Hoo boy. Bill O’Reilly really got into it with a Columbia professor for criticizing Michael Jackson on the day of his memorial service.
First, O’Reilly blasted the media for holding up MJ as a black icon:
And why are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton making this a racial deal? Jackson bleached his own skin and then chose white men to provide existence for his in vitro children. I mean, give me a break with all this. To hear Sharpton speak today, you’d think Mr. Jackson was Martin Luther King Jr.
O’Reilly went on to speculate about the pedophilia accusations and tabloid-style antics. Then he had race-relations expert Marc Lamont Hill on the program to provide the counterbalance. And well, he did:
Hill: No one is saying that the media should not have drawn attention to Michael Jackson for those behaviors. The component is now he has passed away. About a year or two ago when Jerry Falwell died, you and I debated this very point. You said, “Give the man three days to a week and let the people mourn him before you start talking about his racist politics.” You said that yourself. So why are we giving Jerry Falwell something that we won’t even give Michael Jackson? … You critiqued me for calling him a racist after his funeral. You said that’s inappropriate behavior, that it’s insensitive and that it’s disrespectful to his legacy to do so. Not because you didn’t agree with me, but because you said, “That’s not what you do to a celebrity after they die.”
O’Reilly: It’s apples and oranges. Look look look. It is.
The Falwell interaction in question can be viewed here:
Hill: Many people are really celebrating the death of his movement and celebrating the death of his ideologies which had a vicious effect on people in America. Not so much him the father or him the husband. That’s a very different thing. But I think at some point it does come over the line.
O’Reilly: Well I mean, you can celebrate whatever you want to celebrate two weeks from now. But there is decency, doctor. And decency was crossed over the line by all of those newspapers.
So speaking ill of the dead on the day of their funeral is in bad taste only when O’Reilly doesn’t have a problem with the guy. This seems like pretty clear cut apples and apples to me.
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I totally agree that it’s a double standard, but my question would be: How long does somebody have to cool before we’re “allowed” to state facts about them? Not arguing, just asking.
The idea of decency is notoriously grey, I agree. But I don’t know that I agree that with O’Reilly’s assertion that Michael Jackson was not a black icon. It seems inarguable that he was, vitiligo or not.
Just because someone died does not make them a saint that being say, O’Reilly is a idiot.
why doesn’t anyone criticize o’reilly for still calling jackson a pedophile? he was found not guilty and i’d bet my life on the fact that if one of o’reilly’s beloveds were accused of pedophilia and later found not guilty, he’d be making sure everyone knew that.
i’m amazed that, even when confronted with his hypocrisy, he still denies, denies, denies. i mean, i know it’s to be expected coming from him, but how does one keep a straight face in that situation AND on national tv?
Oh, please. Like O’Reilly’s the first to refer to Jackson as a pedophile. Or the last.
Jackson may be–or have been–an icon to black people, but there’s no denying he had done all he could to look less black over the years. The guy had some serious issues with race AND gender, apparently, and maybe there is or was a much better candidate for the title of “black icon”.
Enough with the Michael Jackson coverage. He died two weeks ago. O’Reilly spoke 2 weeks after he was found dead. I am tired about all of this crap with Michael. Who here knew that 7 men were killed in Afghanistan the same day and a few days after Michael died defending our right to be here? All I saw was a scroll at the bottom of the tv during all of this Michael Jackson crap. I loved his music, but he was crazy and he wanted to be more white than black. Enough.
Mark Lamont Hill,
Couldn’t agree with him on the color of an orange politically but he does have a good point there and O’Reilly is back-pedaling a bit too much in this instance. But that being said, I was really turned-off by the ridiculous amount of pub that MJ received after his death and the media circus that went on & on for days afterward…
@Anagram, O.J was found not guilty as well, but people still call him a murderer. Being found not guilty is not the same as being innocent. If he was innocent why did he pay $15 million or so to the one kid?
Hey, I’ve always believed that there is no such thing as a ‘decency period’ after a death. If anything, I consider it to be less insulting to bring it up after their death, because frankly, they won’t have to listen to it will they?
I got really worked up over the whole Michael Jackson thing because it’s just the most recent example of how most of us in this country will look the other way about downright disgusting behavior as long as the person doing it is famous or considered ‘talented’ (I put that in quotes because so few of the ‘talented’ people these days actually have any talent).
Kill your ex wife? Dude, you suck! Wait, you had 11,000 rushing yards? All is forgiven! Can I get an autograph?
