O'Reilly not backing down from comments

According to the NY Daily News, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly said Wednesday his critics took remarks he made about a Black-owned restaurant out of context and "fabricated a racial controversy where none exists." (Click Here if you missed the story)

He criticized the liberal group Media Matters for America as "smear merchants" for publicizing statements he made on his radio show last week.

"If you listened to the full hour, it was a criticism of racism on the part of white Americans who are ignorant of the fact that there is no difference between white and black anymore," O'Reilly told the AP. "Circumstances may be different in their lives but we're all Americans. Anyone who would be offended by that conversation would have to be looking to be offended."

Sylvia's manager Trenness Woods-Black told the New York Daily News that O'Reilly's remarks about her Black patrons were "insulting" and showed he has little knowledge of the black community.

Karl Frisch, spokesman for Media Matters, said it is typical for O'Reilly to criticize his group for merely reporting what he says.

"We didn't call him a racist," Frisch said. "We said his comments were ignorant and racially charged, and we stand by that."