Boo-Yah': O'Reilly vs. Stewart Showdown Over Rapper Involves Accusations of 'Pettifogging

Any conversation between Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart is going to have its moments. But throw in the controversy over the White House invitation to the rapper Common, and this could be extra fun!

Mediate:

In O’Reilly’s eyes it seemed that the issue was a simple one: the President (or in this case First Lady Michelle Obama) should never have invited the controversial rapper to perform at the White House, because as he sees it, Common celebrates a convicted cop killer. As Stewart sees it though, the only reason that Common is considered a “controversial” rapper is because Fox News trumped up that narrative and repeated on its opinion shows repeatedly (which happen to draw the most viewers on cable news by far.)

While being careful not to speak for the rapper, Stewart redefined Common as someone that wasn’t celebrating the killing of a cop, but rather “honoring someone he thinks was wrongly convicted of cop killing,” adding “I think he believes that she was convicted unjustly.”

The Nation gives the liberal spin:

Stewart really seized control of the terms of debate near the end of the first segment, when he asked whether O'Reilly would revoke Bono's White House guest pass, issued by several administrations, because of his song about Leonard Peltier. "It's the exact same thing: A guy convicted of killing a law enforcement official, no?" asked Stewart, adding "Boo-yah!" to emphasize the point. (He salted his rhetoric with rap slang throughout the debate.) And that's when O'Reilly started to melt. "Did Bono, did he actually come out and say that [Peltier] was innocent?" O'Reilly asked, groping for a distinction. "No, I think he was raising questions about it," O'Reilly offered. "Now who's pettifogging?," Stewart countered, "I can't even see you, through your pettifog!"