Let Oprah know... (So this doesn't get lost)

[Limelight]

I've already posted this as a response to another thread, but in the wake of one of the biggest talk show hosts in the world giving a soapbox to a man who besmirched all victims childhood molestation and abuse by saying Shawn Hornbeck stayed with is kidnapper because he had "fun", I say we shouldn't let this drop.

Here's the addy to the email form to drop a line to Oprah herself (which is to say several of her staffers that read email for her:P ):

http://www2.oprah.com/email/reach/email_reach_fromu.jhtml

Let her know what you think of her either lack of research or blantant disregard for victims. Don't forget to mention what a disgrace it is to have O'Reilly on after Shawn Hornbeck's family opened up and confided in her about what happened to their son.

[helderheid]

1. K & R

[Caoimhe]

2. I saw the last half of that show and it made me sick

Bill O Reilly is a perverted pile of crap and has no business being on anybody's show as some sortof guest expert on child molestation. I was raging mad last night. Thanks for providing the email, I will be passing it around.

[rubberducky]

3. Good idea! K&R

[Norquist Nemesis]

4. This is the second time in recent months she's had him on

It wasn't too long ago she had him on for his latest waste of trees. A few in the audience took him on and he was his usual supercilliously smug self.

I quit watching Oprah some time ago...years!!! While I have great respect and admiration for what she's been able to accomplish, she just seems to promote her inner circle so much that I have to wonder who's benefit it's really for.

[Morgana LaFey]

18. I adore Oprah, but she has a very bad blind spot in some ways

Of course, we can also blame her producers. It's difficult to tell where it's HER preference for guests or her producers'. She's also politically as absolutely IGNERNT as anyone famous can be, IMO, and it's infuriating to me. Just infuriating. Precisely because she has such a huge audience.

[BanzaiBonnie]

5. Done and done

Why would she have him on her show? He is sleaze personified.

[karmaqueen]

6. This is so important !!!

He is trying to get his credibility back and he does not deserve it. I also went to the message boards on her site, people are expressing their thoughts there. She needs to get tons of messages, she has to see what the truth about him is, he is a pervert!

[hwmnbn]

7. Here's my timid contribution......

Oprah, have you lost your mind!?

On his show, Bill O'Reilly made disgusting comments against Shawn Hornbeck. Bill blamed the victim saying he "enjoyed" his treatment.

Were you not aware of this?

O'Reilly needs to be publicly chastised, not given a platform on the high profile Oprah Show.

I ask again, Oprah, have you lost your mind!?

Maybe she'll call me back. :bounce:

[Cha]

31. Yeah, you are local.

Is she still doing the show from Chicago?

[NI4NI]

8. I sent her an e-mail with two suggestions

First, Ask Mr. O'Rielly why was his speaking engagement at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was cancelled; And second, for her to be sure to get a tetnaus shot after O'Rielly leaves.

[alstephenson]

9. I saw the show - disgusting that she would have O'Reilly on.

Really disburbing and disgusting. I sent Oprah an email.

[geiger]

10. I dont understand why he was on that show at all

I emailed my puzzlement.

[hashibabba]

11. I sent her an e-mail and asked why she would have someone

like him on after the things he'd said. I hope she gets tons of e-mails!

[Morgana LaFey]

12. Be civil -- else your views won't be considered -- and that goes for

ANY mail you send anybody, no matter how mad you are. It's entirely possible to be very firm and to even express great, overwhelming anger and outrage, and yet do it with civility. In fact, civility makes such statements all the more powerful.

[NI4NI]

13. The comments on Oprah's message board.

O'Rielly is getting burnt alive.
One person replied to one of the very very very few O'Rielly defenders who said that Bellow had never ever accused young Shawn of liking his captive situation, and that Bellow was always defending children from predators, that John Gacey was a serial killer who also dressed up like a clown at childrens parties.
It's worth the visit to that board.

[Morgana LaFey]

15. well, don't give us a link or anything

shoot.

[NI4NI]

17. The same link is in the first thread post above

[Morgana LaFey]

19. okay nt

[Morgana LaFey]

14. Done

I told her (staff) that if the author of a fictionalized "memoir" could be held accountable then O'Reilly should definitely be exposed as NOT the friend of sexually victimized childred he pretends to be.

(Frankly, I think he's a perp in sheep's clothing, just like Foley. Does anyone recall that the novel he wrote had a tawdry scene in it with the young woman "barely" legal age, which is, of course, the device pornographers use to keep it from being child porn.)

[Akoto]

16. I wrote in about it.

I am writing to express my concern about an upcoming show involving Bill O'Reilly.

Having him on the first time was bad enough, but O'Reilly's behavior has only made the idea of a second visit more abhorrent. He was recently quoted as saying that kidnapping victim Shawn Hornbeck remained with his captor because he was having "fun". In light of her past experiences with abuse, I am shocked that Oprah would offer publicity to such a man.

[volstork]

20. My 2 cents

Oprah,
SHAME ON YOU for your complacency in the face of Bill O'Reilly's blame of the VICTIM Shawn Hornbeck. It is unconscionable that you would grant a soapbox to someone who believes that this boy "enjoyed" his molestation. Please think more carefully in the future about the words and actions of those you promote on your show. A lot of people are watching.

[pamela]

21. Post it on her message board, too.

http://boards.oprah.com/WebX/.f146261

[earth mom]

22. At the end of the show, Oprah emphatically stated that we are NOT to question why

Shawn or Elizabeth or any abducted child stays and doesn't run away. That it's not for any of us to judge.

That said, I don't have a clue why she had O'Lielly on, because we all know he's a scuzzy lying S.O.B., but somehow it appears he's fooled her but good. Wake Up Oprah!

[verse18]

23. Here is my response.

As a Social Worker who evaluates families who's children have been abused and/or neglect, I am absolutely appalled that you would have Bill O'Reilly on your show. Bill O'Reilly, a known sexual predator, blames an exploited child for his situation insisting the child had "fun." Once the fact that Shawn Hornbeck was regularly sodomized by his capture, O'Reilly refused to retract his statements. I hope that you could understand that children who are being abused by adults have no power or control in their situation and are manipulated into complicity. The emotional and psychological trauma that a child abuse victims goes through is bad enough without high profile individuals telling them that they enjoyed what was happening to them or it was their fault. When I talk to adults of abused children who were abused themselves as children, they tell me that the worse part of their victimization was not only the act itself, but if they were blamed or not believed. Bill O'Reilly is a vile human being. Anyone who can defend a child sexual predator and instead, blame the victim of the abuse is a sick individual and I am sadden to see that you gave him a national spotlight on your show.

[lildreamer316]

25. She should know this concept since she said IT HAPPENED TO HER.

Makes me very mad.

[pamela]

24. Let her know about his own PEDOPHILIA, too.

In the transcripts from Billo's sexual harassment case, he is quoted by Mackris as bragging about the "GIRL" at a sex show in Thailand that "showed me things that blew my mind." For all his faults, Bill rarely uses the term "girl" when referring to a woman, so it's fair to assume that when he bragged about sexual activity with this "girl" he was admitting to pedophilia.

[DKRC]

26. My Mom is an Oprah true beleiver

She never misses Oprah and argued with me that BO was this great man doing good deeds. I had to assemble video links for my Mom of BO saying these things on his Jan. 15th show before she would believe me over Oprah! She had to see the proof.

How many people, like her, watched the show and never questioned what was presented?

[Gelliebeans]

27. Done yesterday

When I saw it on Countdown last night, I went to the computer and verified the story and went to Oprah's site and told her what I thought.

[Canuckistanian]

28. My message:

Dear Oprah:

Are you insane, having Bill O'Reilly on your show?

Did you know that he encouraged child molesters by telling the world that children actually ENJOY being captured and held as PRISONERS?

What were you thinking?

What are YOUR credentials as a public guardian, anyways?

[SaveAmerica]

29. I wrote Oprah off after the 04 elections. I started an e-mail campaign

to her studio to ask her to get the word out about the crap that went on in Ohio on election day. I tuned in at that time just to see if they listened but day after day it was the same bunch of unimportant malarkey. I was sure she'd stand up for her people (by that I mean the American people). She has so much money and her voice is so powerful but in this case she dropped the ball. I really don't see her helping with the O'Reilly issue.

[mitchum]

30. Media "personalities" always prop one another up...

you little people are wasting your time

[anitar1]

32. I rarely watch Oprah anymore. I think she is in total burnout.

She has no spark to speak of, she appears cold most of the time. It would take a superhuman to stay on one of these daily shows. But her attitude is not too nice with some of her guests. The show became boring for me. But after O'Reilly, I will never watch her show again. I loathe RightWingers.

[tuvor]

33. Oprah's not much better than Bill in my book.

Shortly after the rescue:

In one of the most cringe-inducing moments of Oprah's long and illustrious and mostly admirable television career, she said to Craig and Pam Akers (Shawn Hornbeck's parents):

"OK, I'm going to go there and ask, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?"

http://www.suntimes.com/news/roeper/248387,CST-NWS-roep08.article

[Norquist Nemesis]

34. Unbelievable! She's promoting him on her site too!!!! (links)

I just went to her site to try and read some of the comments. At the bottom of the home page are four section headings with links under each. One of them is "Relationships" and the first link is "Why don't kidnapped children run?" http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200702/20070221/slide_20070221_284_101.jhtml

Take a look at whose picture is in the bottom row at the center--THREE TIMES!!! (Positions 14, 15, and 17). http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200702/20070221/slide_20070221_284_114.jhtml

[Beelzebud]

35. Oprah doesn't give a shit.

[Katherine Brengle]

36. As someone who was victimized herself, I am surprised she isn't

either aware of or more concerned about those comments.