The popular author, conservative commentator and former Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly had enthusiastically backed book restrictions in Florida schools. However, that was before he learned how ambiguous legal language and an official recommendation to “err on the side of caution” was causing districts to ban many publications.
He also didn’t understand that two of his own novels had been banned.
O’Reilly’s works were among the more than 1,600 books that Florida school districts had banned out of concern that they broke the state’s recently passed HB 1069 law, which is considered to forbid any publication that contains “sexual conduct.”
The century-old writers’ and free speech organization PEN America has been leading the charge in exposing this suppression of books, which hasn’t been seen since the 1950s’ Red Scare period.
Jessica Young, the parent of 9-year-old frequent reader, said how she felt about the book ban. “I really do not see who they are trying to benefit from banning these books. I read a few of the banned books when I was a child, and I do not think it’s necessary to restrict them from kids,” Young said.
Board sessions were transformed into a spectacle by the conservative Moms for Liberty organization and affiliated groups, who read aloud graphic excerpts from books without providing any context, arguing that youngsters should not have access to them. A new regulation in Florida went into effect this summer that said a board member could delete a book right away if they felt it was inappropriate during a reading.
HB 1069 went into effect in Florida in July. It was the result of lobbying by organizations whose members were dissatisfied with the books —classics like “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “The Bluest Eye” among others — that they felt should have been removed from the shelf after being thoroughly studied by a committee made up of parents, educators, and a librarian.
Alice Harold, a college junior in Tallahassee, says that the bill is useless. “These moms who advocated for the books to get banned are looking way too much into it, they are purposely trying to find the smallest things to get a book banned,” Harold said.
“When (Gov. Ron) DeSantis signed the book law, I supported the theme because there was abuse going on in Florida,” O’Reilly told Newsweek. “There were far-left progressive people trying to impose an agenda on children, there’s no doubt about it.”