This is a rush transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," September 11, 2007. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
BILL O’REILLY, HOST: Now for the top story tonight, two other views on this. Joining us from Chicago, Colonel Buzz Patterson, the author of the brand new book, "War Crimes: The Left's Campaign to Destroy our Military and Lose the War on Terror." And from lower Manhattan, FOX News analyst and WOR radio talk show guy Ellis Henican.
What do you think of Brian DePalma, Ellis?
ELLIS HENICAN: Mos Def, I've got a problem with him. Listen, I don't like his message. I worry about the impact it's going to have. I think we got to answer it with effective speech in the other direction. Where I may part company with you, Bill, is I do think the best thing to do is answer these guys, not to try to shut them down.
O'REILLY: All right. And nobody's trying to shut them down.
HENICAN: Good.
O'REILLY: Nobody's calling for censorship. Nobody's calling to put them in prison.
HENICAN: Good.
O'REILLY: Well, maybe the colonel will.
HENICAN: Good.
O'REILLY: But I mean, I have seen vile things in my career. This is, I think, the worst, particularly today, particularly because we know the suffering. It's in my neighborhood. And I have to listen to this kind of garbage.
How do you react to it, colonel?
LT. COL. ROBERT PATTERSON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): I agree with you, Bill. I think, you know, being a citizen of America requires responsibility as well. I think people like Brian DePalma are being very irresponsible.
We used to have a very proud tradition in this country, Bill, as you know, we didn't take our political discourse beyond our nation's shores. And we're doing that now where we're taking things like DePalma's film, "Fahrenheit 911," "Jarhead" are played on Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. And they affect the Arabiyas obviously. And they're anti-America, they're anti-military. I spent 20 years, Bill, fighting for Brian DePalma's right to have freedom of speech.
I, however, think he's trying to influence the war in a negative sense and undermine the Bush administration. And that's what I think has crossed the line. I think it's propaganda.
O'REILLY: You know, it is propaganda that did happen. What he shows on film in his movie did happen. All of the soldiers involved have been convicted. They're going to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
But as you know, Ellis, Franklin Delano Roosevelt would have told DePalma, “You're not putting this out. And if you try to, I'm going to put you in jail.”
HENICAN: Well, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who I admire in many ways, would have been wrong about that.
O'REILLY: Really?
HENICAN: And need to go back and check the Constitution. Listen, Bill, you and I can both denounce it. And I guess the colonel does as well. But we're progressed enough and we're smart enough to understand. Their trying to ban it only makes it stronger. Much more effective....
O'REILLY: Whoa, whoa, but (INAUDIBLE) Roosevelt would say we're in the middle of a war.
HENICAN: Yes.
O'REILLY: Now the mistake that the Bush administration made very early on was not declaring a war, but it is a war.
HENICAN: Yes, but we don't...
O'REILLY: And you — and what freedom of speech, where it ends...
HENICAN: Yes.
O'REILLY: ...where it ends is when you put an American's life in danger. That's where freedom of speech ends, Ellis. And surely you understand.
HENICAN: No, I agree with that. But one of the truths about democracy is that it doesn't end when we go to war. We still debate the war. We still have important issues.
In fact...
O'REILLY: (INAUDIBLE) the war biggest than this. Cause and effect.
HENICAN: No.
O'REILLY: You show a movie like this in Indonesia and Pakistan in the Gulf to young men raised on Wahabism...
HENICAN: Yes.
O'REILLY: ...steeped in hatred...
HENICAN: Yes.
O'REILLY: ...they're going to sign up and put a vest on their chest and blow up human beings.
HENICAN: I share your fear, Bill, but I want to know what you want to do about it. You want to arrest Brian DePalma? You want to bury his movie? What do you want to do?
O'REILLY: I want to bury his movie. Look...
HENICAN: Well...
O'REILLY: ...here's what I'm going to do, colonel. I don't think this movie's going to get played in America. I don't think any theater chain is going to carry "Redacted." I think it's going to be an Internet deal.
If the theater chain, and I want you to weigh in on this too Ellis, but colonel, if the theater chain books this film, I'm going to ask for every veteran of foreign war person, every VFW American, to go out and demonstrate in front of that theater. That's what I'm going to ask.
PATTERSON: Bill, I agree with you. And I tell you what. I'm not concerned about the movie playing in the United States. What I'm concerned about is the fact that...
O'REILLY: No, but I want to send a message.
PATTERSON: Well, I agree with you. But the fact is that Hollywood's revenues internationally are 70 percent of their overall revenues. Seventy percent of the money coming into Hollywood comes from international markets. So you know this is going to play on Al Jazeera, Al Arabiyah.
Hey, “Fahrenheit 911” was marketed by Hezbollah in Lebanon. So you know it's going to play big over there. And it's going to fuel the fire, Bill. And it's not — whether or not it's right or wrong...
O'REILLY: But I think Ellis has a good point. The only way we can do it is to answer it.
HENICAN: Yes, exactly.
O'REILLY: And to embarrass DePalma...
HENICAN: Exactly.
O'REILLY: ...and his backers. But Ellis, you would be out there with the VFW guys on Long Island demonstrating? I know you would, wouldn't you?
HENICAN: You know, I think I'd love to cover it. It'd be a very interesting debate, Bill.
O'REILLY: Well, why wouldn't you be there as an American and say, “This is wrong?”
HENICAN: Because I'm a journalist and I don't join those things the same way you don't, but I have no problem with it as a tactic.
O'REILLY: I might be a journalist, but I'm an American. And I might be on Sunday or Saturday when I'm not working. I think I'd be out with the VFW guys.
HENICAN: Well, I'm not going to a lecture you on journalistic ethics, but to me, I'd rather cover it and write about it and opine on it than carry a sign. It's just not my venue.
O'REILLY: All right.
HENICAN: But listen, I love the debate. Let's have the debate go on.
O'REILLY: Absolutely. DePalma and all the guys...
HENICAN: Fine.
O'REILLY: You know, and we have other movies coming out too in the fall. We're not going to condemn them without seeing them. We've seen enough of this DePalma thing. We've heard his own words. We know why he made the movie to undermine the war in Iraq.
And there's a difference between protesting and undermining when we have military in the field.
HENICAN: What a great democracy it is. Let's debate it.
O'REILLY: All right, gentlemen, thanks very much. We appreciate it.
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