My response to O’Reilly after watching his segment about me and Rev. Wright

March 25, 2008 by Roland
Filed under Commentary

I wasn’t sure if my emails were going to get to Bill O’Reilly, so I decided to send them along to Bill Shine, senior vice president of programming, and Joel Cheatwood, senior vice president of development at Fox News.

I know Joel because he was in a similar position at CNN and I worked with him on some programming while he was there. I always like Joel and thought he was a fair and talented guy. So what the heck, I figured that if Bill’s email wasn’t the same as everyone else at Fox News, then Joel could pass it along.

Here is what I just sent Bill:

Bill and Joel,

Just in case Bill doesn’t get this, be sure to pass along.

“Oh, Bill, I just watched your segment, and talk about weak!

“Please, please, call me so we can discuss the issue.

“You tell your audience that I’m a Wright apologist, but you don’t even bother to tell your audience what I even said on the issue. Dude, that’s Journalism 101. You offer no facts, no analysis, just a weak opinion. You paraphrased me saying that I didn’t think the issue is no big deal. WRONG. Then you, and Bernard Goldberg, go on to state some of the “crazy” things, as Bernie said, that Wright has said.

“Did you bother to even see that I said ON CNN that what he said about the AIDS issue is flat out wrong? And what he said about the government injecting blacks with syphilis was wrong? BUT it is correct that the federal government allowed black men to go untreated. It is known as the Tuskegee Experiment, something President Bill Clinton apologized for.

“If you want to tell your audience that I’m an apologist, do me the favor and say what I said, as opposed to show a photo of me and offer no facts whatsoever.

“Oh by the way, Bill, Bernie noticed that I’m a black guy and then decided to go on and discuss white liberals.

“Please, ask me if I’m a conservative or a liberal. Be upfront and ask me. Even you would be shocked by the answer.

“Again, just in case you actually want to have a conversation that is fact-based, call me at 4XX-XXX-XXXX.

“For someone who has done your show eight to 10 times, and who has actually defended you from the folks who think you are to the right of Hitler, I’m terribly disappointed that you was so weak with the facts. Had you worked under me at the three papers I’ve run, as well as website and radio station newsroom, you would have gotten verbally smacked down for such weak journalism.

“Call me. I’ll be happy to chat with you.”

See, a real debater would pick up the phone and accept the challenge. Let’s see if Mr. No Spin Zone is really interested in the facts.