Analyzing the Ebola coverage
Bernie Goldberg weighs in on the media’s reporting of the spreading virus
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 6, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly.
And we continue now with Bernie Goldberg from Miami. Yesterday, on CNN, Fox News Host Andrea Tantaros was verbally attacked by Miles O'Brien, a PBS correspondent.
Andrea, last week, was talking about how Ebola is treated in some West African rural areas.
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ANDREA TANTAROS, FOX NEWS HOST: I've said it before, I'll say it again -- in these countries, they do not believe in traditional medical care. So, someone could get off a flight and seek treatment from a witch doctor who practices Santeria.
This is a bigger fear. We're hoping that they come to the hospitals in the U.S. They might not.
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O'REILLY: Now, Andrea is basing her opinion on a Doctors Without Borders statement that some villages in Ghana are hostile to western medicine and aid workers can't even get into those areas.
The British Red Cross confirms that. But on CNN, apparently, they are not paying attention.
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BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: Miles, not much to say here but witch doctors?
MILES O'BRIEN, PBS SCIENCE REPORTER: Well, I mean, we could digress into what motivated that. And, perhaps, the racial component of all this, the arrogance, the first world versus third world --
STELTER: Mmm.
O'BRIEN: -- statements and implications of just that, it's offensive on several levels. And it reflects, frankly, a level of ignorance which we should not allow in our media and in our discourse.
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O'REILLY: Well, let me get this straight, Mr. O'Brien, you would not allow Andrea Tantaros' opinion.
We've asked Mr. O'Brien to come on THE FACTOR. We hope he does. And rejoining us from Miami, Bernie Goldberg.
So, this is cheap shot alley. I mean, Stelter, the guy who interviewed him --
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-- is a notorious, you know, cheap shot artist, the far left guy CNN hired out of "The New York Times."
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He wants to diminish Fox News whenever he can.
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O'Brien, I'm kind of surprised that he's a decent correspondent, he should know that in many rural areas of Africa, that aid workers have had - -
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-- a terrible time getting to Ebola victims because the people in the villages, in the towns are superstitious.
They don't trust outsiders. And what Andrea was saying is based on reality or am I wrong.
GOLDBERG: No, you're not wrong at all. They talked about ignorance. The ignorance is on the part of Brian Stelter and Miles O'Brien.
Here's what they left out on CNN -- a British Red Cross worker who was working with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone said this -- "Some Africans believe the disease is a punishment or a result of witchcraft. Some families believe that when their loved one goes into an ambulance, they will be given an injection to kill them."
So, if some Africans believe Ebola is the result of witchcraft, why is it a stretch to believe that some Africans may go to a witch doctor to get straightened out.
Here's what you're not allowed to say out loud and what you'll never hear from a liberal journalist at CNN or any other news organization -- "Many Africans," -- I have to whisper this, -- "many Africans in Liberia and Sierra Leone and places like that," yes, here it comes, "are backward people. They do believe in witch doctors."
But it's a lot easier -- they won't talk about that, the liberals, that makes them very uncomfortable. It's a lot easier to go after someone on Fox for using the term "witchcraft."
O'REILLY: Yes, we're all racists here. We know that. And we're all, you know, absolutely denigrating the third world.
GOLDBERG: And imply unfairly -- right, and imply unfairly that she's a racist. Let me just say this very briefly -- shame on Brian Stelter and Miles O'Brien.
They have no idea how their liberalism affects and infects their journalism. Shame on them.
O'REILLY: Well, and then you saw Mr. O'Brien say it should not be permitted. Therefore, Andrea Tantaros is not to be permitted to say that.
GOLDBERG: That's a very liberal statement.
O'REILLY: Right.
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: Now, in Miami where you live right now, there is a neighborhood called Little Haiti.
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: And there are thousands and thousands of Haitians who have come over to the United States to seek a better life. A very small number of those Haitians practice voodoo, all right.
GOLDBERG: Exactly.
O'REILLY: They do. Bernie and I know it. I've done a story in Haiti on voodoo. It is there.
There are hungans, which are witch doctors. They are there. They charge for their services.
And, in Africa, it's the same thing. It may not be called voodoo, it's called something else.
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: So, what Andrea was saying is that it is certainly possible that some infected patient with Ebola can get on a plane and go to Miami, go to Dallas, Texas where there are other communities who have these people in the United States.
And go there instead of going into the hospital. It's absolutely possible and it's in context.
GOLDBERG: Let me make something very clear. Andrea Tantaros said nothing, nothing wrong. This is how crazy liberal -- liberalism in general.
If they want to be crazy, that's fine with me. But when liberalism infects journalism, that really bothers me. It's that she used the term, "witch doctor."
And these two people who didn't know -- how do I know what the Red Cross worker said about how they believe in witchcraft and you know it but these two geniuses at CNN didn't know it.
It's a liberal political correctness. You say "witch doctor" and they say, "Ooh, you can't say that. You're a racist," or imply that you're a racist.
I've done stories on Haiti also. If I came back and said, "You know, there are a lot of people there who believe in voodoo and go to witch doctors." Does that make me a racist.
Liberalism is wrecking journalism. And you know what, we're holding them accountable but nobody else is.
O'REILLY: It doesn't matter.
GOLDBERG: The other media critics don't hold them accountable, newspapers don't hold -- television media critics don't hold them accountable.
O'REILLY: But the fact that we do and the fact that this segment will be on every Web site, political Web site in the country in about 45 seconds is -- we do what we can do, Bernie. That's all we can do.
GOLDBERG: Right.
O'REILLY: Nice to have you.
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