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Published January 27, 2017
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," November 23, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS HOST: "Personal Story" segment tonight. We are pleased to have actress and talk show host, Whoopi Goldberg, join us today. She is the author of the big bestseller, "Is It Just Me or Is It Nuts Out There?" -- which we'll discuss in a moment, one of the nuts, Ms. Goldberg may be referring to is me.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, "THE VIEW" CO-HOST: Never.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: Muslims killed us on 9/11.
GOLDBERG: No! Oh my God! That is (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
O'REILLY: Muslims didn't kill us on 9/11? Is that what you are saying?
GOLDERG: Extremists. Excuse me, extremists did that.
(CROSSTALK)
JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": What religion was Mr. McVeigh?
O'REILLY: I'm telling, 70 percent of the country --
BEHAR: I don't want to sit here now. I don't sit there.
O'REILLY: Go. Go.
BEHAR: I'm outraged by that statement.
O'REILLY: You are outraged about Muslims killed us on 9/11?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: All right. So, here is what I want to know, here what did you guys say about me after I left?
GOLDBERG: Actually, you know --
O'REILLY: Come on, what did you say?
GOLDBERG: Bill, you know, I said --
O'REILLY: Yes?
GOLDBERG: -- that I thought that you did not realize how hurtful.
O'REILLY: You said that on the air, but I mean off the air, after when you guys were back, you know --
GOLDBERG: I said the same stuff off the air.
O'REILLY: Were you guys -- were you cursing me out and stuff?
GOLDBERG: No.
O'REILLY: No?
GOLDBERG: No, no. I heard myself say the "B" word. I had to get up.
O'REILLY: I know. B.S. you were saying.
GOLDBERG: Ooh, I had to get up.
O'REILLY: OK. But after I left, because you had "The Situation" on right after -- that was a good transition for me, "The Situation." That's why we love "The View."
GOLDBERG: Yes. Yes.
O'REILLY: But after I left, you and Joy, were you guys mad at me.
GOLDBERG: No. No, because sometimes -- at least for me, I know that if I cross the line, which I crossed, because I heard myself say something I had no business saying. I know I wasn't --
O'REILLY: Had you to did get out of there before --
GOLDBERG: I had to go.
O'REILLY: All right.
GOLDBERG: So, you know --
O'REILLY: And I said Muslims killed us on 9/11, I was surprised that you and Ms. Behar reacted the way you did, because it is a fact that that happened. And I did not mean by stating that fact to imply anything negative about people who believe in Islam. I just was saying that 70 percent of the nation doesn't want the mosque near Ground Zero because they feel it's inappropriate site.
GOLDBERG: I understand that, Bill.
O'REILLY: OK. I'm glad. I'm glad that you understand that.
GOLDBERG: But the phraseology that you used when you say "Muslims killed us," that is not --
O'REILLY: But is that not a fact?
GOLDBERG: That implies when you make it a blanket statement like that, that Muhammad Ali was --
O'REILLY: Do you really think that I think Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were involved?
GOLDBERG: I don't worry about so much what you think --
O'REILLY: Did anybody think so?
GOLDBERG: Yes, I do.
O'REILLY: Really? Do you think there are people who think Muhammad Ali was involved?
GOLDBERG: If they remember he is a Muslim and you say Muslims killed us. You know, you're a very -- you're a really great showman. You are a great guy to talk to. But sometimes, I think you give yourself less credit, which is shocking, I know, than you think. But I do believe --
O'REILLY: I don't think there's one person --
GOLDBERG: Oh, I do. I do believe.
O'REILLY: -- who would take it that way. All right. Now --
GOLDBERG: But that's all right.
O'REILLY: Do you believe in the world, we have a Muslim problem?
GOLDBERG: No.
O'REILLY: OK.
GOLDBERG: I think we have a terrorist problem.
O'REILLY: OK. So, you don't believe we have a Muslim problem.
Would you agree with me that if all the good Muslims, and I think they overwhelm the bad Muslims, OK? Would cooperate with the West, with the United States and NATO and other countries, that we wouldn't have a terrorist problem? For example, if Pakistan would cooperate with the United States, we wouldn't have the Taliban problem in Afghanistan. We would defeat them.
GOLDBERG: That would all be great if that's how it worked.
O'REILLY: But that's how it works.
GOLDBERG: But it isn't how it works, because, if you recall -- think of it this way, that crazy gentleman, I take that back because that's rude -- the gentleman that said he was going to burn the Koran, that got played all around the world.
O'REILLY: You mean the nut down in Florida?
GOLDBERG: I'm not going to say that.
O'REILLY: OK, I will. But that, you're diverting the attention.
GOLDBERG: No, no, I'm not. Listen to my point.
O'REILLY: All right. Go ahead.
GOLDBERG: So, all the people who are watching around the world saying, boy, America feels like that, so Americans --
O'REILLY: See, but I disagree. I don't think Muslims think that everybody is like that crazy guy. I don't believe that.