Touch a bunch of children, act like a flake, endanger your own kids with ridiculous antics, ect. The list goes on and on. BUT, he invented the moonwalk and wore a schnazzy glove, so we can look past that.
Seriously, if any of us everyday people in flyover country had acted in the same manner as Jackson, we would be in jail or at the very least a mental health facility. Can anyone deny that with a straight face?
The reason that whole ‘he was acquitted’ thing doesn’t fly is because celebrities and the rich virtually NEVER have to face the music for their actions. The jury generally can’t get beyond their carefully cultivated public persona, and if they can, the team of lawyers they can afford will take care of the rest.
So, will anyone wait 2 weeks after Bill bites the big one to point out his assedness?
Minnow, I wouldn’t wait two minutes.
The fact that Bill doesn’t have his own special section on this site for all the hypocritical douchebaggery he’s spouted over the years shocks me.
I’m rather bored of all the MJ coverage too, but I’m still a bit confused about the colour issue.
I thought his whiteness was down to an illness, not something he intentionally did?
Gully, have at it:
http://deceiver.com/index.php?s=%22bill+o%27reilly%22
Holly, you just gave me a reason to smile today.
Wacko Jacko is an icon. Biggest entertainer since the Beatles. I talked about him on the day of his death as honestly as I did before he died. But I don’t make a spectacle of his passing. He’s dead, leave him be is my general take.
I’m not sure a man who admits he (literally) slept with little boys and a man expressing his opinions (right or wrong) can be compared…
And why, oh why, does he have to be a black icon? Can’t he just be an icon? Was Elvis a white icon?
O’Reilly and Hannity are so bad for Conservatives…they are the worst debaters on TV. Even when they’re right, they can’t convince people.
O’Reilly’s just bad for himself. No conservative actually thinks he’s one of us because the sound of his lips against Obama’s derriere are too loud to even think.
Also, I knew I had something else to say… the bigger hypocrisy is that O’Reilly won’t shut up about MJ after doing nothing but saying everyone else should shut up because the media should be covering other things.
MJ bleached his skin. It had nothing to do with a skin condition. Also, he chose white people to have babies for him. He wanted to be different because he did not like the way he looked before. He started with a nose job in the early 80’s and moved from there. I agee, why can’t he be an icon instead of people saying “he belongs to us” – Mr. Jamie Fox.
I was one of the only white people that attended the BET awards and was very confused by the claims that “he belongs to us, we just shared him,” etc. How could the black community not feel betrayed and offended by the lengths he went to to avoid looking or sounding like them? White women, children, songs about color-blindness…he really seemed to be distancing himself from all things black-inclusive, so I don’t think he would appreciate being claimed by them. But I didn’t want to get beat up for pointing that out, so I just clapped along, even though I guess I wasn’t part of the “us” in Jamie’s statements.
If he belonged “to them” then where were “they” when his butt was in the courtroom and was getting interrogated? Where were all of his now so-called close friends in the black communtiy then?
Don’t get me wrong, I am by no means in any way, shape, or form defending MJ and saying he was innocent of all that he was accused of….if you ask me he asked for what happened. Who in their right mind sleeps in a bed with a bunch of minor children? For that matter, what parent in their right mind lets their minor children stay at a house with a man that they barely know? Didn’t matter how famous that man was/is…it ain’t right. But all those people that he “belonged” to, where were they way back then during his trials for molestation? Why did they avoid answering any questions on their thoughts on whether he was guilty or innocent?
Is it a case of “I can get mad at my own, but someone else from the outside” can’t?
I’m just waiting for some “How Dare All Of You” poster to jump on here and screech about how we’re impugning “their” idol. Michael Jackson died in horrendous debt, with three kids of uncertain–or even unknown–parentage, with enough chemicals in his body to make him an IED. If he was “theirs”, they sure as hell weren’t taking such good care of their little sacred cow.
It’s seems pretty natural that an above-average entertainer would have such a large send-off as MJ did, put on by entertainers – he was, after all, one of their own. If Elvis had died in today’s environment at age 42 (actual age at death) or even at 74 (had he lived to this year), I bet his send-off would have been just as spectacular – certainly more than it was in ‘77. So I don’t have have a problem with the hoopla – he was watched from childhood, unlike someone like Lionel Ritchie, – the public didn’t “grow-up” with him. So I don’t expect such a funeral when he passes. Regarding his problems, well, seems like plenty of people are talking about it, so in general it’s not being swept under the rug. I think we all agree it’s a shame he died so soon, and it’s generally good etiquette to only speak nicely about the departed (hint, Mr. O’Reilly), even “if” they did bad things…except Hitler, Al Capone, et. al. Kinda depends on how “bad” the things were.
