Fox News' Bill O'Reilly said Monday that the racist comments attributed to Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling were ignorant, but that some people, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, have used them to bring attention to themselves.
O'Reilly compared Sterling to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who
came under fire last week for asking whether black people might not have been better off under slavery than on government assistance.
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Sterling's voice is purported to be on
an audio recording telling his girlfriend, who is of mixed race, to avoid being seen with black people online and at Clippers basketball games.
Both men, O'Reilly said, have a sense of "entitlement," making them feel they can speak disparagingly of blacks. Both represent only themselves in their words, he said, and not the U.S. as a whole.
In addition to Sharpton, O'Reilly criticized rapper Snoop Dogg, who recorded a profanity-laced rant against Sterling.
"Do you really think that helps the cause of anti-discrimination in the United States?" O'Reilly said after playing Snoop Dogg's video.