December 11, 2006
Recently GamePolitics reported on conservative pundit Bill O'Reilly's view that iPods, video games and the like would be the ruination of modern society:
Following an appearance on Oprah in which O'Reilly apparently made similar comments, a controversial YouTube video appeared in which a young girl offered an opinionated rebuttal on a variety of topics. The video is obviously edited footage and it's clear the girl has been coached. Her skewering of O'Reilly wanders into a generalized attack on religion and Republicans, and is sure to offend many.
Recently, O'Reilly fired back.
GP: The YouTube videos of the O'Reilly Oprah appearance which sparked this controversy have been yanked over copyrights, but the Oprah show has some transcripts from O'Reilly's appearance. The controversial Fox host, by the way, is hawking a book, Culture Warrior
, which probably explains a lot.
...did you ever talk to these computer geeks? I mean, can you carry on a conversation with them? …I really fear for the United States because, believe me, the jihadists? They’re not playing the video games. They’re killing real people over there.
Following an appearance on Oprah in which O'Reilly apparently made similar comments, a controversial YouTube video appeared in which a young girl offered an opinionated rebuttal on a variety of topics. The video is obviously edited footage and it's clear the girl has been coached. Her skewering of O'Reilly wanders into a generalized attack on religion and Republicans, and is sure to offend many.
Recently, O'Reilly fired back.
GP: The YouTube videos of the O'Reilly Oprah appearance which sparked this controversy have been yanked over copyrights, but the Oprah show has some transcripts from O'Reilly's appearance. The controversial Fox host, by the way, is hawking a book, Culture Warrior
, which probably explains a lot.
Comments
I mean as far as child abuse goes the girl looked as though she was having fun. Comparing this to raping children is just patronising.
Congratulations, parents of child. You've just given conservative pundits everywhere a good reason to continue with their one-sided tripe.
Seems fitting that it would be a paper that O'reilly is attached to.
Britney Spears ? Christina Aguilera ? Justin Timberlake ? Come in here, please...
They are putting her eternal soul at risk. That is far worse than her getting sodomised by a half dozen old men.
Well, look at it this way, if this is child abuse by making her read someone else's opinion from a script, then every nativity play in the country is also child abuse by Bill's description of it.
Oddly enough, they used Bill's own technique for popularity, and he fell for it, hook, line and sinker.
Priceless. Thanks a lot guys for posting this up, since I really can't bear to watch O'Reilly unless absolutely necessary. And by necessary, I mean forcing me to upon threat of death. Linked this over on dtoid: http://www.destructoid.com/little-girl-responds-to-o-reilly-bill-acts-li...
And the video of the little girl had a point, O'Reilly slams music and video games for supposed youth violence when the Republicans, the people that currently have the power in the White House, have been killing lots of people over in Iraq so they don't have much room to talk. Besides, if they have had any real facts, then they'd know that youth crime rates have significantly dropped since 1992, which was oh!, coud it be?, the release of Mortal Kombat?!
Boo-fucking-hoo, Reilly.
Eh, i don't think the religion-bashing was that creative, but it's great that someone's opposing bill o' reily.
O RLY?
In Bill's world, when someone uses a child actor it is horrible horrible child abuse. When he warps the minds of young people by trying to convince them that the french want to eat them and that athiests hate christmas it is perfectly normal and acceptable.
I may not like a lot of the things that he is also against, but the way he trys to justify his opinion is not only degrading, but just insulting to moderate conservitives everywhere
For my part, I'm in the UK, so I wouldn't give a damn what she called either party btw.
Oddly enough, I don't think that would be the case. i think the liberals would proceed to respond to the dokey rapist allegations, and the quantifiable dangers to society as a whole. I dare say the liberals would accept burning in hell as a fair consequence for mule abuse, if that indeed is what's going on . . .
Hope he doesn't find that tape of my nephew lighting a gasoline pentagram in a field and cackling like a madman. Of course he was 8, and playing a part in a school horror movie, but hey, for all Bill knows we were converting him to Satanism...
------------------------------------------------------------
To Whom It May Concern:
I happened across a digital video of this report: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjc9g1-4ytI&eurl). I would like to point out a couple of inaccuracies contained in it.
