“The reason there is an epidemic of disrespect in America is mainly because of the public school system”–says the guy who makes on-air jokes about beating up, even “decapitating” his political foes.
O’Reilly: Respect through decapitation (photo: Justin Hoch/Hudson Union Society)
That’s right, Bill O’Reilly– whose network is known for on-air fantasies about murdering public figures, jokes about the assassination of the president, and is the only network named by more than one spree killer as having helped to inspire their murderous designs–is worried that the country is becoming too disrespectful. (See: “Fox News: The No. 1 Name in Murder Fantasies,” for all citations.)
Apparently O’Reilly’s declaration that we are in the clutches of an epidemic of disrespect is based on two things that appeared before his eyes: a viral video of a young woman mouthing off to a Florida judge and getting a 30-day contempt sentence; and the New York public school system’s new “discipline code,” which keeps students who commit “low-level infractions” in class longer before suspending or expelling them, a notion that outrages O’Reilly:
As a former teacher, I know if the system allows students to curse out teachers in front of other students, all discipline breaks down. By the way, that’s one of the reasons I send my kids to Catholic school in New York State.
I don’t know if schools could be to blame, but should, heaven forbid, anyone in O’Reilly’s family come down with the disrespect bug, I’d be prone to look for the source a little closer to home.
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