After telling him to “shut up for a minute” on the June 4 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly told Dave Kopel, the Rocky Mountain News' conservative media critic and research director of the free-market Independence Institute,"[Y]ou're out of touch with America, man. You're a secular progressive. You're a guy who doesn't have any boundaries." O'Reilly later said, "[I]f you're not a secular progressive, then I'm Donald Duck, Mr. Kopel. And I ... believe anybody watching this interview right now would say the same thing."

Kopel and O'Reilly were debating a controversial panel discussion about sex and drugs that was held on April 10 at Boulder High School and sponsored by the University of Colorado's Conference on World Affairs (CWA). In his June 2 News column, Kopel -- the parent of a child who attends Boulder High -- criticized O'Reilly and 630 KHOW-AM hosts Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman for spreading misinformation about the event. As Kopel noted:

Appearing on Bill O'Reilly's Fox TV show, The O'Reilly Factor, Caplis did not even know the name of the school's good-hearted and excellent principal Bud Jenkins, but was sure that Jenkins and every administrator should be fired. Heedless of First Amendment case law, O'Reilly proclaimed that the panel's speech constituted a crime. The only crime was perpetrated by the O'Reilly producer who, attempting to ambush interview school board President Helayne Jones, criminally trespassed into her garage.

On O'Reilly's show, as Kopel was explaining the new Boulder Valley School District policy that will require parents' permission for students to attend next year's CWA discussions, O'Reilly cut him off, saying, “Mr. Kopel, shut up for a minute, OK?” He later called the conservative Kopel “a secular progressive,” prompting Kopel to respond, “Come take a look at ... my Virgin Mary website before you call me a secular, Mr. O'Reilly."

O'Reilly also tried to direct viewers to his own website to read the panel discussion's transcript, but did not reveal that his version of the transcript is incomplete. Kopel told O'Reilly, “I think what's been really inappropriate is how you and some other journalists have taken quotes out of context and really falsified them to a national audience ... And if you go to the Independence Institute website we'll have a link so people can read it for themselves.” O'Reilly replied, “You can go to my ... website. I have it on there.”

However, O'Reilly's website offers only a list of 10 out-of-context quotes and audio clips, which he also has been airing on his Fox News program. For example, O'Reilly's site includes the following quotation: “JOEL BECKER: I'm going to encourage you to have sex, and I'm going to encourage you to use drugs appropriately.” However, the complete quote from the transcript reads:

Joel Becker: Hi. My name is Joel Becker, and I'm a clinical psychologist. I'm going to ducktail off a little bit of what Andee said, but I think I'm going to go in a little bit of a different direction, because I'm going to encourage you to have sex, and I'm going to encourage you to use drugs appropriately. (applause and cheering from audience) And why I'm going to take that position is because you're going to do it anyway. So, my, my approach to this is to be realistic, and I think as a psychologist and a health educator, it's more important to educate you in a direction that you might actually stick to. So I want to, I'm going to stay mostly today talking about the sex side, because that's the area I know more about.

From the June 4 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: “Culture War” segment tonight: The heat on the city of Boulder, Colorado, not letting up. This weekend an editorial in the Boulder Daily Camera by a guy named Clint Talbott, who declined to come on the Factor, says that I am a bad guy for reporting that officials in Boulder High School allowed four far-left loons to encourage students to take drugs and have indiscriminate sex -- which they did; we have it on tape. And if you want to hear the tape it's on BillOReilly.com. Now, in that editorial Mr. Talbott does not mention that psychologist Joel Becker, one of the speakers to the kids, put his stamp of approval on the drug Ecstasy, and that another adult, Antonio Sacre, told kids that condoms are inconvenient. Mr. Talbott, of course, is being dishonest by leaving those things out of his editorial, but what else is new? Joining us now from Denver is Dave Kopel, a columnist for the Rocky Mountain News who does have a child attending Boulder High School. I can't believe you're not as angry as I am about this.

KOPEL: Well, I --

O'REILLY: Rocky Mountain News -- your own newspaper -- actually editorialized that it was crazy. You as a columnist have editorial independence, and I understand that. But I, I just can't believe you're not, you're not as incensed at how inappropriate this whole situation was.

KOPEL: Well, I think what's been really inappropriate is how you and some other journalists have taken quotes out of context and really falsified them to a national audience. I read the transcript of Mr. -- what Mr. Sacre said. And if you go to the Independence Institute website we'll have a link so people can read it for themselves.

O'REILLY: You can go to my --

KOPEL: What he's doing --

O'REILLY: website. I have it on there.

