O’Reilly slams his books being banned by Florida school district as ‘preposterous’

Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has called a Florida school district's decision to remove two of his books “ridiculous.”

Florida Free Reading Project obtained A list of over 1000 books currently removed by the Escambia County School District (ECPS) in Florida. Two of O'Reilly's books, “The Killing of Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed the Presidency” and “The Killing of Jesus: A History,” were on the list.

Books on the list have been “elevated” for “further consideration” to comply with Florida's HB1069 bill, passed in July.

“The more than 1,000 books they reference have not been banned or removed from the district. Rather, they have simply been pulled for further review to ensure compliance with the new law. ” said ECPS spokesperson Cody Strother. pensacola news journal.

“That's ridiculous,” O'Reilly said. newsweek When reacting to a decision. “That's ridiculous.”

The bill aims to restrict books in the state's schools that are “alleged to contain pornography or lewd depictions of sexual activity.” It was signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (Republican).

Mr O'Reilly initially supported the bill, citing “abuses” taking place in the state, but now says the law needs to be “strengthened”.

“When DeSantis signed the Library Act, I supported this theme because there was abuse going on in Florida. There were far-left progressives who were trying to impose policies on children, but I doubt that. “And the state has a duty to protect children. But in Tallahassee, the wording of the law was too vague,” O'Reilly told Newsweek on Friday.

“So this law needs to be strengthened. DeSantis is going to go out in public and say, “This is outrageous, we're not going to cooperate with this, and we're going to investigate the people who did this.'' ’” Riley said.

Mr O'Reilly said he and his team would further investigate the decision and “find out” who took them from the library.

“I would like to highlight the fact that in certain school districts there is abuse that is harmful to children. It needs to be included,” O’Reilly said Friday. “Throwing John Grisham under the bus is outrageous and ridiculous.”

Five dictionaries and eight encyclopedias were removed, along with “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and “The Diary of Anne Frank,” according to a list obtained Thursday by the Florida Freedom to Read Project.