Hugh Downs Leaves Television for the Internet
Bill O'Reilly
07/02/2001
Fox News: The O'Reilly Factor
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O'REILLY: In the "Back of the Book" segment tonight, 80-year-old former ABC news anchorman Hugh Downs. He left "20/20" in 1999 and segued over to the Internet, where he hosts programs for the iNEX TV Corporation. And one of those programs is called "Conversations With Hugh Downs: Values in America."
He joins us now from Phoenix.
You know, as an anchorman for ABC News, you're not allowed to give your opinion or anything. I mean, you just had to sit there and read the teleprompter and be nice to Barbara, play little kissy-face stuff like you guys used to do, very cute. But now at age 80, you're emerging as a commentator. When I was out in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago, I saw you on local television out there, and you're giving your opinion about values in America.
What is your basic tone on values?
HUGH DOWNS, INEXTV : Well, America is a country that does have values and lives up to some of them, not all. But we're very strong on the environment. This cuts across ideologic or political lines. The American people want to protect the environment. We're a very merciful nation, because when there's a disaster anyplace in the world, no nation does as much in the way of rushing help and money and everything to the people who are afflicted.
So we have values in America, and we live up to them. We have some that we think we live up to that we give lip service to and we aren't quite up on. And it's interesting to talk to a wide variety of people who have strong opinions about this. Some of them are very surprising.
O'REILLY: All right. Now, your earpiece is out, Hugh. Can you get it back in? Just hold your earpiece there. Can you hear me all right?
DOWNS: Oh, I hear you OK.
O'REILLY: OK, good. Many people, many Americans, and I am one of them, feel that we are a nation now that is adrift in the value department, that we accept behavior that would not have been acceptable even 10 years ago, abominable behavior, is excuses, you know, all of this stuff. Do you see it that way?
DOWNS: No, I don't see it that way. I think there -- well, I think there are some behavior that involves cruelty that we're a little bit insensitive to. But our values are still there, and some of them we're working against older values which are no longer really useful.
One of the things I think was the -- we're still in the throes of a kind of a Victorian repression of sexuality, and this is something that there's a big lot of controversy about, about whether we should return to some of those older values...
O'REILLY: No, but, but here it is, here -- let me get real specific. Look at the Boy Scout situation, which has caused a tremendous problem. I mean, I don't think that avowed homosexuals should be Scoutmasters, because I don't think anybody who defines their sexuality in front of 10- and 12-year-olds should be Scoutmasters. I don't want sex being discussed in the Boy Scouts. Now, that's -- there's a value issue right there.
DOWNS: There's a value issue, yes. But anybody, heterosexual or homosexual, who starts making sex a big issue among young children, I don't think they have any business doing that.
O'REILLY: That's right. So -- but...
DOWNS: It's not a matter of gender...
O'REILLY: But the Boy Scouts are on the defensive because they say, We don't want avowed homosexuals as Scoutmasters. This, to me...
DOWNS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'REILLY: ... is a complete outrage, that the Boy Scouts are taking the heat.
DOWNS: Well, the Boy Scouts should take the heat on that and lighten up a little bit about it, and not try to persecute people because of their gender persuasion.
O'REILLY: But they're not. If they didn't say anything, Mr. Downs, they wouldn't be an issue. If they just came in and were a Scoutmaster and didn't define themselves in sexual terms, it would be fine.
DOWNS: Now you're back to the don't ask-don't tell, I think.
O'REILLY: Right.
DOWNS: A person has got to -- of that persuasion has got to be silent about it and suffer in silence and listen to (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'REILLY: What do you mean, suffer?
DOWNS: ... all the (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'REILLY: I don't go running around telling everybody about my sex life, and I don't think you do either, do you?
DOWNS: No, you don't have to...
O'REILLY: So just shut up about it.
DOWNS: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'REILLY: You want to be a Boy Scout leader, you don't have to talk about the sex deal.
DOWNS: A guy could be homosexual and be a Boy Scout leader and still be innocent of anything that promotes his sexual persuasion...
O'REILLY: But why do -- why...
DOWNS: ... to the boys, I think.
O'REILLY: ... do the kids have to know that he's gay? Why not -- why does he have to tell anybody?
DOWNS: They don't -- he doesn't have to tell anyone. But they will find out and persecute him if they -- this is a value I think needs adjusting, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'REILLY: Do you? All right, OK.
DOWNS: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'REILLY: Now, other issue, what's your other hot button?
DOWNS: Well, I don't know, I was interested in -- you know, I interviewed Hugh Hefner. And you're talking about (UNINTELLIGIBLE) values?
O'REILLY: Yes, talk about values. I mean, Hugh's got 'em, he's got 18 girlfriends.
DOWNS: Yes. Yes, he does now, after a disastrous end to a marriage that meant a lot to him, he's gone back to his old lifestyle.
O'REILLY: Right, and that's...
DOWNS: And I grant, he made a ton of money on a magazine that wasn't because of the literary quality of it, which it had a high literary quality. Hef is no Larry Flynt or Guccione. But his money came from what people call a girlie magazine.
However, he promotes the idea that he was -- the Playboy Philosophy did tend to liberate both sexes to a certain extent, and he makes a pretty good case for that.
O'REILLY: All right. Well, you know, his values, we know where they lie, 18 girlfriends. Hey, Mr. Downs, good talking to you, have fun out there...
DOWNS: Good talking to you, Bill.
O'REILLY: ... in Phoenix. All right, thanks.
DOWNS: Thank you much. |
