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As First to Air Sherrod Video and Call for Resignation, Bill O’Reilly Apologizes for ‘Not Doing My Homework’

Jul 22, 2010  •  Post A Comment

As the first cable-news host to air an edited video that made it appear Shirley Sherrod, a black U.S. Department of Agriculture official, had made racist remarks, Bill O’Reilly said on Wednesday he owes Sherrod an apology for "not doing my homework," reports the Los Angeles Times’ Showtracker blog. 

O’Reilly had called for Sherrod’s resignation on Monday night, although by the time his show aired she had already resigned. The edited video on which O’Reilly based his remarks had left out some crucial context, such as Sherrod’s explanation that an episode when she discriminated against a white farmer had taught her how to overcome personal prejudices, the story says. “I owe Ms. Sherrod an apology for not doing my homework, for not putting her remarks into the proper context,” O’Reilly said on "The O’Reilly Factor." "I well understand the need for honest reporting.” His own words have at times been placed out of context, he added.

Still, Sherrod and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People partly blamed Fox News for partly creating the media storm because of the way it hyped the story, the article says. Fox News senior vice president of news editorial Michael Clemente says the network approached the story cautiously and "did the normal fact-finding we would do on any story."

The first reported piece on Fox News that aired on Tuesday morning included another video clip that provided context to her remarks. Nevertheless, Tuesday night found O’Reilly continuing to blast Sherrod’s speech, even though by that time it was clear her comments had been misconstrued, the story says.

 

22 Comments

  1. O’Reilly needs to keep the apology and submit his resignation. He is always so critical of others who do not do their “homework.” He,like others,jumped on the wrong bandwagon and should be held accountable.
    It will be interesting to see how Fox responds to this situation.

  2. “…did the normal fact-finding we would do on any story.”
    Yup, sounds like Fox News.

  3. O’Really needs to find work that he is qualified for !!

  4. As long as Roger Ailes runs FOX (?News?) it will remain the same…period.
    Peter Bright

  5. Bill O’Reilly is infamous for misinformation. Anyone who believes anything he says is a fool.

  6. That just shows how Bill O’Reilly is a class act. He owned up to the mistake and publicly apologized. America is still a better place for Bill O’Reilly and the FOX News Channel I’m sure almost all of you would agree.

  7. You lib girliemen would love for O’Reilly to quit and stop exposing
    your “hope and change” for what it really is..
    Ralph

  8. O’Reilly’s biggest mistake in the Sherrod gaffe was in actually believing that Fox cable was a trustworthy news source not requiring adult supervision. Some time ago Fox said that our scary almost depression was caused by the Democrats in 2006 (when they controlled nothing) and even today, they show one Acorn interview without divulging that the Acorn man was playing along to try to get info to report the interviewers to the police which he did. With Fox’s news credibility lower than Al Jazeera, the White House should have done a better job of vetting like checking with CNN and MSNBC first.

  9. When will the people in the audience at the NAACP event apologize for laughing when Shirley Sherrod appear to be disrespecting white people? No fair claiming she had an altruistic goal, which she did. Her listeners did not. Are they not racist for laughing?

  10. Uh…no Dan. Not so much. I think Fox and MSNBC both are very much to blame for the divisive society we now suffer. I do not for one second believe that O’Reilly and Fox make this a better country. Quite the contrary. A truly class act would have researched before he ranted.

  11. I normally dislike O’Reilly intensely because what comes out of his mouth usually resembles what I scoop from the cat-box. But this time, I actually applaud him; he did something that most people have forgotten how to do. He took responsibility for his erroneous action. Good on you Bill, for that, anyway.

  12. Quite the contrary. A truly class act would have researched before he ranted.
    Actually a truly class act would report the facts not ranted and let the public form their opinion.

  13. Ralph,
    Your certainly not a “girlieman”
    your actually just a DICK.

  14. I think it’s Fox News and their corhorts are just testing the waters… I suspect the unspoken intent by them is to see how far “altered context” (fabricated lies) can go, and based on the backlash, generate and push more altered content accordingly.
    It’s been a pretty significant backlash, but Fox News isn’t going anywhere. I fully expect more malarkie like this from Fox News – with more frequency – in our future.

  15. You’re ragging on O’reilly, but facts are a stubborn thing.
    Fact: Naacp had the full version of the tape and hastily judged her before O’Reilly aired.
    Fact: The White House jumped all over her, according to her own initial testimony, forced her to resign, long before O’Reilly said anything.
    Fact: Shirley Sherrod may have repented of racism in her own heart, but the edited tape, or the full version, shows that many in her audience obviously did not.
    Fact: The Naacp started this whole charade with their politicking and pulling the race card. And apparently Shirley Sherrod, in some measure, is still perpetuating it by calling Fox News racist. Democrats and liberals should tend to their own wounds, and the racism in their own hypocritical house; see to their one time grand cyclops, the Late Senator Byrd and others like him; see to the black Panthers, an ancillary of black racism in the U.S.

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