KOPEL: Well, then, if, then I hope -- I don't understand why you're saying what he did, because if you read it, you'd see that he was telling kids they always should use condoms. And he -- the quote that you pull out of context was when he's talking as his current 38-year-old self what he wishes he could have told himself at age 15. And it was that foolish 15-year-old who made a lot of bad choices --

O'REILLY: No, he's talking about now --

KOPEL: -- including bad choices about not using condoms.

O'REILLY: He's talking about what he -- no, no. I'm gonna play -- well, ho, ho, ho.

KOPEL: No, no. You just badly misread it, Mr. O'Reilly.

O'REILLY: I'm gonna play the clip right now.

[...]

O'REILLY: All right, let's, let's talk about you. You have no problem with these four guys in there with no balance at all, nobody else at all challenging them. You have no problem with that?

KOPEL: No, that, that's false. We have a new report that's going to be coming out from the Independence Institute which, among other things, agrees with what the Boulder Valley School District board said -- and you've never reported to your audience -- which is that panel was wrong because it was unbalanced.

O'REILLY: Then why were they -- why are they being invited back next year?

KOPEL: They're not. That's another falsehood you've told your viewers. They are certainly not being invited back.

O'REILLY: That's what the principal says --

KOPEL: Nobody's said that.

O'REILLY: He said, “We're bringing them back next year but it's going to be optional.”

KOPEL: No, that's wrong. What's coming back next year is the Conference on World Affairs, which brings, brings in hundreds of speakers from all over the country --

O'REILLY: All right, I'm not, I'm not gettin' you.

KOPEL: -- and has been coming to Boulder for many years.

O'REILLY: I'm not gettin' you.

KOPEL: No, those panelists have not --

O'REILLY: Do you object to that panel --

KOPEL: -- been invited back to Boulder High.

O'REILLY: Do you object to that panel or not? Yes or no.

KOPEL: I think there's a lot of objectionable content in it, but the parents are the ones who ought to make the decisions for their particular children --

O'REILLY: All right.

KOPEL: -- and that's the, that's the --

O'REILLY: And your decision for your child is --

KOPEL: -- policy the school board is putting in.

O'REILLY: OK.

KOPEL: The policy the school board is putting in.

O'REILLY: And your decision for --

KOPEL: Before anybody goes they have to get permission in advance from the parents.

O'REILLY: All right. So you --

KOPEL: And I think parents make a better decision --

O'REILLY: Mr. Kopel, shut up for a minute, OK?

KOPEL: -- for their kid than you do for all of them.

O'REILLY: All right. Keep quiet for a minute. I just have a few short questions. Stop filibustering. So you say there was some objectionable things on the panel. All right, you as a parent of a kid in that school: Do you think that was appropriate for your child?

KOPEL: I'm not going to talk about my child because I already told you off the air that that's not part of the issue.

O'REILLY: All right. So you, you won't answer that question.

KOPEL: But I would say my kid --

O'REILLY: You won't answer that question.

KOPEL: I would say with, I would say in our family we let our children hear things that we disagree with and we talk about 'em afterwards.

O'REILLY: OK. So I'm takin' that --

KOPEL: We don't censor everything.

O'REILLY: -- as a “yes,” you were fine with lettin' your kid hear that. Fine. Fine with lettin' your kid hear a guy say, “Hey, if I had some Ecstasy I might do it here.” Fine with sayin', a guy sayin' all things about, “Hey, wanna have casual sex with people? It's OK. Don't worry about it.” Yeah. You're fine with it. You know, Mr. Kopel, you're out of touch with America, man. You're a secular progressive. You're a guy who doesn't have any boundaries, and that's OK. This is America. You have a right to bring up your kid any way you want to bring the kid up.

KOPEL: Come take a look at --

O'REILLY: But I have a right to say --

KOPEL: -- my Virgin Mary website before you call me a secular, Mr. O'Reilly.

O'REILLY: -- this is [unintelligible]. Ah -- yeah. All right, Mr. Kopel, we'll -- it's on our website, it's on your website. People can read it. People can make up their own mind.

KOPEL: Come visit St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Boulder a weekend before you call somebody a secular.

O'REILLY: Well, if you're not a secular progressive, then I'm Donald Duck, Mr. Kopel. And I, I believe anybody watching this interview right now would say the same thing.

KOPEL: You shouldn't go around making charges about people you don't even know. That's your whole problem in your coverage on this program.

O'REILLY: I'm basing it on our seven-minute conversation, sir. You defended this panel, which is so inappropriate to most Americans it's staggering. But I appreciate --

KOPEL: You don't have to be secular progressive --

O'REILLY: -- your guts. I appreciate, I appreciate your guts --

KOPEL: -- to defend free speech.

O'REILLY: -- for coming on. I really do, Mr. Kopel. You know, you're one of the few guys with enough courage to come on in here and say what you said. And I appreciate that. Thank you.