But let's get back to Pakistan. Pakistan, if they would help us --
GOLDBERG: No, no. Bill, Bill.
O'REILLY: -- we could win that.
GOLDBERG: Bill, do you think that the people in Pakistan, the people who live in Pakistan, the poor people, the people who don't have any say, you think they don't want help to help the West?
O'REILLY: A lot of them don't. The madrasa -- do you know what a madrasa is?
GOLDBERG: No, I don't.
O'REILLY: OK. Madrasa is a school that teaches Islamic jihad and there are madrasas all over the Muslim world. They teach 4 and 5-year-old kids to hate people.
GOLDBERG: Bill, that may be true --
O'REILLY: It is true.
GOLDBERG: It may be true. I can't prove it. You've clearly been --
O'REILLY: I can.
GOLDBERG: You've clearly been to them and I will take your word for it. But that does not change the fact that when you paint all Muslims with one brush, it's bad.
O'REILLY: I'm not painting all Muslims with one brush.
GOLDBERG: But when you say Muslims killed us, when you don't specify. It's like saying whenever I see black men coming down the street, I'm scared. That's the same --
O'REILLY: Do you have a problem in history when you were taught about World War II that Japanese attacked us? Do you have a problem with that?
GOLDBERG: I have a problem with that.
O'REILLY: Do you?
GOLDBERG: Yes.
O'REILLY: But they attacked us?
GOLDBERG: The Japanese --
O'REILLY: Attacked us.
GOLDBERG: -- army attacked us.
O'REILLY: The air force did.
GOLDBERG: Sorry, the air force did. You understand my point?
O'REILLY: No, I don't, because I think you are cutting the hair so thin. We have a Muslim problem in the world in the sense that 90 percent of the terrorism.
GOLDBERG: Bill, we're going to disagree.
O'REILLY: Come from that area.
GOLDBERG: You know what? What do you mean 90 percent of the terrorists --
O'REILLY: Yes?
GOLDBERG: -- are from everywhere. They are white.
O'REILLY: No, predominantly they are Muslims.
GOLDBERG: Right now.
O'REILLY: Right. That's what we are talking about.
GOLDBERG: Right now, everybody can say the Muslims are the terrorists. Two years ago, it was the white people that were the terrorists.
O'REILLY: What white people?
GOLDBERG: Oh, wasn't it white people that blew up Oklahoma City?
O'REILLY: Yes, two of them. Two of them.
GOLDBERG: What about all the folks
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: It's like saying crime is white is black.
GOLDBERG: Bill, we disagree.
O'REILLY: All right. We disagree.
GOLDBERG: We disagree on this.
O'REILLY: But I just want to be clear.
GOLDBERG: And it's OK.
O'REILLY: We have to have these discussions.
GOLDBERG: We must have these discussions.
O'REILLY: Right. But I just want to be clear and I'll give you the last word on this and then we'll get to your book.
GOLDBERG: OK.
O'REILLY: I believe there is a Muslim problem in the world.
GOLDBERG: OK.
O'REILLY: And that's what I was trying to get across to you guys on "The View."
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: That 70 percent of Americans believe the way I do. They thought it was inappropriate to make a Muslim community center that close to Ground Zero. That was my point.
GOLDBERG: I understood your point. What did I not understand and I will just reiterate it again because --
O'REILLY: I just left out the word terrorist.
GOLDBERG: Yes. Because in this day and age when kids are getting their butts kicked because they are Muslim, OK?
O'REILLY: Not so much.
GOLDBERG: Bill, are you kidding me?
O'REILLY: New study today, Jews in America are far more likely to be persecuted than Muslims, just came out today.
GOLDBERG: You know what? I'm sure that someone believes that, but I believe that in neighborhoods where they don't want Muslims, they beat up kids.
O'REILLY: No, it doesn't happen much, Ms. Goldberg. You know, and it would be --
GOLDBERG: What is this bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED) about Ms. Goldberg? Stop that, Bill.
O'REILLY: OK. It doesn't happen much. But I take your point that you don't want any group singled out take your point.
GOLDBERG: Thank you. Thanks.
O'REILLY: I will have more with Whoopi in a moment.
According to her book, she's finding society kind of annoying these days. I'm sure it centers around me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'REILLY: Continuing now with Whoopi Goldberg, author of the big best seller, "Is it Just Me or Is it Nuts Out There?"
Now we have common ground, you and me. In my book, "Pinheads & Patriots," I write that the Internet, the rise of the machines, has really impacted particularly younger people, younger Americans in a way that's both good and bad. And you pick up that theme in your book, saying that it's caused all kinds of behavioral problems.
GOLDBERG: Yes, I think it has. I think it has. I -- you know, the idea that you and I can get into a heated, spirited discussion, it's a lot more fun than reading anonymous blurbs from people that are -- I mean, we have no way to communicate with them. I don't understand this.
And because of it, because people don't have to talk back and forth, people don't know how to talk. They don't know how to interact, and it kind of freaks me out.
