Money, Race and the Media

By Bill O'Reilly

The Shirley Sherrod story is important on many levels. A week ago, few had ever heard of Ms. Sherrod, who worked at the Department of Agriculture. Now she's in the middle of an intense White House and media controversy.

So how did it all happen? Let's run it down.

First, there were accusations of racism directed at the Tea Party. The far left in America despises that movement and could not wait to brand it as anti-black.

Then the NAACP piled on, demanding that the Tea Party expel racists within their group.

Then a tape surfaces of Ms. Sherrod saying she denied a white farmer her full attention because of his race. Her remarks were made to an NAACP group, and in light of the Tea Party business, they took on some urgency.

Then the tape was exposed as being out of context. What Ms. Sherrod was actually doing was trying to make a point that racism is bad.

That was not clear in the beginning and people, like me, jumped to conclusions. The White House did that. The NAACP did that. That's how explosive this whole race deal is right now. So Ms. Sherrod got hosed, but then the story took yet another turn.

Let me introduce you to the president of NBC News, Steve Capus. As you may know, NBC News has become the most liberal TV news organization in history, thanks to its cable news arm. Mr. Capus has no problem allowing his personnel to wage dishonest personal attacks against pretty much anyone, a major violation of journalistic ethics.

Well, after the Sherrod case was exposed, NBC News, along with some other far-left enterprises, blamed the whole thing on Fox News, saying that we ginned up the story to make blacks look bad.

I mean, one NBC News loon actually said on the air that the coverage of ACORN, the Black Panthers and Ms. Sherrod was designed to make white Americans scared of black Americans.

Who is sponsoring this stuff, Mad magazine?

But as it turns out, Fox News was actually cautious when the Sherrod story broke. In his Washington Post column on Thursday, Howard Kurtz reports that FNC hard news chief Michael Clemente ordered his troops to take things slowly:

"Let's take our time and get the facts straight on this story. Can we get confirmation and comments from Sherrod before going on-air? Let's make sure we do this right."

Does that sound like a conspiracy to harm black Americans to you?

So I assume Steve Capus will go on the Brian Williams broadcast and apologize to Fox News. We are looking forward to that.

As I said Wednesday night, it was I who made the big mistake as far as Fox News is concerned. I failed to read the entire transcript of Ms. Sherrod's remarks. Not good; no excuses. I apologized to Ms. Sherrod.

The bottom line is she deserves to be treated fairly by the media, but so does Fox News.

NBC News is getting crushed by FNC, and that means they lose millions of dollars every quarter in revenue. That's why Capus and his character assassins do what they do. If you can't beat 'em, slime 'em.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

Soldier Ride to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project began on Thursday here in New York City. Macy's is sponsoring the event. CEO Terry Lundgren has been a big supporter of the Warriors. Actors Matthew Modine and Tony Sirico were on hand, as well as your humble correspondent.

Everyone who helps the Wounded Warriors is a patriot, and Macy's has really stepped up.

Click here to watch "Pinheads & Patriots"!

On the pinhead front, is Moby Dick back?

A 40-ton whale attacked a yacht off the coast of South Africa. It jumped out of the water and mashed the boat. Nobody was hurt, and even though I like whales, this one may be a pinhead.