O’Reilly questions if media should interview Fla. shooting survivors ‘who are in an emotional state’

Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday questioned whether the media should be interviewing survivors of last week’s deadly school shooting in Florida, saying that some are “in an extreme emotional state” after 17 people were killed at their school.

News networks have interviewed the classmates and family members of those who were slain at the Parkland, Fla., high school last week. Many of the students interviewed by the media have called on Congress, President Trump and state lawmakers to implement tighter gun restrictions to prevent future shootings. 

“The big question is: should the media be promoting opinions by teenagers who are in an emotional state and facing extreme peer pressure in some cases?” O’Reilly tweeted to his 2.6 million followers.

The big question is: should the media be promoting opinions by teenagers who are in an emotional state and facing extreme peer pressure in some cases?

— Bill O’Reilly (@BillOReilly) February 20, 2018 

In a CNN interview the day after the shooting, one student appealed directly to lawmakers to “work together, come over your politics and get something done” on new gun legislation after authorities said a former student at the school was behind the attack carried out with an assault rifle. 

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The network also published an op-ed by a 17-year-old survivor of the shooting declaring that “politicians abandoned us by failing to keep guns out of schools” and calling on Americans “to take action now” on gun control. 

The students have also called out lawmakers who took campaign donations from the National Rifle Association, blaming them for being in the pocket of the nation’s largest gun lobbyist and failing to take action against assault weapons. 

O’Reilly has previously faced criticism for his argument that government restrictions won’t curtail violence. He once commented that the deadly Las Vegas shooting last October that killed 58 people was “the price of freedom.” 

O’Reilly was fired from Fox last year after a series of sexual harassment allegations against him were reported.