As noted on the February 9 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, the Center for Missing and Exploited Children announced that it has replaced Fox News host Bill O'Reilly as keynote speaker at an upcoming fundraiser for the organization. Countdown host Keith Olbermann reported: “Bill O'Reilly, the keynote speaker at next month's $500-per-person fundraiser for the Naples, Florida, chapter of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is tonight no longer the keynote speaker at next month's $500-per-person fundraiser for the Naples, Florida, chapter of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children statement on the subject said in its entirety:
In response to the numerous e-mails and inquiries we have received, we are providing the following update regarding the Collier County, Florida branch fundraising dinner scheduled for March 9, 2007 in Naples, Florida. Bill O'Reilly, host of The O'Reilly Factor, will not be a speaker at the dinner. The dinner will be held as scheduled. John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted, will be the keynote speaker.
We would like to thank everyone for their comments and e-mails.
Olbermann noted that the organization did not give a reason for its decision to replace O'Reilly, but the decision came after O'Reilly made controversial comments about kidnapping victim Shawn Hornbeck. As Media Matters for America documented, on the January 15 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly said Hornbeck -- who was abducted at age 11, held for four years and then found by police in Missouri -- appeared to have “a lot more fun” with his alleged captor “than what he had under his old parents” and asserted: "[T]here was an element here that this kid liked about his circumstances." As Media Matters also noted, O'Reilly repeatedly vowed to “apologize” if he was “wrong” about his “skepticism” over Hornbeck's kidnapping, yet, even though sexual-assault charges have since been brought against Hornbeck's alleged abductor, O'Reilly has yet to apologize.
From the February 9 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
OLBERMANN: Nobody there or at Fox Noise is saying exactly how it happened, nor why, but Bill O'Reilly, the keynote speaker at next month's $500-per-person fundraiser for the Naples, Florida, chapter of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is tonight no longer the keynote speaker at next month's $500-per-person fundraiser for the Naples, Florida, chapter of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
However, in our number two story on the Countdown, was he uninvited because of his grotesque remarks about how teenaged kidnap and sexual-abuse victim Shawn Hornbeck had, quote, “fun” with his abductor? You might very well think so. I could not possibly comment.
[begin video clip]
O'REILLY: 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.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN (Fox News host): Some kids like school.
O'REILLY: What?
VAN SUSTEREN: Some kids like school.
O'REILLY: Well, I don't believe this kid did. And I think when it all comes down, what's going to happen is, there was an element here that this kid liked about his circumstances.
[end video clip]
OLBERMANN: Nice to know everything, isn't it? The hypocrisy that the man who trivialized what Shawn Hornbeck went through -- who suggested “was fun” -- would headline a fundraiser for the very victims he was dismissing resolved now on the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Quoting it: “In response to the numerous emails and inquiries we have received, Bill O'Reilly, host of The O'Reilly Factor, will not be a speaker at the dinner. We would like to thank everyone for their comments and emails.”
John Walsh will take O'Reilly's place. The rest of us are left to wish Mr. O'Reilly well, as he composes some rationalization, like a scheduling conflict, or transportation problem.