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O'Reilly Pretends His Comments About Asians Were Taken Out Of Context

Posted by Ellen -7859.80pc on January 11, 2013 · Flag

Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI) confronted Bill O’Reilly tonight about his offensive comments that it’s “shocking” that Hawaiians are liberal because Asians are “usually more industrious and hard-working.” O’Reilly contended that Hanabusa had only watched his remarks from an out-of-context Media Matters clip and, therefore, was unqualified to debate him on them. In reality, Media Matters’ clip included the full context of his remarks and there was nothing in the rest of the segment to alter the meaning.

In the original segment, which aired on January 3 and is the first video below, O’Reilly producer Jesse Watters went to Hawaii and asked people why the state is so liberal. Watters clearly had an agenda for the segment. As Priscilla posted, Watters falsely reported that Hawaii has the highest usage of food stamp benefits. And he made the not-so-fair-and-balanced comment that the state has a “liberal and extremely dangerous attitude towards sexual conduct.”

Afterward, with Watters back in the studio, O’Reilly and he had the following exchange, as transcribed by Media Matters:

BILL O’REILLY (host): Now I have to say, Hawaii is one of my favorite places in the world. It’s beautiful.

JESSE WATTERS (Fox News producer): Yeah, it’s beautiful.

O’REILLY: But when I’m there I’m under water. I’m not talking to pinheads. But the state is in enormous debt.   

WATTERS: They are.

O’REILLY: Alright. They’ve got a lot of social problems. When you say it’s the biggest homeless thing, it’s because of the addiction.

WATTERS: Right.

O’REILLY: The addiction is rampant, all over the place, because they don’t enforce the drug laws.

WATTERS: No.

O’REILLY: And, you know, I think the one person who said, Look, this is a place where people come to to escape. This is, you know, generally speaking. But you know what’s shocking? 35 percent of the Hawaiian population is Asian, and Asian people are not liberal, you know, by nature. They’re usually more industrious and hard-working.

WATTERS: But they did vote for President Obama—

O’REILLY: Big time.

WATTERS: -- and if you add the indigenous native Hawaiian population—

O’REILLY: About 20 percent.

WATTERS: -- to the Hispanic population, they outnumber whites by more than two to one. 

Well, OK, Media Matters left off the rest of the discussion:

O’Reilly: Yeah, white population is only about 25% in Hawaii.

Watters: Exactly. So then you have all the rich liberals from California rolling in to Hawaii and it’s just a perfect storm for liberalism.

O’Reilly: It’s the anything goes. You know, and somebody said it: ‘Don’t bother me,’ (unintelligible).

Watters: It’s like Amsterdam.

O’Reilly: Now, I know I’m going to get mail on this. Where did you get the green shorts? Just so we can avoid (unintelligible).

Watters: Somebody actually came up to me and said, ‘Watters, I’m a big fan. But does Bill know what you’re wearing?’

O’Reilly: No, I did not approve the orange shirt with the green shorts.

Watters: Didn’t match? I thought it did. I thought it matched.

O’Reilly: There you go, Watters under cover in Hawaii.

So I’d like to know just what, exactly, O’Reilly would have argued he actually meant. Unfortunately, Congresswoman Hanabusa seemed flummoxed by what was really a sleight of hand as O’Reilly changed the subject away from his comments about Asians and made it about Hawaii’s social problems.

But one thing is clear, unless O'Reilly wants to walk back those comments about Asian Americans, there is nothing in the entire segment to suggest he didn't mean it exactly the way he said it.

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Sandman2 commented 2013-01-13 19:10:44 -0500 · Flag
Billdo scolded the Congresswoman for not watching the entire segment and told her it was “only three and half minutes.” Actually it appears to be 4:57 which makes me wonder if Billdo saw the entire segment??
It appears that Billdo has just taken himself out of context!
Michael T commented 2013-01-13 18:47:26 -0500 · Flag
Just to be clear Ari, I was agreeing with you.

For Bill O’Reilly to complain to the congresswomen that she saw his comments online instead of watching his comments on television was ludicrous.
Aria Prescott commented 2013-01-12 19:55:10 -0500 · Flag
I call it when I see it, Michael… on both sides.

