On Monday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, host Al Sharpton again raised a distortion against FNC host Bill O'Reilly as he accused O'Reilly of applying the word "parasites" to "people in need," even though the FNC host was referring to people abusing the welfare system.
After Sharpton asserted that O'Reilly "slammed food stamp recipients as parasites," he played a clip of the FNC host: "The Obama administration is encouraging parasites to come out and, you know, take as much as they can with no remorse. And this is how our country declines. This is how we become a weak nation."
Without explaining that O'Reilly was referring to a young surfer in California who openly admitted that he was not trying to find work, Sharpton posed to liberal talk radio host Joe Madison:
I don't know what writing a check years ago does to justify you calling people parasites, but in his world that's logical. But isn't this really the point, that rather than answer the questions, why you call people parasites, where is all of this, you go off and attack someone that would dare raise a question as to why you're calling people in need these names?
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, August 19, PoliticsNation on MSNBC:
AL SHARPTON: Joe, this last battle between me, if you want to call it that, and Bill O'Reilly was last week he slammed food stamp recipients as parasites. Let me show you what he said.
BILL O'REILLY, FNC's THE O'REILLY FACTOR: The Obama administration is encouraging parasites to come out and, you know, take as much as they can with no remorse. And this is how our country declines. This is how we become a weak nation.
SHARPTON: Now, I disagreed with the allegation of parasites, I disagreed with a lot of what was said on the food stamp stuff. And his retort is that he once donated money to help us what we do, which you know we feed the poor and children every Christmas.
I don't know what writing a check years ago does to justify you calling people parasites, but in his world that's logical. But isn't this really the point, that rather than answer the questions, why you call people parasites, where is all of this, you go off and attack someone that would dare raise a question as to why you're calling people in need these names?
-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center