Franken lies about O’Reilly’s opposition to Ludacris and similarly styled rappers
Franken mentions O’Reilly’s novel about a serial killer, Those Who Trespass. The novel contains some graphic descriptions of “not nice” things. According to Franken, that makes O’Reilly a hypocrite for condemning rap artists who expose children to explicit, degrading lyrics.
In particular, O’Reilly has chided the rap artist Ludacris, who Franken claims is just having fun. Obviously oblivious to the cultural influence of that type of music, particularly on young children, Franken says
According to my son, Joe, what he enjoys about Ludacris is his gift for playful and irreverent hyperbole.
The retort goes on the specious line that since Franken’s adult son gets a kick out of songs that joke about smacking “bitches” and “hos,” that must make it good for ten year olds… like Vitamin C or something, right?
Indeed at no point does Franken address O’Reilly’s well documented record of why he objects to certain rap artists being glorified in popular culture vis a vi children. Instead, he dishonestly acts as if O’Reilly objects to “R” rated content existing at all, and attacks that point, leaving O’Reilly’s real argument unanswered and unknown to Frankens readers.