The Press in Vermont Takes Aim at Bill

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

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In THE FACTOR "Outrage of the Week" segment, tonight, last week we told you about a Vermont judge David Howard who sentenced 37-year-old Andrew James to probation after James pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a four-year-old boy.

This is the second time a Vermont judge has given an outrageously lenient sentence to a terrible sex offender and this is the second time the Vermont media has attacked me for reporting the situations.

Take a look at this cartoon in the "Times-Argus" newspaper up there. It says that former state senator, Wendy Wilton, a guest on this program and her attack dog, Bill O'Reilly, want to boycott Vermont. Of course, that's a lie. I have not called for a boycott of Vermont. But I have called for the boycott of the dishonest "Times-Argus" newspaper.

And here's the irony. After we exposed the chaotic justice system in Vermont last week, the "Times-Argus" newspaper reported that in addition to being a child molester and a convicted wife-beater, Andrew James threatened to kill a woman and her one-year-old child. And James is walking around the streets of Vermont right this second. In addition, the local Vermont PBS station held a “Bash O'Reilly” program last week. Here's a sample.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there a price, do you think, we pay when you have a guy like O'Reilly trashing our state night after night on America's number one cable news show?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Boy, I don't know that we saw any crash in tourism numbers as a result of Bill O'Reilly. Does anybody take this man seriously? It's more kind of like, you know, a funny kind of thing to talk about, you know. Oh, you got on O'Reilly again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: Joining us now from Burlington is Paul Beaudry, who hosts a radio show on WDEV. Same story, different year. The Vermont media circle the wagon, attack the messenger. Even though they would know — everybody would have to know that you've got a dangerous guy walking the streets up there and pretty much nobody cares. Am I wrong?

PAUL BEAUDRY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, most of the Vermont media, the print media, is doing exactly what you said. They're attacking you, Bill, they're mocking you. In fact, they've mocked my show, True North Radio, and they've actually put blogs on there.

The very same thing that you did not call for, a boycott of Vermont, they have done to my radio show. They've boycotted my radio show. They're telling people don't do business with True North Radio. And it's just overwhelming. The progressives think they're winning. But I do believe, Bill, you're actually making some headway. The judge recently is reconsidering some things.

And I do have a legislator that's actually written a Jessica's Law. We'll see if it gets passed or not. And we have a bunch of mothers that are calling me up on my radio show and calling me privately that want to know how they can help. So we're going to get some petitions going. We will see if we can get Jessica's Law passed or not this time. Whether it happens, I hope it does. But I'll believe it when I see it.

O'REILLY: All right, now, Vermont is a very small state. Used to be a traditional state.

BEAUDRY: Right.

O'REILLY: It is now a secular progressive paradise. How did that happen?

BEAUDRY: It's been happening very slowly, Bill, and I'm glad you asked that question. Because they've snuck into Vermont over the past decades and a lot of people aren't even aware of what's going on.

When I talk to listeners and I tell them what's actually happening, they don't believe that Vermont is becoming a very socialist, secular progressive state. And it's happening, but there's still a lot of traditional Vermonters and they're starting to get mobilized. And a lot of the reason that they're getting mobilized is because of your TV show, you exposing the truth.

Once they hear it, they realize it. And now I have a radio show that's gone statewide and they are upset about it. They're mocking you, they're mocking me, but I believe we found a chink in their armor, thanks to you, Bill, and it is slowly and gradually working.

We're going to have to take it back. We didn't lose it overnight and we're not going to get it back overnight.

O'REILLY: OK. Now, your governor is a Republican, Jim Douglas. But he is hiding under his desk, hasn't done anything or spoken about it. He's a coward. And you have Leahy, ironically the senator who is in charge of the Judiciary Committee, he's afraid. And then you have a socialist senator, Bernie Sanders, the only socialist senator in the country. And I thought Bernie would get involved. But Bernie, even Bernie is running for cover. So you don't have any real politicians with clout trying to change things up there, and that makes it hard.

BEAUDRY: It does make it hard. In fact, the last election, Bill, we now have two to one of Democrats in the House with some progressives. We actually have a socialist party. They don't want to say socialist, but they're progressives. Two to one in the House, three to one in the Senate. Governor Douglas, I've spoke with him. If a mandatory minimum law with Jessica's Law comes before him, he will sign the bill. But he's really outnumbered. And they can...

O'REILLY: No leadership, though, on his part. He is not leading the charge.

BEAUDRY: He's doing what he can with what he has at this point.

O'REILLY: All right. Now, last question, do people fear this guy is on the street? I mean this is a bad guy.

BEAUDRY: Correct. He's very bad. And I'm amazed they let him out and I'm glad that you have dealt with this issue. Because now people know. Everybody I've talked to, Bill, every single person I've mentioned it to, Bill, they can't believe it. And I do believe we're starting to get some action. We got it from Franklin County up in the northern part down to Bennington, and I now have mothers that want to organize petitions statewide. So we'll see what happens.

O'REILLY: You keep the charge up, man.

BEAUDRY: I will.

O'REILLY: You've got a lot of guts and we appreciate you coming on the program.

BEAUDRY: We'll keep fighting it. Thank you.

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