Goldberg: The media playing the race card again?

Bernie on members of the media who claim the right only criticizes Obama because he is African American

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," June 18, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Weekdays with Bernie" segment today, we featured ABC News correspondent, Sam Donaldson, saying that some on the political right are criticizing Barack Obama because he's a black man. Also CNN anchor Don Lemon echoed that yesterday on the air.

Joining us now from North Carolina with analysis, the purveyor of BernardGoldberg.com, Mr. Goldberg. Before we get to Donaldson, I want to say that I want to say that Roger Clemens was acquitted today. And we're going to ask Bernie about that, because he does a sports program for HBO, after we get through with this.

First of all, do you know Sam Donaldson? Do you know him?

BERNIE GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I met him a couple times early in my career when I was a local reporter in Miami. He was very gracious, very nice. But I guess I know him the way your audience knows him, Bill. I know him from watching him on TV for a number of years. And in that sense I think I know him pretty well.

O'REILLY: All right. So it's no surprise that he's a liberal man. He's always been that way.

GOLDBERG: Right.

O'REILLY: Always going after the conservative presidents like Reagan harder than he would go after a Bill Clinton. OK. So we established that.

This is not the first time Donaldson has made an accusation, a general accusation that, if you criticize Barack Obama for immigration or whatever you criticize him for, it's because he's black.

Now, I say this. This is what I said in my radio commentary today. No. 1, this is unseemly, because Donaldson can't back it up. Am I a racist because I criticized Barack Obama, because it may be unconstitutional what he did last Friday? Am I racist because of that? You see, Donaldson, this is cheap. And that's what angers me about it.

GOLDBERG: Right. Listen, we heard this a approximately 22 million times from liberals inside and outside of the media. If you disagree with Barack Obama, it must be because you're a racist. It can't possibly be because you disagree with him on Obama care or the stimulus or on the amount of...

O'REILLY: But where does that come from? Where does that come from?

GOLDBERG: I'm going to tell you right now. It comes from liberals like Sam Donaldson looking at things through this racial prism because -- and this is the important part -- because it makes them feel better about themselves. Because then they can say, "You see? I'm one of the good white people. I'm not like those right-wing bigots."

But if Sam is listening tonight -- and he may very well be -- you know, Sam is a smart guy. I'd ask him this. Do you really think, Sam, do you really think that those people you call right-wing bigots, racists, do you really think they'd be racist toward a black man, a conservative black man who was president of the United States? I think they'd love him. I think they'd love him.

And I think if you think about it for a second, Sam, you might agree with that. That it's clearly his liberal politics that these conservatives don't like, not the color of his skin.

O'REILLY: But what I don't understand is this. And Sam Donaldson, why does Sam Donaldson have to feel better about himself? Does he feel guilty for being a left-wing guy? I mean, you know, if you're a left-wing guy, that's fine. Why do you have to feel guilty about anything?

GOLDBERG: That's -- that's a good question. There's a brilliant scholar out on the West Coast, Hoover Institution, named Shelby Steele, and Shelby Steele writes about this and talks about this. And he calls it good racial manners.

It's a way white people, some white people take care of their guilt. Because they feel guilty that "look where I am and maybe I wouldn't be here if I were black," so -- so they go out of their way to show -- and this is Shelby Steele's phrase -- their good racial manners. Sam Donaldson is doing exactly that.

O'REILLY: I never had one day in my life where I felt guilty about my success, because there were African-Americans walking around this country. I mean, there's no linkage at all.

GOLDBERG: That doesn't mean -- but that doesn't mean, Bill. I believe you; neither I have. But that doesn't mean that there aren't white liberals out there who feel just the opposite. There are.

O'REILLY: I don't know why they would. There's no linkage at all. If there's a poor white person or black person or Indian or whatever, I'll try to help them. But it doesn't have anything to do with my career or my lifestyle whatsoever.

All right. Let me get on to this other thing. This guy from the Daily Caller, the conservative Web site, he interrupts Barack Obama. And I say it's a pure attention-getting play for this guy. All right? He wants attention. The Daily Caller wants attention.

But, again, it's a racist thing. He wouldn't do it to whatever -- conservative. I'm going don't you people understand he wants attention? That's why he did it.

GOLDBERG: OK. Listen, I would say that this reporter for The Daily Caller in a word is a jerk. A jerk. Totally unprofessional.

I think what's worse than what he did even, is a smart guy like his boss, Tucker Carlson, saying the guy didn't do anything wrong. He gave the guy a gold star when I would have fired that reporter before he got back to the office.

O'REILLY: Why would you have fired him?

GOLDBERG: Because it's totally unprofessional to interrupt the president of the United States in the middle of his remarks, supposedly to ask a question. But it was -- it was one of those questions that he really wanted to get into the debate with the president.

Look, do you remember not that long ago a few years back that Iraqi journalist threw a shoe...

O'REILLY: A shoe.

GOLDBERG: ... at President Bush. And more than a few liberals laughed their heads off over it. Never mind that George W. Bush was the president of the United States of America.

O'REILLY: Right. And they should have been outraged.

GOLDBERG: Their president.

O'REILLY: Absolutely.

GOLDBERG: And now -- and now, Bill, we have conservatives.

O'REILLY: Not many, though.

GOLDBERG: Not many, absolutely right.

O'REILLY: Not many.

GOLDBERG: But we have some conservatives who are defending this guy...

O'REILLY: A few. Very few.

GOLDBERG: ... saying, "Barack Obama shows no respect to us. Why should we show respect to him?"

O'REILLY: And I have a letter I'm going to read along that line. Very few. Real quick because I've got to get to Clemens.

GOLDBERG: OK. But there is no reason -- I think he's a jerk but I have no reason to believe he's a racist.

O'REILLY: Right. It wasn't -- it was...

GOLDBERG: Sam Donaldson has no way of knowing if he's a racist or not either.

O'REILLY: OK. Real quick, Roger Clemens acquitted. Are you surprised?

GOLDBERG: No. I think there are two quick reasons I'll give you. One, Clemens' teammate, former teammate, Andy Pettitte, a pitcher on the Yankees, at one point said that Clemens told him he took human growth hormone. Then on cross-examination said, "I may have gotten that wrong. I think I'm 50-50." So that could present reasonable doubt.

But I think the bigger reason is too many jurors watch "CSI Miami." I mean, testimony means nothing to these people. They want -- they want fingerprints. They want blood samples. They want microscopes. And that's why a lot of people who I think some of us would say are clearly guilty are going to get off and have been getting off, because jurors -- jurors watch too much television.

O'REILLY: Yes, beyond a reasonable doubt in this case. All right. We're going to have more. "Is It Legal?" is investigating the verdict, and we'll have that tomorrow. Bernie, thanks.

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