3. The Shawn Hornbeck Abduction
Shawn Hornbeck was abducted at the age of 11 by Michael Devlin and held for four years before police accidentally stumbled upon him as they investigated the abduction of a second child. Whilst held captive Shawn suffered horrific abuse and his kidnapper exerted control by threatening to murder either him or his family. Bill O'Reilly, of course, saw things in a completely different way. He felt that "there was an element here that this kid liked about this circumstances." O'Reilly also said: "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." Following up the next day O'Reilly said his kidnapper "made things easy for him. No school, play all day long." O'Reilly's observations about Hornbeck sparked controversy, and as a result home-improvement chain Lowe's pulled its advertising from The O'Reilly Factor. His comments attracted a deluge of mail which asked him to apologise, but as we've seen Bill's not too good at that. He said: "Maybe, maybe not... I could be wrong, and if I am, I will apologise." Devlin is in state prison in Cameron, Missouri, serving 74 life sentences. He pleaded guilty to more than 71 counts against him including forcible sodomy and O'Reilly's position in this case is entirely amoral. It is an outrage that a public figure would choose to excoriate the victim of child abuse in this manner, unless you're aware that OReilly was once sued by one of his Associate Producers for sexual harassment. He would ring her late at night, implore her to use her vibrator and regale her with tales of his fantasies and his numerous international sexual conquests. This betrays Bill's fundamental position on sexual etiquette: they're begging for it. They're all begging for it - even the children apparently. What an utterly disgraceful man. He's simply horrible, and he has yet to apologise.