Bill O’Reilly Disputes ‘Dishonest’ ABC News Report Saying He’s Critical Of First Lady

Watch the original ABC News segment that O’Reilly took issue with below:



Mediaite.com:

On Thursday’s O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly strongly pushed back against a report by ABC News’ World News Tonight that he had advanced the narrative that First Lady Michelle Obama was an “angry black woman.” “ABC News didn’t tell the audience it got its clip they used on me from the far-left web site Media Matters which is in business solely to smear non-liberal media people,” O’Reilly opined. “We brought the situation to ABC’s attention today they say from now on they will call people like me who are injected into their news coverage. I think it’s important because I’m simply not going to let the presidential campaign degenerate into a race-baiting media propaganda exposition…let’s cut the crap.”


According to O’Reilly, ABC News used audio extracted from a Media Matters blog post from September 16, 2008:


During the “Obama Chronicles” segment of the September 16 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly stated of Michelle Obama: “Now I have a lot of people who call me on the radio and say she looks angry. And I have to say there’s some validity to that. She looks like an angry woman.”


During the segment, O’Reilly asked Vogue magazine contributing editor Rebecca Johnson: “The perception is that she’s angry in some quarters. Valid?”


“That sounds kind of bad, does it not?” O’Reilly acknowledged. “Here is the context — that interview was done three and a half years ago when the country was still getting to know Mrs. Obama, who did have some problems in the beginning. You will remember the ‘proud of her country remark.’”


During the segment defending himself, O’Reilly played a montage of every nice thing he has ever said about the First Lady.


“For ABC to paint me critical of her is flat-out dishonest,” O’Reilly exclaimed. “A lot of us have a lot riding on America’s future. It’s about America’s future. Let’s cut the crap. Can we?”

RELATED: Michelle Obama rejects 'angry black woman' label