Corrupting the Kids

Hi, I'll Bill O'Reilly.  Thank you for watching us tonight.

Corrupting the kids, that is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.  Did you see that brawl on Saturday night between the Yankees (search) and the Red Sox (search)?  Pretty disturbing, as a number of baseball stars threatened each other in front of millions.

Pitcher Pedro Martinez (search) told one Yankee he would hit him in the head.  And then Don Zimmer (search) tried run down Martinez.  Zimmer is 72 years old.  A variety of other violent episodes.  This, of course, all viewed by American children from coast to coast, some of whom idolize these guys.

This baseball incident did not happen in a vacuum.  America has become a country where unruly behavior is not only tolerated, it is celebrated in many places, including the media, which is the main culprit.

How can we expect American kids to be respectful and responsible when they get a daily dose of violent video games, unbelievably vile rap music, and brutal TV and movies on a scale never before seen in this country.

Then these same children go to watch sports and they see taunting and  fighting and cursing and on and on.  Even at the highest levels of the media news reporting, the tone is vicious and defamatory.  People are routinely attacked in very personal ways.  Just ask Mel Gibson.

And the kids are responding.  According to a number of studies, bullying is at its most intense level ever in our nation's schools.  It's an epidemic.  So is disrespect towards teachers, cheating, lying and other anti-social behavior.

The Josephson Institute of Ethics (search) has done a study on high school kids in America.  And the results are grim.  So this brawl between the Yankees and the  Red Sox is far beyond a sporting event.  It is symptomatic of a country that had become comfortable with disrespect towards others, violent resolution of personal conflict, and personal attacks of every stripe.

It is the taunting of America and it's getting worse.  And in the end, it's the children who will be most affected.

And that's The Memo.

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day."

You'll remember last week the dustup between your humble correspondent -- that's me.  I always feel the need to clarify that -- and National Public Radio (search).  The controversy was over what I considered to be a grossly unfair interview [on the radio show Fresh Air]conducted by a woman named Terry Gross (search).  No pun intended.

Well, today, it turns out that I was the problem in that interview, as Miss Gross accused me in Daily Variety of not letting Factor viewers hear the whole interview.

Gee, that's strange.  More than one-million people went to The Factor Web site to hear the entire interview, which was promoted by me a half-dozen times, and Ms. Gross had to know it because we linked up with the NPR Web site.

Just another example of dishonest spin by Terry Gross at NPR, which, of course, Daily Variety was more than happy to print.

Ridiculous?  Well, the whole interview is still posted on billoreilly.com, so you can make the call.  It's unbelievable, ladies and gentlemen.