Sit down. This may shock you.Bill O’Reilly, the famous “political pundit” who gets his kicks yelling his opinions at the masses, has again aimed his sword at rap music with a marginal understanding of the subject.O’Reilly has blasted rap icons in the past. He blamed Rihanna’s savage beating on rap music rather than on Chris Brown. He called Ludacris — who talks about getting too drunk and hooking up with less than desirable women — a gangster rapper in 2002 and torched Pepsi for using him in its ads. Ludacris was dropped from the ads the next day.He called Nas, the hyper-literate rapper who helped legitimize the genre, a “vile rapper.” After the Jay-Z/Young Jeezy performance in D.C., O’Reilly claimed “Jay-Z should know better.”I’m not sure why he should know better, but that’s another story.Now, O’Reilly has taken his attacks to Eminem, who he claims “no one over 25 listens to.” Someone should give Eminem-supporter Elton John the memo. I’m fairly sure he’s at least 26.O’Reilly is angry about Eminem’s new single “We Made You.”I’m mad, too, because Eminem is one of my favorite rappers, and the song is a horrendous piece of trash. To call it a comeback is an insult to the work Eminem did on his first four major albums.O’Reilly, on the other hand, is mad because Eminem drops a line about having sex with Sarah Palin. He calls the song an “obscene rant about Sarah Palin,” which is ridiculous considering the number of other celebrities attacked in the song. He even got up in arms that feminist groups aren’t attacking Eminem for the song.While the man’s point is valid — the dig is cheap, stupid, puerile and frankly boring — it again highlights his ignorance of the genre.Eminem came to fame as one of the most controversial rappers to grace the game. He sang songs about violently murdering his ex-wife Kim. He rapped about killing homosexuals. He rapped about committing suicide frequently.There is no doubt that, if someone were so inclined, an argument against Eminem’s morality could easily be made.But it seems O’Reilly, as is often the case with the blowhard, missed the forest for the trees.This doesn’t bother me as an ardent Eminem supporter, but O’Reilly missed the point that Eminem was popular because of attacks like this. Supposedly, no one is listening to Eminem, but the man has gone platinum numerous times. In many of his songs, Eminem thanks the media controversy for selling his records.This makes one wonder what O’Reilly’s goal is here. Because he’s been criticized in the past for being sexist himself, this could be a saving grace.Or, more likely, it could be another desperate attempt to fill air space, which is a shame because people will find him informed — because he chose to build a house of cards when the bricks and mortar sit in studio.It isn’t hard to blast Eminem for something real.But this is far easier, and O’Reilly is lazy. Rather than gather an actual argument against Eminem, he chose a small point and dragged it into a segment that again attacked rap. His audience eats it up, and his ratings skyrocket.O’Reilly will never discuss T.I.’s songful adoration of God or Common’s begging corner boys to stop slinging.But that’s to be expected.O’Reilly may blast Eminem for using cheap stunts to get noticed — and in this case, Em, you really have failed pretty miserably.Funny, though, how Mr. O’Reilly is guilty of the same crowd.May he who is free of sin cast the first stone.Travis Andrews is a 21-year-old English major from Metairie.—-Contact Travis Andrews at [email protected]