O'Rielly put his foot in his mouth AGAIN!!! saying Hornbeck wanted to stay .

[bigdarryl]

with his abductor. Keith Olberman SMACKED his ass down on Count Down. i hope the Hornbecks sue the pants off his ass

[illinoisprogressive]

1. Keith said it, as usual, in the most elegant and pointed way possible.

He doesn't deserve to be on tv at all. I do agree with Keith on this. he is beyond worst person in the world.

[Jennicut]

2. Disgusting horrible creature that takes up needless space on earth=O'Jerkhead

That is a terrible thing to say. What is wrong with these Rethug wack job pundits? Have they no shame? This is up there with Ann "Grosses me out" Coulter and her saying the WTC widows are happy their husbands are dead. Allrighty then. Poor Sean Hornbeck. Looks like a nice scared kid. At least K.O. showed once again what a slime O'Reilly is.

[PresidentObama]

3. If he saw Oprah....

He'd know that boy was SCARED.

Hornbeck is obviously going through some trauma, and we don't know what kind of physical and mental torture he went through. Questions remain about whether he was sexually abused even.

O'Reilly should just shut his FAT mouth.

[OneBlueSky]

7. that kid's pain was palpable . . . Oprah never should have put him in front of cameras . . .

and his parents never should have allowed it . . . he's obviously happy to be home, but he's been free less than a week and you could just see that he's holding in an immense amount of deep, deep hurt . . . and that he really did not want to be the center of attention at all . . .

shame on Oprah for putting ratings above the kid's welfare and on his parents for allowing it to happen . . .

[Skittles]

8. WTF is WRONG with people?

they care more about sensationalism than the well-being of a child - I am disgusted with Oprah and that boy's family

[Riddler]

9. Why blame Oprah????

No one forced the parents of either boy to go on national TV to be interviewed by her. It's a very relevant news story and she would be remiss if she didn't make the effort to interview them. Do you think that 20-20, Barbara Walters, Dateline, and every other news or interview show hasn't thought about or tried to get them on their shows? They were under no compulsion whatsoever to appear, and probably did so in an effort to quell all the rumors and innuendo that shit-brains like O'Reilly like to bandy about without any proof whatsoever. At least Oprah abided by the ground rules that were set down and did it in a respectful non-sensationalistic manner. Blaming Oprah for doing her job is ridiculous.

[Skittles]

11. oh PLEASE

Oprah must know it is not in his best interests to do ANY type of public show this soon, ANY SANE PERSON KNOWS THAT - she's more interested in exploiting him than she cares about his WELFARE

[ellacott]

12. Oh Please

The families were interviewed earlier this week by Meredith Viera on the Today Show. The family of the younger boy chose not to have their son on the show. If any sane person knew that why didn't the older boys parent know that also. Why are you blaming Oprah but not his parents or the Today show that actually did an interview before Oprah.

[Skittles]

13. read my original post

I said I was disgusted with Oprah AND this boy's family and I'm disgusted with The Today Show now that I am aware of it. NO ONE has this boy's best interests at heart, and here in the DU we have PEOPLE DEFENDING THEIR ACTIONS, treating Oprah as if her intentions are NOBLE - what a load of horse shit. I am disgusted all the way around on this one.

[lligrd]

14. I Wonder If Anyone Really Knows What Is Best

in a situation such as this. I don't even pretend to know.

[OneBlueSky]

15. because as an abuse survivor, Oprah should have known better . . .

and the way she conducted the interview was itself further abuse of this child . . . first she asked the parents ("Okay, I'm gonna go there . . .") if they believed that Shawn had been sexually molested -- a topic that, surprisingly, most media had been successfully avoiding for almost a week . . . then she TWICE "went there" when Shawn specifically asked her not to -- once when she discussed the contents of the message board posts, and once when she revealed on air (with Shawn in the audience) something he had told her in confidence off air . . .

that something was why he didn't try to escape (he was "terrified") -- a question that should NEVER have been asked because it automatically places blame on the victim . . . she should have listened to the FBI guy who was on later in the program, because that's precisely what he said -- never ask the victim "why" he did or didn't do this or that . . .

this interview was disgraceful, and Oprah Winfrey should be ashamed of herself . . . take a look at what her viewers are saying on her message boards . . . there are over 1400 posts, and the disgust with Oprah is almost universal . . .

[KurtNYC]

10. In the bigger picture, the parents have no choice about the fact

that they are in the national spotlight. Cable news was speculating wildly (as always) about why the kid didn't run from this guy. So this was at least a chance to address that and stop some of the crap. I only saw the clips and it looked like Oprah did the segment without an live audience and did part of it without the kid. With all the blame-the-victim stuff going on, I think this was moment that the parents and the kid owned.

[greenbriar]

4. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3063468

[mikehiggins]

5. How could anyone be dumb enough not to understand?

The kid was a victim, not just five years ago, but again even today. His entire life has been ground into the dirt by a predator who played on his youth and innocence and gut-wrenching fear to forge an unbreakable hold over him. Was he abused physically and sexually, in addition to being brutalised emotionally? That seems to have been the case. What boy would PREFER something like that to going to school and having to do chores at home?

Someone brutally wrested five irreplaceable years of his life from him, and immersed him in a cruel, sadistic, abusive shadow of what his growing up should have been like.

What is so hard to understand about that? The boy was a VICTIM of this criminal from the moment he was taken until the police stumbled over him and may well prove to be a VICTIM of this crime for the rest of his life. IMHO, the odds of his recovering and fitting back into society after what has been done to him aren't all that good.

O'Rielly should be taken off the air. What a cruel, heartless, despicable take on a clear tragedy.

[Ladyhawk]

6. My mother likes O'Reilly. A couple of days ago,

she said it was terrible how certain press members were blaming that kid for his own predicament. Now that O'Reilly has said it, will she change her tune? She certainly parroted Faux News blaming the Katrina victims. I barely got through that period without having a nervous breakdown over the family divide. :(