Bill O’Reilly and the half hour I’ll never get back

OK. I spent a half hour last night watching the unwatchable, The O’Reilly Factor, a show so smarmy and contrived, so condescending and boorish that I was almost ashamed that I had it on in the den.

Why, you ask, would I subject myself to something like that?

The answer is that we had gotten word that the bloviator himself was going to spend some time talking about a fight that took place at South Brunswick High School that was video’d by a student and posted to YouTube.

Police said that two girls, one 14 and one 16, lured a 16-year-old girl to a secluded area of the building where she was attacked by the 16-year-old as the 14-year-old filmed the attack with her cell phone. (See story in today’s South Brunswick Post.)

The fight is an example of the growing aggressiveness of the culture — which is evident in everything from music and film to politics and our roadways. But what explains this harshness?

That’s where Bill O’Reilly comes in.

O’Reilly blames everything that is wrong on a liberal culture — what he calls the Secular-Progressive worldview. The SPs (of which I am a proud member) are responsible for gansta rap and violent movies, biased media coverage and just about everything that has gone wrong, will go wrong or should go wrong in the world today.

O’Reilly’s argument is curiously similar in nature to the harsh, controlling edicts made by the ayatollahs in Iran, but couched in a sense of victimhood that is bizarre for someone so close to those with the big wallets and access to the lever of power.

In any case, O’Reilly used the SBHS fight to address the issue of girls fighting (click on “Watch Bill’s Most Ridiculous Item” and then click on “Video Visens” to view his report), linking it to his warped view of the world — i.e., that the Hollywood elite is to blame, etc, etc, etc. The girls are more violent because they are being subjected to violence from the radio and TV and video games.

It is a circular argument that many buy, but that lacks hard evidence. Studies that purport to show causation between violent television or video-game content have been flawed, relying on a basic supposition that props up all of these arguments — the notion that violent content creates violence behavior.

My argument — equally as circular — always has been that art and culture follow behavior, are a reflection of what is happening and not the engine driving it. Or not necessarily.

I don’t know what has led to this perceived increase in girl fights (perceived because there is no way to actually quantify it). But I know that Bill O’Reilly is full of hot air.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet