O’Reilly Joins Smear Campaign, Falsely Claims Hate Crime Bill Protects Pedophiles
May 8, 2009 by Amanda Morgan, GLAAD's Digital Initiatives Fellow
Like fellow Fox News hosts, Sean Hannity and Bill Hemmer, Bill O’Reilly has been proliferating false information concerning the language of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
The federal bill defines a bias motivated crime as one that is “motivated by prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim.”
As Media Matters noted, contrary to the claims of O’Reilly et. al., pedophilia is already defined by federal law as a classification that exists outside of sexual orientation and/or disability. Thereby precluding the need to include any additional language that would exclude pedophiles from protection under the bill.
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