During his Talking Points Commentary last night, Bill O’Reilly strenuously argued that the mass shootings in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater were “nobody’s fault.” But he suggested otherwise during a later segment when he gratuitously “explained” that the reason children were killed at the midnight showing of Batman was because “their parents didn’t want to pay for babysitters.”

During a discussion with a local Colorado reporter about the slayings, O’Reilly suddenly sprang this:

I don’t want this to sound harsh to anybody (notice he didn’t say “judgmental” or "critical"), but the reason that these children were in the theater at midnight to see Batman was because their parents didn’t want to pay for babysitters (notice he didn’t say “couldn’t pay” or “had no access to child care”) because babysitters are expensive. So they take the children, the children fall asleep in the movie and the parent watches the movie. And the (six) year-old girl who’s dead – the mother of the girl was shot in the chest – you just heard her father. She survived.

…The story about this is that the mother, the father – and you heard the father – took the six year-old to the midnight movie. And they did that, as I explained, ‘cause they didn’t want to pay a babysitter, because babysitters are 15 bucks an hour, OK? OK? And there you go.

Well, there you go, Mr. O’Reilly. There’s nothing wrong with having a debate about parents bringing young children to a midnight showing of an adult movie. Perhaps you could complain to your local theater and ask that they have “adults only” screenings. But to bring this up as part of a discussion of this awful crime – which those “cheapskate” parents who don’t earn anything close to your millions had no reason to foresee – doesn’t just sound harsh. It sounds out-of-touch, elitist, and astoundingly insensitive. 

(H/T Eric J. for the video)