O'Racist Suck-Up Watch

Howie "FOX News Flack" Kurtz is at it again. The self-described media critic writes:

Fox's Bill O'Reilly is taking some heat for referring to Mexican smugglers as "wetbacks." "I was just fumbling around for the word 'coyote,' " O'Reilly says of the offensive term. "It was apparent this was not used in any kind of denigrating form."

But a month before the reference on his cable show, Conservative News Service says, the Allentown, Pa., Morning Call reported that O'Reilly used the word at a Pennsylvania appearance. The event's organizer, Shelley Brown, says she didn't hear it, and O'Reilly calls the charge "insane" -- adding that someone is orchestrating an e-mail campaign to Fox denouncing him. "This is an industry that basically wants to attack people they don't agree with," he says.

Two things immediately leap out from this blurb.

(1) O'Reilly doesn't deny making the statement. He says that charge is "insane," not that it's false. I guess O'Reilly hasn't been able to confirm whether a tape exists of the event. He also says he's being attacked by people who don't agree with him -- namely, people that don't like racists.

(2) Kurtz tries to deflect the blow to O'Racist's reputation by stating that he was referring to smugglers. But the term "wetback" doesn't refer to smugglers, it refers to anyone entering the country through Mexico.

More importantly, why didn't Howie -- who plays a journalist on television -- speak to the reporter in Allentown who wrote the article instead of just running O'Reilly's non-denial. Remember, the article in the local paper was written before O'Reilly repeated the racist slur on FNC. There's no reason for a local reporter to fabricate a quote in a puff piece about a local fundraiser. Moreover, why wouldn't the local organizer attempt to correct the reporter when the article was published, if she didn't hear O'Racist's statement? Wouldn't she want to deny booking a bigot for her big charity event?

I need to amend my question "Why does O'Reilly still have a job?" to "Why do O'Reilly and Kurtz still have jobs?"