Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly slams ‘Glee’ for transgender teen storyline: ‘kids might

[Shana A]

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly slams 'Glee' for transgender teen storyline: 'kids might go out and experiment'
Fox & Friend's Gretchen Carlson also joins criticism of sitcom

By Ethan Sacks / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, April 20, 2012, 6:13 PM
   
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/television/fox-news-bill-o-reilly-slams-glee-transgender-teen-storyline-kids-experiment-article-1.1065140

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly wasn't exactly singing the praises about this week's episode of "Glee".

The conservative pundit blasted the musical sitcom, aired on sister network Fox, for its inclusion of a transgendered teenager, played by Alex Newell.

"Here's the problem with a show like this, though," O'Reilly said in the segment of his Thursday night show, "The O'Reilly Factor", flagged by the advocacy group Media Matters. "If you make the behavior of these people ... if children hear it, unsupervised children, okay who don't have parents watching their -- they might go out and experiment with this stuff."

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Fox's O'Reilly, Carlson: 'Glee' makes kids experiment with homosexuality, gender identity
By Carlos Maza
Equality Matters

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2012/04/foxs-oreilly-carlson-glee-makes-kids-experiment-with-homosexuality-gender-identity/

    PIRRO: That if kids see this, that they're going to say 'gee, I want to be a girl even though I'm not going to wear my mom's high heels tonight.'

    [...]

    O'REILLY: When I was a teenager and I saw James Dean smoking, it made me want to smoke.

    [...]

    CARLSON: I don't think that watching Glee is going to suddenly make kids want to be transgender or suddenly make them wake up one morning and say that they're going to be –

[Jamie D]

Since when is Bill O'Reilly a "conservative"?

[justmeinoz]

Rhetorical question I know, but how stupid are these people?  They should be more worried that the US has pretty much lost the war on drugs, and kids are experimenting with chemicals to their heart's content.

[gennee]

Question: When has Bill O'Reilly been right about anything?

[Shang]

We're going to corrupt the youth!  Let's get on our shirts and get our fliers. /sarcasm -facepalm-

Oh, this pisses me off and at the same time makes me facepalm.

[Sephirah]

Young people questioning their own gender is a bad thing because...?

Really, experiment with stuff. Test the boundaries. People need to decide these things for themselves, no matter what age, rather than just be told "you're this", or "you're that". Who knows, it may just allow some young people to come to the conclusion that they're not transgendered instead. And may save others from a few decades of heartache and after that, regret at not realising sooner.

They don't like the idea of it because they don't like the idea of giving young people the ability to think for themselves. For fear of what they may decide. And fear about what those decisions mean for anally retentive dinosaurs such as themselves. Based on insecurity, I suspect.

The younger generation has more information at their fingertips than any which has gone before them. And, I believe, the presence of mind and maturity to use it rather than taking things at face value. At least if the younger folks here are anything to go by.

Credit folks with some intelligence, Mr O'Reilly. That you yourself possess seemingly very little doesn't make that universal.

[Jamie D]

Question: When has Bill O'Reilly been right about anything?

O'Reilly joined the channel in 1996 and his 8 p.m. show has been No. 1 among cable news shows for 136 months. It has been the most watched show on all of cable news for the last 125 of those months.

He must be doing something right.

[Sephirah]

He must be doing something right.

Telling people what they want to hear isn't necessarily 'right'.

[Joelene9]

  Kids will experiment with anything that's shown on TV.  When I was little in the late 1950's and early 1960's there were a few reports of injuries and deaths caused by young kids tying a towel cape to their necks and jumping out of windows trying to be Superman.  I seen a few videos lately of kids emulating professional 'wrestlers' with the body slams and the like.  It is up to the adults to inform their children that the actors are pretending. 
  There are all kinds of crap on TV these days that will influence small children more than a transgender character. 
  It was a real transgender person that influenced me and she was Christine Jorgenson in the mid 1960's.  She was being interviewed by a local host on TV and my mom was there to tell us that she was not a queer. 
  Joelene

[Stephe]

It has been the most watched show on all of cable news for the last 125 of those months.

He must be doing something right.

And Jerry Springer was also a popular show, your point being?

This guy is bashing transgender people and you back him up just because he is a huge republican mouthpiece. I assume you think Rush Limbaugh is "fair and balanced" reporting too....

