Sharpton responds to O'Reilly's Jackson rant

Al Sharpton has responded to Bill O'Reilly's criticism on Michael Jackson's legacy.

The reverend has taken on O'Reilly by appearing on his Fox talk show and defending his statements made at Jackson's public memorial on Tuesday, reports SOHH.

"First of all, you could have a large percentage of Americans who have had plastic surgery, maybe he had more resources, maybe a lot of this is exaggerated," Sharpton told O'Reilly.

"The issue is it's totally irresponsible for a lawmaker to disregard the law. Charges were made against Jackson, a mostly non-black jury, nine out of 12, let's try 12 out of 12 said he was not guilty of child molestation. It's reckless and irresponsible to say he was a child molester as it would be for me to come here and say [former Vice President] Dick Cheney shoots his friends hunting... What I said at the memorial was Michael Jackson, in his career, pop culture, broke down racial barriers.

"First black to get MTV to run black videos. First black to get Rolling Stone to put blacks on the cover. These are facts... For you and anyone else to bring up allegations about his personal life doesn't factor what he did. He brought people together.

"We didn't say he was an African American father of African American children, what he did in his personal life has nothing to do with his iconic status... I can see you and some undocumented people that are upset that he holds the record."