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.