ALSO SEE: It Shouldn't Have
Taken Decades for Fox to Fire Its Harassers

Fox Fires 1 Racist, Promotes 2 Others

By Andrew Kirell, The Daily Beast

20 April 17

Bill O�Reilly is gone�and that�s good�but two of the men getting promoted in his wake are just as awful as he was when it comes to race-baiting.

ox News may have just rid itself of a serially sexist and racist blowhard by ousting Bill O�Reilly, but the network promoted two racist clowns to help fill the void: Eric Bolling and Jesse Watters.

As part of Fox�s primetime lineup reshuffling, its 5 p.m. roundtable gabfest The Five will move to the 9 p.m. slot vacated by Tucker Carlson, who will take over O�Reilly�s highly coveted 8 o�clock hour. Bolling will depart The Five to get his own 5 p.m. show, starting May 1. Replacing him on The Five will be Watters, O�Reilly�s long-time protege and henchman.

Both of those smirking dudebros have histories of race-baiting that stretch as far back as allegations of O�Reilly�s serial sexual-harassing.

Plucked from Wall Street to give trading analysis for Fox Business Network, Bolling has become one of the network�s most shameless attention-grabbers over the past near-decade. While manning ostensibly business-related shows for FBN (first Money Rocks, then Follow the Money), Bolling frequently played host to early racist birther conspiracies. On one occasion, he brought on infamous anti-Muslim bigot and birther Pamela Geller to inspect a cardboard cutout of President Obama�s long-form birth certificate.

His commentary on the matter echoed that of your racist uncle�s chain emails, circa 2011. �There�s a green border around it that had to be Photoshopped in,� he remarked to Geller while pointing at the certificate with a green laser-pointer.

Bolling also claimed that New Jersey Muslims knew about 9/11 in advance.

When Obama met with the president of Gambia in 2011, Bolling declared on his show: �It�s not the first time he�s had a hoodlum in the hizzouse,� referring to rapper Common�s appearance at a prior White House event.

�So what�s with all the hoods in the hizzie?� he added.

Earlier that same year, Bolling said Obama was too busy �chugging forties� to visit tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri.

�How does increasing taxes count as spending cuts in your world, Mr. Obama?� Bolling said another night, when the president released his tax plan. �Maybe in Kenya, but certainly not here.�

In 2012, after Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, who is black, used fiery rhetoric to decry Republican leadership, Bolling responded, �Congresswoman, you saw what happened to Whitney Houston. Step away from the crack pipe.�

Following in the footsteps of a habitual fail-upper like Bolling is Watters, who will now co-host Fox�s 9 p.m. show after years of training under O�Reilly.

Watters�s biggest claim to fame was a segment last fall in which he took his perpetual shit-eating grin to the streets of New York�s Chinatown to openly mock Asians. For five minutes, he asked the locals�some of whom didn�t speak English�if they do karate, where he can buy some homeopathic herbs for sexual �performance,� or whether he�s �supposed to bow to say hello.�

�Kung Fu Fighting,� featuring a stereotypical �Oriental� riff, played throughout the pre-taped package. Even right-wing outlets decried the dumb segment as a �crime against comedy.�

�I regret if anyone found offense,� was Watters�s supremely Fox-like non-apology after the outcry reached fever pitch.

As I wrote back then, Watters will �get off with a slap on the wrist� and [he] will always win. And he will continue to rise at Fox News.� I even cited �the meteoric rise of fellow race-baiting clown� Bolling as an example of how �Fox News has historically rewarded cheap, often ugly bullshit.�

With O�Reilly�s firing, it�s clear Fox News is attempting to revamp its internal reputation as a den of sexism and sexual harassment. But in those promoted following his exit, it�s clear the network has no desire to change its on-air reputation when it comes to casual race-baiting.