The problem with being bipartisan in critique is that the only site that doesn’t have 15 notable offenses against them for everyone one you see on MM or TPM is Daily Caller. Some of their writers are incredibly fair, so much so that you scroll back up to make sure you’re on TDC.

The sheer ratio makes it hard to look fair. and if the bias is ugly enough, I won’t even be fair to the side going that far. Fairness is wasted on them. But once again…
Michael T commented 2013-01-12 15:53:01 -0500 · Flag
As Ari wrote below about B.O.’s objection, “It’s out of context because she saw it on Media Matters.”

That’s a pet peeve of mine that applies to both sides of the political aisle.

We have every right to criticize opinions expressed on websites — whether it is MediaMatters or Newsbusters.

But to criticize unedited video content shown in proper context is just silly and intellectually dishonest.

In other words, O’Reilly was being illogical to suggest watching the video of his remarks on television was somehow more valid than watching the same video online just shows his hate for the website that posted the video.

He should be ashamed for misleading his audience. But we know that’s never going to happen. :)
Kevin Koster commented 2013-01-12 14:10:15 -0500 · Flag
The funniest part of this confrontation came when O’Reilly tried to get up on his moral high horse and lecture the Congresswoman about “NEVER” castigating him again without knowing the context of what he was saying. And she immediately corrected him again and noted that she had seen his full comments and was sorry that he didn’t feel she had. Which left O’Reilly fuming with a last word that sounded like he was growling at her.

The strong impression from this discussion was that O’Reilly was embarassed about being called out for the Watters segments, and he went into a purely defensive mode. One would hope that O’Reilly would listen to himself and NEVER send Jesse Watters to Hawaii to do a hit piece like this again.
Anne-claire Souza commented 2013-01-12 10:32:20 -0500 · Flag
Number one characteristic of Rightwingers is ,they are all accomplished liars.
truman commented 2013-01-12 10:29:49 -0500 · Flag
Bildo should have argued that the audio tapes of his phone sex with Andrea Mackris were also taken out of context. Might have saved him $2M.
the Mike commented 2013-01-12 09:51:32 -0500 · Flag
reminds me of glenn becks 10 minute rant telling the 9/11 victims families to shut up. he claimed it was taken out of context. a sentence or two can be taken out of context, not a full out conversation.
Kent Brockman commented 2013-01-12 02:42:51 -0500 · Flag
Why do Killer O’Reilly, Watters & the rest of the Fux Frauds live in NY? It’s packed with evil Libruls.
Viva Valdez commented 2013-01-12 02:17:12 -0500 · Flag
He stereotypes Asians, implicitly implies that he’s shocked they’re liberal because they’re hard working which is him stereotyping liberals as lazy despite the fact that red states have a high percentage of their population on welfare and blue states subsidize the red states, stereotypes that only rich liberals go to Hawaii (because only rich people are liberals while rich conservatives are job creators). The Congresswoman didn’t understand the full context of O’Reilly’s segment, it was much worse than she thought.
Janet Tuhey commented 2013-01-12 01:39:02 -0500 · Flag
As usual, when he tries to walk back his derogatory comments he just digs himself in deeper. I’m flummoxed that anyone (I’m talking to you, Peter) takes him seriously.
Aria Prescott commented 2013-01-12 00:20:47 -0500 · Flag
So… lemme get this straight: O’Reilly named off four Asian stereotypes- Two to say Hawaii’s problems should be blamed on Asians, and two to claim shock on. With so much racial sensitivity that I’m surprised him and Watters didn’t pull their eyes slanted at one point.

But it’s out of context because she saw it on Media Matters.

Yeah, you keep on trying to explain yourself, Bill.
Peter Lynch commented 2013-01-12 00:07:29 -0500 · Flag
Of course, as propaganda he has delivered the message. He easily handles the consequences to himself – after all the idiot left wing are just throwing more shit at him.
To his audience, message delivered clearly – anybody from Hi is not of your culture.
Like President Obama, the Kenyan.
Peter Lynch commented 2013-01-11 23:43:16 -0500 · Flag
Hawaii is a beautiful place and it is full of beautiful people, except for a few tourists. Jesse Watters is one of the exceptions.
NewsHounds posted about O'Reilly Pretends His Comments About Asians Were Taken Out Of Context on NewsHounds' Facebook page 2013-01-11 23:10:33 -0500
So what did he actually mean about Asian Americans?








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