Before anybody starts shrieking, let me get some things straight. I'm taking an intro to sociology class at my college, and my professor is
far from a Tea Party supporter or Fox News bot. (According to Fox News, or David Horowitz, or WorldNetDaily, all professors are supposed to be anti-American commie pinko socialists!) But we watched
The Corruption of the American Child, which O'Reilly hosted for a Fox TV special (the broadcast channel on
March 28, 2002, but Fox News later
played the special in October 2002). That special was included in the
Top 10 conservative idiots when it originally aired.
In the segments we watched, O'Reilly targeted: rap music, rated-R movies, World Wrestling Entertainment, online pornography, and (of course you can't just blame the media) irresponsible and indulgent parents. O'Reilly interviewed people in the entertainment industry (such as rap producer Damon Dash and MPAA chair Jack Valenti to the radio shock jocks Opie and Anthony) as well as academics and experts ranging from Jan LaRue of the Family Research Council to an ACLU lawyer to child psychologists. The entertainers basically all took the position that they shouldn't take the role of parents. The porn segment took on NAMBLA, the North America man/boy love association. While LaRue said that NAMBLA publications shouldn't be protected under the 1st amendment, the ACLU lawyer (can't remember his name but it's some "-stein" name) defended the free speech rights of NAMBLA. O'Reilly countered that the entertainment industry is harming kids whose parents aren't watching. After that special we had a discussion about what influences the way people in a society think and behave.
Of course I'm not buying this whole "media corrupts society" thing if it's only applied in America. I argued that there societies around the world can be violent or perverse without a mass media like we have in the West. For example, child soldiers in Africa. Sharia law in the Middle East. And if children accessing porn is causing pedophilia, according to O'Reilly, what about the problem of Catholic priests molesting children and the Vatican being passive about that (i didn't bring that up though)?