Bill O’Reilly thinks he knows better than President Obama, his advisor Valerie Jarrett and Michelle Obama about how to prevent teen pregnancy and help empower disadvantaged youth. So although O’Reilly was obviously delighted to have been invited to the White House today for the launch of the Obama administration’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative, designed to empower boys and young men of color, he just couldn’t help lecturing Jarrett about a few areas that need improving. One of them was for Michelle Obama to come on The Factor and admonish teens not to get pregnant.
When did O’Reilly become an expert in improving the lives of young men of color? When he taught high school about 40 years ago? From the Trayvon Martin tragedy?
Regardless, O’Reilly offered up his “expertise” right in his Talking Points, even before Jarrett joined him. “The initiative is very well intentioned,” he announced, “But some specific things must be done.” He went on to enumerate them: teach children to read, provide mentors to individual children, provide jobs for kids so they can learn good work habits young and improve relations with law enforcement. But the one he kept harping on was for “high profile Americans… (to) go on television and the net to warn… young people that having babies outside of marriage and bringing children into this world without resources is cruel.” O’Reilly said there has to be a campaign and peer pressure not to get pregnant “unless you’re in a stable situation.”
I have to say every one of O’Reilly’s suggestions sounds worthy. But are they the sole answers? At the very least, O’Reilly could have had the graciousness and humility to let Jarrett speak about the White House initiative uninterrupted and listen politely. But no.
“You’ve got to get in there (to street culture) …and I don’t know if you guys see the urgency of that,” O’Reilly instructed Jarrett. He went on to declare that the administration will have to get entertainment figures, like Jay Z and Kanye West, “to knock it off.”
Jarrett responded by saying there are programs out there already that work. Instead of asking her for more information, O’Reilly turned his attention to Michelle Obama:
I want you to tell her something for me tonight… I want Michelle Obama to come on this program, right here, and I want Michelle Obama to look into that camera and say, “You teenage girls, you stop having sex. You stop getting pregnant. This is wrong." I want her to do that right here.”
As if The O’Reilly Factor has the same audience of teenage girls as Jay Z and Kanye! Do they tune in before the really young ones sit down to watch The Kelly File?
Jarrett actually laughed at the suggestion of Michelle Obama going on Fox.
O’Reilly continued:
Are you kidding me? Do you know how many people saw that Super Bowl interview (with the president)? …Michelle Obama comes on this program and looks into that camera and tells teenage girls – not just black teenage girls, but all teenage girls – "Don’t do these things because they are destructive."
…You’re not getting gritty enough.
Jarrett did a good job. She was good-humored in her responses. But I think she made it clear Michelle Obama will not be appearing on The Factor any time soon.
“He is a constitutional psychopath, with inadequate personality, and, strong and anti-social trends.”
You don’t have to be more than preschool graduate to see that this fella has major problems. Even they know that Fox News Channel’s is comprised of less than 2 percent of its entire viewership. So why would Mrs. Obama go on his show to talk to one or two black teenagers.
I enjoyed watching Valerie Jarrett politely poke even more holes into O’Reilly’s aggrieved white male ideology!
He’s probably just pissed that a black family got past his hand-picked Home Owners Association and now live in his neighborhood!
While I totally agree that this sounds like a good initiative to support, BOR always has to make it about HIMSELF. “I want Michelle Obama to come on this program, right here…”. Bwaaah! BOR gives himself and his show way too much credit. If BOR wants more teens to get the message, why would MO (or anyone else supporting the program for that matter) come on “The Factor” (or FOX “news”)? The demographic in question does not watch FOX “news” or “The Factor”. I guess he’s counting on some kind of ripple effect wherein the teen demo would catch his segment with MO on the Internet somewhere? LOL! Sorry, BOR, but if the promoters of this initiative wish to use the mass media to get their message out, they would be wise to use their time, money and spokespeople at media/entertainment outlets that more relate to the demo they are trying to reach.
One more thing – I found BOR’s singular focus on the sex lives of teenage girls in this segment to be over-the-top. Why didn’t he also admonish teenage boys by saying, “you teenage boys, you stop having sex”? Why isn’t he encouraging this new initiative to tell the guys to keep it in their pants? For crying out loud, it takes 2 to tango. Did it even cross BOR’s pea-brain that if teen boys weren’t pressuring teen girls to have sex, then maybe a lot of these pregnancies wouldn’t be happening? Yes, a teen girl can say no but I think we all know that peer pressure is a huge force that often wins out. When BOR dedicates a whole segment to telling teenage boys to quit having sex, I will be more than happy to give him an attaboy. Until then, it’s just BOR’s sexist (slut shaming?) mindset coming to the fore again.
How many sexually active black teenage girls watch The Factor every night LOL
He is such a friggin’ pompous asshole!!
*Personally, I would’ve used something a bit more, um, earthy, but that would’ve probably earned a cut mike from Mr Loofah himself.
MO might have a lot of grace against her critics, but there are limits to everything, Bill.
