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Media Matters has the audio and transcript from the September 28 broadcast of Salem Radio Network’s Bill Bennett’s Morning in America:Bennett’s remark was apparently inspired by the claim that legalized abortion has reduced crime rates, which was posited in the book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Levitt and Dubner argued that aborted fetuses would have been more likely to grow up poor and in single-parent or teenage-parent households and therefore more likely to commit crimes.
CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I’ve read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn’t — never touches this at all.BENNETT: Assuming they’re all productive citizens?
CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.
BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don’t know what the costs would be, too. I think as — abortion disproportionately occur among single women? No.
CALLER: I don’t know the exact statistics, but quite a bit are, yeah.
BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don’t know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don’t know. I mean, it cuts both — you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well –
CALLER: Well, I don’t think that statistic is accurate.
BENNETT: Well, I don’t think it is either, I don’t think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don’t know. But I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could — if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.
I urge you to listen to the audio. I chose Media Matter to make it easier for all of you to access the info. Most sources I went to required registering etc. So get all the info and offer your feedback!
September 30, 2005 - 02:01 PM on September 30th, 2005
I read Freakonomics a few months ago. Very good book and very well done. As for the comment, I guess that would have to go to statistics. If blacks commit a large percentage of the crimes, then it would not be a racist comment in the context of his argument…
September 30, 2005 - 02:15 PM on September 30th, 2005
1-Astro, thans for the recommendation. I was thinking of getting it, but didn’t want to waste my time if it wasn’t good.
I didn’t take the statement as racist.
September 30, 2005 - 02:16 PM on September 30th, 2005
You can no longer argue against PC dogma with the biased media still in such power.
While the left is outraged at Bennett, the left is using the outrage to cover their boy Ron Earle and his politically movated indictment of Tom DeLay. What is worse is what the left is doing to blogger Noonan. For Melloy on Air America to call for his listeners to cause physical harm to Noonan is unacceptable. If this were Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, there would be an outcry dwarfing this Bennett controversy.
September 30, 2005 - 03:14 PM on September 30th, 2005
2 - It’s a very nice read, thanks mostly to Levitt and Dubner’s writing style. It has some nice economics but does it in a way that isn’t compeltely dry and boring. Another similar one that’s been very highly recommended by a friend is called “Fair Play”, which takes common economic theory and compares it to childhood stuff IIRC…
September 30, 2005 - 05:22 PM on September 30th, 2005
I heard the comment on the radio on my way to work. Remember on one of the Roberts threads I wrote something like, “anything you say will be taken out of context and used against you”?
Yes, Bennett was merely making a point. But the audio isn’t as forgiving as the transcript.
There’s much one can read into what wasn’t said, which left much red meat out there for people draw their own conclusions as to what he meant.
People (and you know which ones you are) are going to only focus on these words and use guilt by association:
“…you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”
September 30, 2005 - 05:26 PM on September 30th, 2005
ok, first of all.. he followed that up with..”you could abort EVERY baby in this country and eliminate crime”
not to mention, and I’m sorry if this offends you…but that statement is true…blacks commit crime..oh the horror!!! If you aborted every baby, they wouldn’t commit crime.
let the PC police go crazy.
September 30, 2005 - 05:43 PM on September 30th, 2005
6: The radio station I heard it ended the bite after the quote above. Again, people will focus on what they choose to focus.
Frankly, I don’t think he should’ve gone there. It’s right up there with Dr. Laura’s “biological error” comment on her show.
When other people can slice and dice your words out of the original context, or with no regard to intent, this is what you end up with.
Any similiarity between me and political correctness is purely coincidental.
September 30, 2005 - 06:11 PM on September 30th, 2005
Sasha you cited an excellant example. IMO, he may have used the example to show how silly it was to bring up the abortion arguement(god I am so sick of abortion). Neither could be proven as fact, nor should any be used for the basis of your arguement when attempting to make a point. I think many people missed the point Bill tried to make. Or at least the point that I got; To assume that 30 million aborted fetus’ would grow up to be productive members of society is a stretch. Just as it would be silly for me to assume that becuse there are more blacks in prison than whites, that blacks commit more crimes. Neither arguement takes into consideration various variables that should be taken into consideration . Of those aborted fetus’- how many would have been live birth, mentally retarded, lived long enough to contribute to social security.
Of the blacks in prison, how many were represented by public defenders and found guilty of the same crime that a white person committed and was aquitted for, because they had the means to pay for a good defense?
I got it and didn’t think it was racist.
September 30, 2005 - 10:07 PM on September 30th, 2005
The whole racial aspect is a red herring, taking into account Bennett’s anti-abortion position. Let’s not fall into that trap trying to prove a hypothetical.
It’d be interesting to find out where all these outraged people are on the subject of abortion.
October 1, 2005 - 03:32 AM on October 1st, 2005
His life as he knew it is over in the land of freedom and political bull, sad for him but what can you really say in this land of freedom that isn’t Racists?.
a land:cry: that needs some real blood work done soon:wink:, if you know what i mean:?:
See The Turner diaries for what will happen to all who can’t see. I will say no more.:roll:
October 1, 2005 - 06:03 AM on October 1st, 2005
Fred, I’ve been trying to avoid mentioning the Final Solution Adolf developed when he decided one group of people were the cause of all his country’s problems, and put forth a “modest proposal” on how to deal with it.
Margaret Sanger had the same idea of eugenics and breeding out the inferiors and undesirables when she started Planned Parenthood.
October 1, 2005 - 06:28 AM on October 1st, 2005
11- and ever better examples!
