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.
(3/2/18 update: Video is no longer available)
This causes the same effects as real shooting. How should children be able to differentiate?
Sometimes I really wonder about Americans way of thinking and its law.
No drinking under 21, but being allowed to take children out at night and carry guns with you.
Maybe the government should rethink about the priorities in life…
How come there are countries which do not allow guns and don’t have any people killed by guns? If no one would be allowed to wear a gun, no one would need a gun to protect him- or herself. And much less innocents would be killed.
At least to me, it does… I tend to drown out his voice every time it sounds like he’s about to give advice- not only for what I said above, but because he has so little common sense that it’s rare for him to say something someone with an IQ over 40 can agree with.
Then he turns around and it’s the fault of the parents for letting/taking their kids to see a movie the right has been bashing for weeks because Rush Limbaugh thinks the villain was created just to incite violent attacks on Romney.
Putting aside the blue streak I can do about how stupid the whole “Bane/Bain” talking point is, why doesn’t Fox News take some responsibility for once? This is the second time something they couldn’t stop attacking got shot up, and it’s the second time they got lucky that there was no political agenda to the shooting.
And they still aren’t smart (or mature) enough to learn.
“Nobody’s fault”, BillO?? Not even the shooter’s??
The “party of personal responsibility” strikes again.
{Or maybe, the shooting is “nobody’s fault”, because you can’t find a way to blame it on President Obama — that it?}
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Many times I can remember when my parents took me and my brother and sister to the drive in and watch late night shows. We never made it to stay awake and watch the late second movie. We and many others from the past would bring our pillows and go to sleep in back of our station wagon. The SUV of the past.
No one likes it when someone brings in an infant that starts crying that temporarily interrupts the movie, but as long they take the baby outside to the lobby, then all is well. To blame this on the parents in anyway, to put this politely is pathetic.