Farrah Fawcett didn’t get much of a send-off, as far as I could tell from TV and Internet, but she didn’t sell as many records as MJ – more posters, though, I bet. Still, in life she didn’t have as much of an impact as MJ.
Then there was Ed McMahon – not much press there, either, but then, what did he do besides being Johnny Carson’s side-kick for umpteen years, and give out million $ checks ?
And what about Billy Mays, Jr. ? I can’t imagine you could get too many other famous pitchmen to put on a wake of MJ’s caliber. The Discovery Channel did have a real nice tribute to him last night, though. Sully’s lost a good buddy. I’m glad they’re still airing Billy’s ad’s:
“Our feeling is, everyone wants to have Billy go on,” said Bill McAlister, president of Media Enterprises, a sales and marketing company based in Trevose, Penn. “This is what he would have wanted.”
Good call.
“And why, oh why, does he have to be a black icon? Can’t he just be an icon? Was Elvis a white icon?”
No Kristene. That… would be racist.
The whole “he belongs to us” comment from Jamie Foxx is funny. Because I am sure that a loophole appeared when the king of pop received all of that money from people other than african americans.
He became the King of Pop because everyone listened to him, across the whole world.
By the way, it’s been two weeks already, hasn’t it?
@rob: Oh, the mourning will NEVER end, because that would mean a moment of NOT wailing and acting like untalented first-week drama students.
I posted on my FB page that I was really, REALLY sick and tired of this freak being worshiped and mourned like he was a national hero, and next thing I knew, I was getting snotty crap from friends of friends because “Elvis was a pedophile too”. So? Not like Elvis spent the last ten to fifteen years of his life as someone KNOWN to have had little kids in his bed; most of that didn’t become public knowledge until well after his death. And even so, that is supposed to make it okay for Michael Jackson to have been a horrid kidpawer? Creepy’s creepy, y’all. Doesn’t matter whether it was chocolate creepy or vanilla.
I’m about half-past sick of hearing about how “the racial divide is alive and well in America”. Yeah, and it always will be, as long as this “our” and “your” BS goes on.
Oh–and this just in: I didn’t like Elvis either.
Beige, I posted the same thing on my FB page. I was glad to see some servicemembers families speaking out that while this circus of media attention was going on 24/7 about MJ, the real heros were killed in Afghanistan and all they garnered was a bleep on the bottom of the screen. I loved MJ in the 80’s but after working at Walt Disney World when he use to visit there and then became weird, I forgot all about him. While I agree his music was great, it is time to move on to more serious issues at hand. I am tired of turning on the tv and seeing MJ’s face plastered everywhere. Great icon – huge drug user.
I never thought I’d agree with Bill O’Reilly but I never saw MJ as a ‘black’ icon either. His appeal was much larger than that. He was hardly fighting the power, was he? And Beige, I think you’re bang on with your ‘our’ and ‘your’ comment. I’ve always thought that that way of thinking only serves to create division.
I need to take a bath now that I’ve agreed with Bill O’Reilly.
Why does MJ have to be a black icon? Why can’t he be a NAMBLA icon? Or just a guy who was a really good entertainer back in the day.
My treasure isn’t on Earth anyway because, in the end, all of this doesn’t matter.
Like Thrillho, I now feel the need to use a neti pot to dump boiling water into my brain for agreeing with O’Reilly on…anything.
I feel certain that if Holly only knew how much I resent resent having to defend a douche like O”Reilly she’d stop her baseless criticism (not that there isn’t plenty to criticize, just not the stuff she seems to get so steamed about).
With respect to Falwell, Hill and O’Reilly were debating the propriety of people CELEBRATING HIS DEATH. The issue, relative to MJ, is the propriety of anyone MENTIONING, in the context of a quasi-state funeral, the fact that he had a problematic history with young children. Not exactly apples and oranges, but it’s not apples and apples, either (I’m thinking apples and pears).
Personally, I think O’Reilly, as is so often the case, has his head up his ass. Jerry Falwell was a marginal figure to most Americans and was lucky to get a mention on CNN’s crawler. MJ was the recipient of a send-off worthy of a sitting president (paid for by taxpayers, no less). Regardless, both worked hard during their lives to command public attention. If that attention continued after their deaths and was less than flattering, they’ve no one to blame but themselves (and, in MJ’s case, the posse of freakish parasites and attention whores that are his friends and family).
