us know, alright, so that we can deal with it before the verdict comes down."
That comment ended at the 5:00 mark in the video. At that moment, a look came over Fulton's face as if she had suddenly realized that O'Reilly's biggest concern about the trial was a race riot - and trying to get her to stop one.
Crump said he thought that was fair and that it was important to tell people to "stay calm." Fulton nodded but she rolled her eyes as he said it, too. Crump added, "Sybrina said this shouldn't be a racial issue. It should really just be about justice."
"Absolutely," O'Reilly agreed. "We're all Americans here. Nobody wants a 17 year-old son shot down in the street and I'm sure on the Zimmerman side, nobody wants to see, Mr. Zimmerman doesn't want to see HIS son's life ruined because of this. This is a tragedy all the way around. And we gotta handle it with the utmost restraint."
And then Poppa Bear O'Reilly told Crump, "Counselor, you're a stand up guy. You know, anything you got, you come right to me, alright?"
Bill O’Reilly’s audience = 2.5 million max
And most of that 2.5 million are freaked-out, moronic racists that Bill supports/attracts.
Avoid Fox (Too Late)
I really could not understand Fox’s rush to defend Zimmerman at first. It seemed to make the statement that Fox represents white people over black people – to make their basic racism more obvious. It seems more and more that the right has started to be more open and honest about their racism. They feel comfortable doing so. And that makes me very uncomfortable.
He’s gonna condemn Hannity’s attempts to make the Trayvon Martin shooting about Eric Holder?
He’s gonna finally put Fox Nation to task about their comments and racial articles?
No, wait- he tried to score points against Sharpton, and fixated on the racial angles talking to the mother of a high-profile muder victim where it’s speculated to be a hate crime.
If O’Reilly cares about easing racial tensions, he just put a face on the saying “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” And if he meant well, the condenscension is highly inappropriate.
If Billy wants to prevent a race riot, he needs to tell his colleague Hannocchio to put a lid on it.
