Bill O’Reilly’s use of racially-coded dog-whistle language is just part of his crotchety-old-man schtick at this point, and is usually not worth a headline. There’s an exception to every rule, though, and last night’s interview with Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari was over-the-top ridiculous. The Fox News host sat down with Calipari—who was ostensibly there to promote his new book, Players First—and after a brief exchange of pleasantries, began grilling the coach about “hip-hop stuff.”
“I mean, you are a good guy coach but, hey, now, the culture has coarsened,” said O’Reilly. “I don’t know if you listen to this rap stuff and the hip-hop stuff. Has that changed their attitude? I mean, how do you impose discipline on kids who are pretty much gonna do what they want to do?” O’Reilly goes on to express disbelief that Calipari’s players don’t curse at him, asks him what he does when a girl tells one of his players “hey, you raped me,” and states, matter-of-factly, that there are “hustlers everywhere” who are “giving the kids drugs for free.”