And since we’re on the subject, how does Hill qualify as a “race relations expert?” Although it isn’t exactly clear, he appears to hold a PhD in education and has devoted much of his academic career to the study of hip hop. Impressive to be sure, but I don’t quite see how that qualifies him on the subject of race relations, much less makes him an expert.
That said, I love him on Red Eye.
“MJ bleached his skin. It had nothing to do with a skin condition.”
I think he really did have vitilgo, or however you spell it – I’ve seen pictures from when he was “still black” but had white blotches. My uncle has vitilgo as well. I think Michael Jackson really did bleach his skin so he wouldn’t look all spotty. That, of course, doesn’t explain all the other atrocious stuff he did to his face…
“White women, children, songs about color-blindness…he really seemed to be distancing himself from all things black-inclusive, so I don’t think he would appreciate being claimed by them.”
I definitely see your point with the first two, but what’s wrong with songs about color-blindness? I don’t think that indicates having issues with being black.
“I’m about half-past sick of hearing about how “the racial divide is alive and well in America”. Yeah, and it always will be, as long as this “our” and “your” BS goes on.”
Seriously.
Tal said: “what’s wrong with songs about color-blindness? I don’t think that indicates having issues with being black.”
There’s nothing wrong with them at all, but it is in total contrast to everything the black community is doing to him now. As someone who made songs about acceptance and color-blindness, do you think Michael would want to be categorized as a “black icon” or someone who “belonged” to the black community? I don’t think it indicates having issues with being black, as you said, but it does indicate issues with belonging to the black segregation mentality that the rest of the community seems to cling to.
OJ was found “Not Guilty!” R Kelly was found “Not Guilty!” despite video evidence. Celebs get off. Read the police reports of what they found in MJ’s room and bathroom and decide for yourself. The Smoking Gun website. They found a book of “artistic” pictures of naked boys. I’m still reading up on the subject so I haven’t made a decision I can live with yet, but look up the facts on the cases.
As for O’Reilly…I like him just fine. He tells it how it is; however, he needs to follow his own advice. Wait 3 days for Falwell? Ok, wait 3 days for MJ. Fair enough yes?
I’m surprised NAMbLA didn’t claim him as their icon and someone who belongs to them…
MJ, that is. I’m no fan of O’Reilly’s, but I agree with what he said in the beginning (of the video) about MJ’s “interaction with children”. And I’m glad he said it, someone had to say it, it enrages me how everyone overlooks that fact now.
Wait, Wemedge, did I read correctly in comment #31 that the MJ funeral was paid for by taxpayers? That makes smoke come out of my ears…and I’m not even a California resident.
Funny how I got something else entirely out of the O’reilly thing. He seems to be bagging on the media for it’s hypocrisy over the MJ thing. I have no idea how it is being covered since my wife and I shut off our cable when school got out (took the kids 3 weeks to notice that TV was not working…lol).
Personal story about MJ – Had BFF years ago (late 80’s/early 90’s) and I started dating his sister (he was totally cool with it). Anyway she was showing me some old photo albums and there was my friend standing through the sunroof of a limo with MJ. MJ had one arm over his shoulder and they were both waving and smiling. This was when MJ was still black (early 80’s) and my friend was 10 or 11 at the time. His sister tells me that MJ would stop by all the time back then and would take my friend out, even go on sleep overs (she was slightly jealous because they were only 1 year apart).
Well I confronted my friend about this…I mean how cool is that! MJ stopping by and hanging out with you! How come he had no pics in his bedroom? Why had he never mentioned it? What was he like? Where he take you? Anywhere cool?
His response…shrugged his shoulders. Said, “it was okay, he was nice, nowhere special, nothing really”…..errr…uhhh…k?
Couple of years later the first accusations of molestation come out…
Odd things I noticed now. Friends dad cleaned pools for a living (most of his clients were in Bel’Air/Beverly area), they lived in $1 million dollar home back in the mid to late 80’s, the pics were taken before they had this big house and the used to live in the San Fernando Valley area, my friend did not find gay jokes funny at all (he would actually get really mad if you teased him about being gay), he turned into a huge meth addict….very sad
Was there something there? I can’t say with certainity but looks like it to me.
My opinion…the children of this world are safer today and the people who protected him all these years deserver their own special place in hell right beside him