Amsterdam caught in 'culture war' with Fox News

[Puffin13]

Amsterdam caught in 'culture war' with Fox News
24/08/2009

The war of words continues over representation of the Dutch capital.

Amsterdam – Fox News has responded to criticism of its portrayal of Amsterdam as a “cesspool of corruption” after thousands of videos were posted on Youtube in the city's defence.

Out of the 1,100 Youtube videos that have gone online since The O'Reilly Factor slammed Amsterdam as a corrupt city in December 2008, Dutch film student Robert Nieuwenhuijs’s film has been the most popular.

The Truth about Amsterdam, which went online 27 July, displays Dutch and American drug statistics side by side, and pictures of an idyllic-looking Amsterdam.

More than 2,100 people left comments under the Youtube video that has been viewed over 319,000 times.

In response, The O'Reilly Factor aired Nieuwenhuijs' video and readdressed its 2008 position on 3 August in the “Culture Warriors” segment.

“I don't know if you can blame all of their crime problems on the fact that they have legalised prostitution and legalised drugs,” said Gretchen Carlson, a co-host, on the most recent segment.

The discussion between O'Reilly and Margaret Hoover, another co-host, touched on the statistics presented in the video. The percentage of the population that had used marijuana in the Netherlands was 22.6 percent compared to 40.3 percent in the United States, according to the national surveys quoted by Nieuwenhuijs.

“The way they do their statistics in the Netherlands is different,” said O'Reilly on the show. “Plus it's a much smaller country. It's a much smaller base to do the stats on.”

How it all began: Free love, free drugs
The row began after the Fox News show claimed the Netherlands' experimentation with social tolerance “backfired” in a segment in 2008.

The Fox segment, which was largely directed at those in the US who support legalisation of marijuana, showed TV host O'Reilly commenting on how the Amsterdam city council was shutting down coffee shops and brothels to combat the organised crime that had taken over the city.

Culture war

Each side in this culture war has their own biases to account for, as O'Reilly and Nieuwenhuijs use dramatically different images of the same Amsterdam to make their points.

While Nieuwenhuijs' video focuses on O'Reilly's representation of Amsterdam, the video uses statistics for the entire Netherlands and not drug use statistics from the city itself.

On the other hand, O'Reilly frequently groups “Amsterdam” and “the Netherlands” together throughout the segments, implying the Netherlands is a homogeneous “disaster” because of its tolerant policies.

“I believe that crime has increased due to the coffeeshops and brothels,” said 21-year old Dutch student Timothy van Vliet. However, if they were not legalised “crime might have increased more than it has.”

“Relaxation of [the US] drug policy might not work, as I believe it does here, since the US has exponentially larger problems when it comes to drugs and drug-related crimes.”

The Netherlands has also considered changes to its nationwide soft drug policies in response to drug tourism from neighbouring countries.

However, a government-commissioned research panel suggested that coffee shop policy remain “old style” for local users, according to July article in Trouw.

Source & videos

[kel]

What a steaming load Bill O'Reilly is. He's a parody of himself, at this point.

[mark the martian]

Hehe, Fox News holds no sway outside of the states. Shut up O'Rielly, no one cares what you think about European cities

Yeah, he is a parody of himself. What a joke

[USbongLord]

hes a fox shill..sleeps with both feet in his mouth...he doesnt matter about a thing btw..fox news is a joke...

[doobydave]

Such a professional - calm, collected........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tJjNVVwRCY

[hippy_man99]

*shakes head*
sometimes I wonder how Fox gets away with all of these outright lies about Amsterdam and the Netherlands as a whole!

oh wait.... the Fox corporation.... american capitalism.... there we go!


sooooo glad i'm away from that country seriously.

*puffs on his white widow/ cherry haze spliff bought at a LEGAL coffeeshop about an hour ago*

didn't run into any violent crimes happening during my transaction... which is a far different story back in my old stomping grounds in Downtown Buffalo...

I'd like O'Reilly to take each experience and tell me which one is more associated with crime?


what a fucking waste of space


hippy

[Pauli Wallnuts]

do you reckon that james bond movie with the media baron who tries to trigger ww3 is based on rupert murdoch? hes now even taken over germany pay tv with the takeover of premiere, now called sky germany, in the uk he even decides who gets elected, the candidates bend over backwards for him so they can get 'the suns choice' which guarantees you victory

[cantona7]

i hate how he always cuts his guests off then gives them the " last word " or w/e and interrupts them there too. this guy gives americans a bad name. not all us media is as bad as faux news and bill o'reilly doesn't accurately represent the opinion of the avg american on this subject or others.

[Puffin13]

The O'Reilly Factor has no place in Dutch culture
27/08/2009

Fox News' recent portrayals of the city of Amsterdam has stirred up outrage as only The O'Reilly Factor can; however, the programme's underlying message is worth a second look.

Amsterdam – It is seductively easy to bash Fox News and its representative TV personalities. Bill O'Reilly, with his arrogant body language and absolutism, practically begs for it.

In December 2008, the “Culture Warriors” segment of O'Reilly's talk show suggested the Dutch's liberal attitude and social tolerance were to blame for Amsterdam's crime problems.

“The Dutch are getting more conservative because it [their liberal stance towards soft drugs and prostitution] hasn't worked,” said O'Reilly, who described Amsterdam as being overrun by organised crime.

In the United States, Fox News dominates cable news and O'Reilly is king of the hill. The O'Reilly Factor has the largest viewership of any cable news programme, with 3.1 million viewers as of July 2009.

Given his reach, it's no surprise that O'Reilly's comments sparked thousands of YouTube responses and blogs.

As the row over Amsterdam and liberal Dutch culture unfolds, I'm less interested in what he said than why he said it.

Source & rest of article

[mark the martian]

Wait, is that an opinion piece? Terribly written if it's not!!

[Kingdoc]

Fox News LMFAO.

[JMey]

New video:
http://www.pp2g.tv/pan5wY3U_.aspx

Check the last few seconds with the statistics
That poor blonde woman on the left who actually comes with facts gets ignored and brushed aside.

[TRANCE]

This newsreader seriously grates me. He interviewed Prof Richard Dawkins once about religion/God, etc. O'Reilly came over as a complete and utter cock where Dawkins was eloquent and polite with far more intelligence than him, O'Reilly seemed nothing but intimated by Dawkins and proceeded to talk over him, hell bent on having the last word if it killed him. Must be on Youtube somewhere, I guess.

[Badfrog]

The O'Reilly Factor has the largest viewership of any cable news programme, with 3.1 million viewers as of July 2009.

Bill O'Reilly is quite frankly a worthless piece of shit. Even using their own figures as to the amount of viewers for a so called popular show,the total still represents only 1% of the American people.

So pay no attention to him or those like him, they are just some of the brain dead neanderthals here in this county who feel that people cannot think for themselves and therefore an idiotic government should do it for them.

I am glad to say,that the larger percentage of the population here do not subscribe to this thought and can see the truth for themselves.