What else Jackson said

The mystery has been cleared up about what else the Rev. Jesse Jackson said last week when he made his crude remarks about Barack Obama.

The comment, reported Wednesday morning by the TVNewser blog: “Barack . . . he’s talking down to black people . . . telling [black people] how to behave.” But he didn’t use “black people” on second reference; he used the plural form of the N-word.

The initial firestorm concerned Jackson’s comments before a July 6 interview on “Fox & Friends.” The civil rights leader whispered that Obama was “talking down to black people.” Jackson said he wanted to “cut his nuts off.”

Bill O’Reilly, who first reported the comments, told viewers the network had decided to air portions of what Jackson had said, adding there was “more damaging” material. That sparked rumors that Jackson had used the N-word -- and aimed it at Obama.

On Wednesday, O’Reilly said he had withheld the N-word remark because “I’m not in the business of creating some kind of controversy that’s not relevant to the general subject -- one civil rights leader disparaging another over policy.”

As for how the N-word comment got out, O’Reilly said “some weasel leaked it to the Internet.”

-- Stuart Silverstein