First, this video was not created as political propaganda by the girl's parents, or "nuts" as Mr. O' Reilly terms them. It was a professionally filmed video using a child actor. It was created for a music group, whose message is summed up therein. Also, the original video of the girl states this explicitly at the summation of the video. I was able to confirm this in less than five minutes using web searches (Google/YouTube).
Here are links that confirm the video's source:
http://www.thebastardfairies.com/Site%202/THE%20BASTARD%20FAIRIES%20Meme...
http://www.myspace.com/thebastardfairies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8x14cLGh5o&eurl
Taken from above: "OFFICIAL STATEMENT: THIS VIDEO FEATURES A TALENTED YOUNG ACTRESS PLAYING A FICTITIOUS CHARACTER. IT IS A COMMERCIAL FOR THE BAND 'THE BASTARD FAIRIES' AND DIRECTED BY AN AWARD WINNING DOCUMENTARY FILM MAKING TEAM."
Second, the "Child Advocate", Wendy Murphy, that appeared next to Mr. O' Reilly is mistaken. There is absolutely no child abuse contained in that video, implicit or explicit, as defined by the Federal Government.
See: http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/define.cfm
I would politely suggest that Mr. O' Reilly's news team finds better 'experts,' perhaps one less shrill and hysterical, and one who is familiar with what is considered to be child abuse by our Federal Government. Unless Wendy Murphy is making the claim that all child acting is abuse. You will find that this claim, apart from being absurd, puts her in an actionable position because child acting is strictly regulated by the film industry so as to not harm the well being of the child. If that video is child abuse, then the makers of the movies, "Goonies," and, "The Sandlot," had better be locked up.
I am confused that a senior news personality, who sells his persona as a dedicated, "no-spin" news source, would run this segment as a serious news piece. The piece was not researched, and left out certain facts. Mr. O' Reilly used this glaring omission to further his own agenda - I dare say this type of broadcasting is "spin" of the purest sort.
I realize that Mr. O' Reilly finds that video's message offensive. That is perfectly reasonable; the double-edged sword of Free Speech cuts both ways. However, instead of disagreeing using a reasoned argument, Mr. O' Reilly has simply set the video up as a "Straw Man," doing nothing to counter it but attack the medium, leaving the message wholly intact. I'd be willing to bet that the free publicity Mr. O’ Reilly has provided the band has given that video a voice to be reckoned with, and assured that many millions of children and teenagers will have access to it's message.
Thank you for your time.
Bleh both sides of this disgust me.
If it weren't for the fact that there hadn't been a story that could use it yet, I could've sworn that they just stole the graphic from the Colbert Report.
I myself kept watching. I mean, a news report with "OH NOES, DA MACHINES!" as it's starting point? You know it's just going to go downhill quickly. At the end of the day, it's comforting to know that most Fox viewers are half-baked chiuauas who lap up every word that twit says.
That and the Colbert Report jokes become even funnier when you see what they're based on. ;)
I kept watching, but I did bang my head on my desk in hopes that I was in some twisted nightmare where ignorance and stupidity were allowed to run rampant and that would wake me up. Unfortunately I was still in the real world, so now I just have a headache.
To say that she was coached and that this is child abuse, is ridiculous. Just because she's young, doesn't mean that she can't have an authentic opinion about this. Also what about all the people that have convinced crazy people, who have gone on killing sprees, to say that violent video games made them do it. Jack Thompson, and anti-game acitivists, coerce people into saying things. This girl shouldn't be shrugged off as wrong because she's young. I have one thing to say about this girl's intelligence level and awesome comments on this issue that most adults can't even figure out. *APPLAUSE*
Back on topic I think that it is scripted since I highly doubt a little girl would come up with that conclusion. I also think that person could get his point acorss better if he said it himself, unless he speaks with a lisp or is a cigarette addict who speaks with a hole in his throat, still though that was too painfully scripted.
Read the other comments. This was scripted. Specifically it was a paid actress doing a promotional thing for a band. Somewhere along the way the specific disclaimer that that's what this was got chopped off of the video.
Someone give Bill a nice Boot To The Head. I guess now that he's "won" the War On The War On Christmas, he has to find some other way to torture people.