FNC's O'Reilly Notes Dan Rather's Obama Gaffe, Media's Double Standard

On Tuesday’s The O’Reilly Factor on FNC, during the show’s regular "Pinheads and Patriots" segment, host Bill O’Reilly picked up on Dan Rather’s recent gaffe connecting "articulate" President Obama with "selling watermelons," as the FNC host gave on-screen attribution to NewsBusters as his source while a clip of Rather’s words from Sunday’s Chris Matthews Show played.

O’Reilly then observed the double standard between the likely media interest if a right-leaning personality like himself made such a statement which seems to employ racial stereotyping versus the lack of interest in such words being uttered by the left-leaning Rather.

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Tuesday, March 9, The O’Reilly Factor on FNC:

BILL O'REILLY: On the pinhead front, listen to Dan Rather on President Obama.

DAN RATHER: Part of the undertow in the coming election is going to be President Obama's leadership. And the Republicans will make a case – and a lot of independents will buy this argument: Listen, he just hasn't – look at the health care bill. It was his number one priority, and it took him forever to get it through, and he had to compromise it to death. And a version of, listen, he's a nice person, he's very articulate – this is what’s going to be used against him – but he couldn't sell watermelons if you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic.

O'REILLY: Now, if I had said the word "watermelon" within a 100- mile radius of President Obama, I would have been hammered beyond belief by the liberal press. And you know it. But not a word about Mr. Rather, who really didn't mean anything derogatory, in my opinion. But you can decide if he's a pinhead.