In Bill O’Reilly’s “tip of the day,” last night, he announced – without bothering to provide any proof – that a big rise in enrollment in University of Colorado is because marijuana was just legalized in that state. Well, he didn't actually say he knew for sure, he just insinuated you'd have to be an idiot not to think so. Even though there are reasons not to think so.

O’Reilly announced:

According to the Director of Admissions at the University of Colorado -Boulder, out-of-state applications for that university have risen as much as 30% this year. Now, why do you think that is?

Could it be legalized marijuana? (said in a sarcastic tone that implied the question was a no brainer)

So here’s the tip of the day: If you’re a parent shelling out a lot of money to send your kid to college? And that kid is pining for UC Boulder? (sic) Ask him or her why. In fact, put them on a lie detector. You do not – do not want to be paying more than $46,000 a year because your kid wants to smoke pot.

Well, it’s bad enough that O’Reilly would smear the University of Colorado as some kind of mecca for stoners and slackers when, in fact, it’s an excellent university.

But it’s even worse that he didn’t bother to tell his “no spin zone” viewers that CU made an effort to step up its recruitment. The Boulder Daily Camera recently reported:

I don’t know,” (CU’s admissions director) said of the marijuana issue. “One of the things is we’re not getting a lot of questions from families about that. We don’t have any mechanism of tracking that. I just don’t know.”

More likely, the increase was a result of CU recruiters visiting an extra 120 high schools last fall. Plus, the university began using the Common Application, which makes it easier for prospective students to apply to more schools.

But Bill O’Reilly is so obsessed with legalized marijuana and Colorado, he didn’t even seem to consider that maybe parents should make a practice of finding out why their son or daughter chooses any college.