O'REILLY: You know what bothers me is the viciousness, because you can be anonymous. It's not like you're in the street. You and I, we're from the same generation. When we went out to the streets, if you didn't like somebody...
GOLDBERG: That's right.
O'REILLY: You know, it was you and that person. You either worked it out or there was a little strife.
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: But now you can hide in your basement...
GOLDBERG: Yes.
O'REILLY: ... and say the most awful things about people.
GOLDBERG: Horrifying things. And they don't even have to be true.
O'REILLY: Of course, you can make them up, and that's why the children are being bullying -- bullied. Not on the playgrounds but on the Internet.
GOLDBERG: Yes.
O'REILLY: And so many problems. Is there a solution to that?
GOLDBERG: I think that there is, but it's a time-consuming one. You know? And we've become an instant generation. I think parents actually have to keep in touch with what's going on with their kids on the e-mails. And it's not about being...
O'REILLY: You have to spy, then.
GOLDBERG: Well, no, you have to say to your kids like our parents said to us, "This is what we're doing."
O'REILLY: Right. We have to say, "Look, I'm going to check your e- mail, whether you like it or not."
GOLDBERG: Yes. It wasn't a discussion.
O'REILLY: One of the things that, before the rise of the Internet, but it was almost coincided, that I felt was very pernicious and you probably discussed this on "The View" was with guys like Ludacris and these people, Eminem, just putting out this music that younger people like, which was so base, violent, discriminatory. Well, you name it. It was in there.
Now they justify it by saying, that's what's going on in the streets. I really think that's hurt a whole generation of Americans, that kind of entertainment. Am I wrong?
GOLDBERG: I don't know if you're wrong. I don't feel the same way. I think that it's always people our age, which were our parents before us and their parents before them, always thought that the music of young people was basically violent, and awful and terrible. You know, and as we have gotten more progressive in what we allow on television and in ads, it goes along with everything else.
O'REILLY: Well, if you're going to object to the Internet -- and I'm with you there -- and the base, anonymous smears that come out of it, all right, why are you giving rappers, who are demeaning women and gays and all kinds of people, why are you giving them a pass? It's the same kind of stuff.
GOLDBERG: I'm not giving them a pass. But I know who it is.
O'REILLY: True, you know who it is.
GOLDBERG: I can walk up to them and say, "What are you doing?"
O'REILLY: No, you can't walk up to them.
GOLDBERG: No, I can.
O'REILLY: No, because they live in gated mansions with 50 security guards.
GOLDBERG: No, no. Bill, I can.
O'REILLY: You can.
GOLDBERG: Yes. OK. Let's be real here.
O'REILLY: All right. So you can scold them, but they don't care what you say.
GOLDBERG: No, that's not necessarily true. Because if you've been listening to the music, there's been an arc, and there's been a lot of changes. Because the musicians themselves and their parents have said to them, "What the hell are you doing? We -- what are you doing? I didn't raise you like this." So the shift is happening.
O'REILLY: You think the shift is happening. But a lot of damage has been done by the entertainment industry to younger people. And I don't want to sound like an old fogey, but if you look at Elvis and the Beatles and you compare them to what's going on now, come on, it's not in the same universe.
GOLDBERG: But you know, Bill, that's what our grandparents said. It's the same thing.
O'REILLY: There's a truth. There's a truth line.
GOLDBERG: You know, there's a truth for that generation. But for my generation the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were considered, you know, dirty, filthy dirty and nasty.
O'REILLY: Did they kill anybody?
GOLDBERG: I don't know. Did they? I don't know. They sure got arrested, though.
O'REILLY: Well, smoking pot.
GOLDBERG: There you go. Everybody has got their stuff.
O'REILLY: Final question, in your book, you know, you're lamenting that our culture is not as classy as it could be. Do you believe -- do you believe that the entertainment industry has contributed to that?
GOLDBERG: No.
O'REILLY: You don't?
GOLDBERG: You know who I blame more than anybody?
O'REILLY: Parents?
GOLDBERG: Us. No, all of us.
O'REILLY: All Americans?
GOLDBERG: All of us. Because when you go down the street and you look and you see this gorgeous model in the itty-bitty, you know, Victoria Secret, and her bust is hanging out and her lips are like that you think, "Wow, that -- when that become allowed? When was that OK?" Because it's not a time thing. It doesn't like come on at 7 p.m. You know?
We accept things. We have accepted a lot of things. We accepted that people don't need to have facts. That facts are no longer necessary.
O'REILLY: So we're all a part of the problem?
GOLDBERG: I think so. I think so.
O'REILLY: All right. Very provocative book. Thanks for coming in, Whoopi. It was very fun, and I'm sure the audience feels the same way.
GOLDBERG: I hope so. I'll see you soon.
O'REILLY: Say hello to Joy for me.
GOLDBERG: I will.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/whoopi-goldberg-gives-her-point-of-view-in-the-no-spin-zone