Fox News' Bill O'Reilly has questioned why his cameras were not allowed into a Harvard student production re-enacting the Abu Ghraib prison abuses.
O'Reilly said he planned to film footage from the theater production for a segment of his program, "The O'Reilly Factor." However, when camera crews arrived May 12 at the Loeb Experimental Theater, they were not allowed to enter.
Robert Mitchell, director of communications for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said Harvard policy prevents media crews from entering the building unless they have permission from the student producers. O'Reilly and his executive producer, David Tabacoff, told the Boston Herald they had received permission.
"We had talked to the producer," O'Reilly said. "Apparently she said yes to our guy. We sent a crew over, and they said, 'Oh, you can't come in.' That raises the flag: 'why not⢠Don't you want this kind of exposure?' "
"Abu Ghraib" director Currun Singh and producer Xin Wei Ngiam wrote in an e-mail to the Herald that O'Reilly invited them to appear on his program, "but framed the debate in terms of Democrats vs. Republicans, when, really, we're about reconciliation, not division. The exploration of prison abuse transcends partisan politics."
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
