O'Reilly to critic of comments about abducted child: "I made no awful remarks, madam -- just asked questions"

On the January 17 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly responded to a viewer's email asking O'Reilly "to rectify the awful remarks you made about Shawn Hornbeck" -- who was abducted at the age of 11, held for four years, and recently found in Missouri -- by stating: "I made no awful remarks, madam -- just asked questions."

In fact, as Media Matters for America has documented, while discussing Hornbeck on the January 15 O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly stated, "I think when it all comes down, what's going to happen is, there was an element here that this kid liked about this circumstances," adding: "The situation here for this kid looks to me to be a lot more fun than what he had under his old parents. He didn't have to go to school. He could run around and do whatever he wanted." O'Reilly also asserted that "I don't believe this kid" enjoyed attending school. On January 16, O'Reilly further declared on The O'Reilly Factor, "I hope he did not make a conscious decision to accept his captivity because" his kidnapper "made things easy for him. No school, play all day long."

From the January 17 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: Judy Osborne, Clarksville, Tennessee: "O'Reilly, I wanted to give you another chance to rectify the awful remarks you made about Shawn Hornbeck. However, your arrogance is never ending."

I made no awful remarks, madam -- just asked questions.

—J.M.