I sometimes like Bill O’Reilly of Fox News. His interview with Trent Lott about the $187 million loan Lott lobbied to give American Classic Voyages, a company that went bankrupt last fall, was priceless, although Lott’s comments were equally priceless. At one point, Lott decried the presence of foreign-flagged merchant ships in his hometown from countries like Liberia and “Panamania.” Perhaps Lott knows of a country that is undercutting our merchant marine that no one else has ever heard of. Normally, O’Reilly pulls off a good interview like this one and makes himself look like a responsible journalist. Recently though, O’Reilly pulled off a string of interviews that made him look more like a demagogue. He recently did a show called “Corruption of an American Child,” in which he interviewed musicians, producers and movie-industry insiders to confront them with the corrupting influences that their music and movies have on children. It’s laughable that Fox ran this show, considering Fox has been accused of corrupting the youth of America ever since Bart Simpson first said, “Eat my shorts,” to Principal Skinner. While corruption of children may have been the premise, I saw it as more O’Reilly trying to blame the industry for irresponsible parents.
When O’Reilly showed a tape of children as young as 12 years old coming out of the theater after seeing the R-rated “American Pie 2,” he didn’t ask the kids’ parents, “Why are you letting your kids go see that?” He didn’t ask the theater managers, “Why are you selling R-rated movie tickets to people under the age of 17?” He chose instead to go after the industry. When he showed videos and lyrics from performers such as Marilyn Manson and the Insane Clown Posse, he didn’t ask parents, “Are you aware of what your kids are listening to or watching?” He asked the artists themselves if they felt any responsibility to the unguided kids they might be influencing. Why should they? They didn’t go out and have children they have no intention of taking care of. If O’Reilly is so concerned about unguided kids, instead of selling “O’Reilly Factor” shirts, caps, and coffee mugs on his Web site, he should solicit donations for mentor programs such as Big Brother/Big Sister. It looks to me like he is doing exactly what these performers are doing-trying to sell a product.
It’s quite stupid for people to go around worrying about Marilyn Manson, Russell Simmons, the Insane Clown Posse or Harry Potter when there are far bigger issues out there. Take the government’s funneling of federal tax dollars to religious charities. What comes with federal dollars? That’s right kids, federal regulations! Using federal money to promote a particular religion is wrong, that’s why our Constitution’s authors were so against it. So the government put in a regulation that the money cannot be used to proselytize.
Essentially they are telling the Salvation Army that they can’t tell people about why they do what they do. Then there’s that whole Enron thing. Not to mention the push to poke holes in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve to look for more oil to go in those gas-guzzling SUVs. But by gum, O’Reilly’s going to keep us safe from foul-mouthed singers and purveyors of crappy movies! It’s like watching a lifeboat sinking and seeing one passenger curse another for being too heavy instead of trying to plug the hole in the bottom of the boat.
I’m not a fan of Marilyn Manson or the Insane Clown Posse-if you dig these guys, that’s your business. But those guys are in good company when you consider that Socrates, Elvis Presley, Joe Namath and a host of other historically significant people have been accused of corrupting the young at some point or another. As far as O’Reilly is concerned, I’m reminded of the words of author Holbrook Jackson, “Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest form of cowardice.