>face palm<

Do you not understand these people you so loudly support HATE you and everyone like you? They would make being trans illegal if they thought they could get away with it and some have tried.

[Jamie D]

Telling people what they want to hear isn't necessarily 'right'.

O'Reilly seems to take flack from both the political left, and the political right.

But commercial television is all about ratings, and he wipes out his competition.

So is it a case of saying what your audience wants to hear, or your audience wanting to hear what you have to say?

[Jamie D]

And Jerry Springer was also a popular show, your point being?

This guy is bashing transgender people and you back him up just because he is a huge republican mouthpiece. I assume you think Rush Limbaugh is "fair and balanced" reporting too....

>face palm<

Do you not understand these people you so loudly support HATE you and everyone like you? They would make being trans illegal if they thought they could get away with it and some have tried.

Stephe, I don't accept him as a "huge republican mouthpiece."  If anything, he is more of a libertarian, like me, than a Republican.  He is certainly anti-big-government.

I recall last week, O'Reilly publicly supporting Jenna Talacova's right to participate in the Canadian pagaent.  That hardly seems consistent with your description of a "hater."  And how did he "bash" transgender people?

I haven't listened to Limbaugh in years.

[Sephirah]

So is it a case of saying what your audience wants to hear, or your audience wanting to hear what you have to say?

If the former is true then the latter will be also.

I can't really comment too much on American news infrastructure since I don't watch it. But I'm under the impression that Fox is to news what fast food burgers are to meat?

If a show is built around opinion, then surely your audience is gonna consist of people who agree with that opinion. So you could tell them the sky was falling in and they'd agree with you. It's a bandwagon argument in the purest sense, lol. That a lot of people agree with you doesn't make you right.

[Arch]

O'REILLY: When I was a teenager and I saw James Dean smoking, it made me want to smoke.

When I was a kid and saw an actor smoking, I thought, "He's going to get lung cancer!"

[Jamie D]

If the former is true then the latter will be also.

I can't really comment too much on American news infrastructure since I don't watch it. But I'm under the impression that Fox is to news what fast food burgers are to meat?

If a show is built around opinion, then surely your audience is gonna consist of people who agree with that opinion. So you could tell them the sky was falling in and they'd agree with you. It's a bandwagon argument in the purest sense, lol. That a lot of people agree with you doesn't make you right.

You are right that popularity does not equal correctness, in any absolute sense.

It seems, though, that O'Reilly is far out-performing his more liberal counterparts at CNN, MSNBC, etc.  This was seen to reflect the mood of the viewing public.

[Sephirah]

It seems, though, that O'Reilly is far out-performing his more liberal counterparts at CNN, MSNBC, etc.  This was seem to reflect the mood of the viewing public.

Maybe so. Of course it's also a possibility that all the sensible people have got better things to do than watch TV

[Jamie D]

Maybe so. Of course it's also a possibility that all the sensible people have got better things to do than watch TV

I can not speak for the UK (last I knew one needed a license for a television), but in the US, about 97% of households have a television set.  That actually represents a drop from 99% in 2009, when analog broadcasting was rendered obsolete.

Would a sensible person buy a television to not watch it?

[Sephirah]

Would a sensible person buy a television to not watch it?

I have a treadmill, doesn't mean I run on it.

But sure, there are lots of reasons people would buy a TV. To watch movies on through a DVD or blu-ray player, keep their kids entertained with cartoons, gaming via consoles, even use it for the internet if it's a smart-TV.

As for the license, well you need one if you own a computer or a radio, too. Anything you can get BBC content on. Apart from mobile phones, as far as I know.

[Stephe]

I can not speak for the UK (last I knew one needed a license for a television), but in the US, about 97% of households have a television set.  That actually represents a drop from 99% in 2009, when analog broadcasting was rendered obsolete.

Would a sensible person buy a television to not watch it?

You sound like you're trying to claim 97% of the population watch O'Reilly.. I would hope sensible people wouldn't be watching Fox news..

You are right that popularity does not equal correctness, in any absolute sense.

It seems, though, that O'Reilly is far out-performing his more liberal counterparts at CNN, MSNBC, etc.  This was seen to reflect the mood of the viewing public.

So did Jerry Springer..

[Jamie D]

Watching MSLSD