'Grey's Anatomy' Star in Bad Word Rehab

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," January 25, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: "Impact" segment tonight. 43-year-old actor Isaiah Washington, one of the stars of "Grey's Anatomy" has announced he's going into counseling because he used an anti-gay slur. Apparently Washington got into an argument with the actor and called another actor, not the guy he was arguing with, the F-word. Then Washington compounded the mistake by saying this at the Golden Globes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISAIAH WASHINGTON, ACTOR: No, I did not call T.R. a (expletive deleted). Never happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: T.R. Knight told "People" magazine he is gay, they're all in "Grey's Anatomy" together, and that makes the situation even more delicate. So now Mr. Washington is in bad word rehab. With us now, a doctor, Belisa Vranich, a clinical psychologist, who writes for the "New York Daily News." OK, is bad word rehab, is that going to work or what?

BELISA VRANICH, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, first of all, there is no rehab for saying bad words or slurs. So rehab is a serious place. It's for addictions. So I'm having a problem as a psychologist that people are saying "rehab." He's going to counseling, which is a good thing.

O'REILLY: Counseling. But doesn't he have to rehabilitate his thinking because he used the slur?

VRANICH: We would love that he would do that, but we could never figure out if he's really going to be rehabilitated in that way. That's something.

O'REILLY: But you can't think that anybody will be rehabilitated.

VRANICH: We don't but what we want him to do is be more polite.

O'REILLY: So he should go to polite rehab.

VRANICH: He should definitely go to polite rehab.

O'REILLY: Why do people use terrible slurs like that and the N-word and other things? Why do they use them?

VRANICH: At home and on the playground. So it all starts really, really early. What you hear at home from your parents, what you're hearing on the playground, and you do hear this. You hear little kids saying absolutely terrible things.

O'REILLY: Absolutely. I did when I was a kid, and you did when you were a kid.

VRANICH: Oh yeah. Absolutely. But you can start tolerance and you can start teaching tolerance way back with kids.

O'REILLY: But when you get to be Mr. Washington's age, he's an adult. He knows that's improper. He's a professional. He's working on a set of a hit television program. Why would he use such a word?

VRANICH: That is very bad judgment, bad impulse control and they're going to do a lot of work with anger management and counseling.

O'REILLY: So you think it's a rage issue that forced him to do that?

VRANICH: I think it's very bad judgment. I think what he's thinking is one thing. What comes out of his mouth is another and he needs to work on that.

O'REILLY: Look, we have three situations in play. We had the Mel Gibson thing whether he got drunk and used it. And we have to figure out — or Mel Gibson has to figure out — why that was in his mind. Then we have the Michael Richards situation where he got angry at somebody who he felt was attacking him on a stage and then he lashed back with an attack of that nature. And then we have this one, and I don't know what the argument was about. But obviously, you know, this guy doesn't like gays or feels that it's bad to be gay.

So I don't know. I think it might be fear. Fear. Did you ever think about that?

VRANICH: I don't know if it's fear as much as it is just really bad behavior on his part.

O'REILLY: There's got to be a reason for bad behavior, though. All.

VRANICH: We are seeing al kinds of bad behavior in celebs this year and with pro athletes. Look at them. With pro athletes we have rules about what they need to do if they do something bad. If they run into the stands. We don't have that with celebrities.

O'REILLY: But don't you believe there's a reason why people do what they do?

VRANICH: Well, with celebrities, they feel entitled.

O'REILLY: Entitled to call somebody an F-word?

VRANICH: They feel entitled to be able to say what they want to say when they want to say it. So one thing that they have to learn and rules that have to set in place is you have to be polite. You have to be polite when you're in front of the camera, you have to be polite with your co-workers.

O'REILLY: OK. Isn't this a dodge? Everybody who gets in trouble goes into rehab of some kind? It's a ruse, right? Isn't it a ruse?

VRANICH: You know what? Real rehab is tough as hell. There is no slur rehab. And if he's going into counseling or to a therapist, if he has a tough therapist, it's going to be a hard time.

O'REILLY: So he can learn to control his anger?

VRANICH: Oh, yes.

O'REILLY: And his impulses to do this?

VRANICH: Yes.

O'REILLY: This is really self-destructive behavior, don't you think so?

VRANICH: It is very self-destructive. And what you just said is that going into rehab or going into counseling sort of can give you that clean slate, it can't.

O'REILLY: You can never get rid of it.

VRANICH: Because people will remember.

O'REILLY: Right, people will remember. All right. Doctor, pleasure to talk to you. Thank you.

VRANICH: Pleasure, thank you.

Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. ET!

Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2007 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2007 Voxant, Inc. (www.voxant.com), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.