October 1, 2005 - 06:30 AM on October 1st, 2005
Sasha, OOC, just what made you think of Dr. Laura in your earlier example? I forgot all about her until you had meantioned her.:razz:
October 1, 2005 - 08:18 AM on October 1st, 2005
Just you wait JESSIE JACKASSON and AL SHARKTON will be calling for his head the NAACP will be demaning a appology:roll:
October 1, 2005 - 01:10 PM on October 1st, 2005
:smile:sasha, I love you, but remember we all “Our”..the problem and we will all understand what the final solution was really all about soon.
the fact is this nation is insane and its people have no idea what is wrong or what is right and it will paid for not seeing it and look it in the face for what it is and is not and billions of people someday will look at god and ask why and that day is coming soon how sad but how normal in all human beings not to see it in ones self:cry:
by the way 12 million were in fact killed in the final solution and 50 percent were not jews what a “great idea to mass murder the old and the insane”( a government plan here ) were in fact the start of the killing was not the jews who came after 1940, but ask why didn’t “the people stand up and say no more”:?: because the people were making money off the dead that is why:idea:
it take 20 million reds and 4 million americans and 3 million guys from the U.K. To stop the mass murders
October 1, 2005 - 06:11 PM on October 1st, 2005
Just got back from the game, peejz. The overgrown weasels with the bad attitude got the better of us.
How do I feel? About half as bad as a Michigan men’s basketball fan. They tend to get whipped twice in a season.
October 1, 2005 - 06:27 PM on October 1st, 2005
13: That was the best parallel I could think of. Two hyper-educated people talking on the radio. I was listening the day she said that, and thought, “Oh, she went there and really stepped in it.”
Then GLAAD and stopdrlaura.com started boycott campaigns of her sponsors by taking the “biological error” statement out of context and intent. All of a sudden, she was being portrayed as having called homosexuals “biological errors,” which wasn’t the case, but you can’t unring the bell.
And no matter how much either will try to correct or clarify matters, it will never get as much air as the original statement.
October 1, 2005 - 06:55 PM on October 1st, 2005
15. True, Hitler killed many millions more than the Jews who went into the gas chamber, but he was off to a good start, without some timely intervention of the Allied Forces, he would’ve succeeded in slaughtering the rest of Europe’s Jews.
I know what you’re saying, Fred, but I’m not ready to say all of Germany knew what was going on. As I understand it, many were horrified when the concentration camps gave up the dead, the survivors and the “experiments.” The people thought he could solve their problems, but didn’t know how he was going to go about doing it.
That sci-fi series “V” did a good job of retelling the Nazi’s rise to power.
I’m also thinking of that little 1970s history experiment called “The Wave,” or Jane Elliott’s blue eye/brown eye exercise also show how easily people can be manipulated when fed enough of what they want to hear.
October 1, 2005 - 08:28 PM on October 1st, 2005
Sasha- I thought of you today. I was royally Bummed!:sad: But the Lions still beat the Packers:mrgreen:
October 2, 2005 - 08:28 PM on October 2nd, 2005
To: Mike Kilo
You state Bennett followed up with..”you could abort EVERY baby in this country and eliminate crime”.
I thought he said something like that also,but I have not found a reference to it or a transcript that includes it since, even though I emailed the show and encouraged them to include this. I think this additional bit takes whatever little cause for claiming racism out of it all together. Do you have a source, or just remember hearing it like I did??
Thanks
October 3, 2005 - 09:05 AM on October 3rd, 2005
Mike M.
I remember it EXACTLY like that.. he was pointing out the absurdity of the argument by following it to the most extreme conclusion……
why can’t people understand this? Are we to the point that white people should just shut up and never even utter the word “black”? Even if to point out the racism of OTHERS???????
Jesus Harold Christ, this world is going to shit.
October 3, 2005 - 07:26 PM on October 3rd, 2005
Thanks mike K.,
I don’t understand why Bennett and others don’t point this out themselves.
October 3, 2005 - 10:15 PM on October 3rd, 2005
21: From the tone of all the comments, it looks like we’re all in agreement that Bennett’s comment, taken in context, is not racist.
At one job, I quoted in print as having said things that would never pass my lips, but that only had to happen once before I got very tough with the media from then on.
What I think this shows is that conservatives have to be very aware of not just what they say, but the worst way their statements will be taken. That’s not pc, that’s just picking your words carefully. None of us are making comments in a vacuum. I mean, what does it gain a person to make a point that’s philosophically sound, but gets that person (and everyone supporting that point of view) labeled as the very thing they decry?
October 4, 2005 - 08:39 AM on October 4th, 2005
Bennett’s comments are offensive and insensitive. It is not news that Blacks committ crimes. It is not politically incorrect to say so. But I do feel that even if he followed up and said that you could about every baby and reduce crime, the statement is one I am sure he wishes he never uttered.
October 4, 2005 - 09:13 AM on October 4th, 2005
24, SaraJane, did you read the entire conversation or just take the out of context snippet the MSM is parroting?
October 8, 2005 - 12:16 AM on October 8th, 2005
His statement alone is not racist, but if it stops at black=crime then it’s racist. Kudos if one acknowledges the statistics but looks deeper to the cause (these aren’t middle/upper class blacks in jail) however, intelligent bigots feel obliged to justify inane ideas, but will not look further than proving group A causes problem B but not WHY.
Statistics show a correlation between poverty and crime and that whites arrested for the same crimes are more likely acquitted. Most crime is intra-racial meaning by and against people of the same race, however white collar crimes hurts everyone. I’d never suggest the abortion of innocent white baby boys with the belief of lowering the rates of white collar crime, serial killers, child abduction/molestation, rather we should address the cause or else statistics can be used to justify horrific crimes against humanity and or neglect of various groups.