You may have noticed this video, a clip from “The O’Reilly Factor,” floating around your newsfeed, in which Jesse Watters takes to the beach to interview college students about Memorial Day and U.S. war history. I’ve seen a couple of people post it saying various forms of, “I’m so embarrassed for our generation.” Embarrassment, however, is not my initial feeling after watching this video.
In the clip, Jesse Watters seems to have combed the beach looking for the least intelligent and most intoxicated students to interview, showing girls laughing off camera at their friends and holding those ominous red Solo cups with which so many college students are familiar.
Watters attempts to use the clip to prove that the Millennial generation is unintelligent, careless, and ungrateful for what the U. S. military has done for them. While some see the beachgoers’ incorrect responses as a poor reflection on themselves, I believe that if any age group is to blame, it is the generation of the older newscasters making fun of the uninformed youth.
Watters and O’Reilly come from the generation of our parents and teachers, those who are supposed to help their children and students have a respect for education while teaching them the importance of our country’s history. It’s incredibly frustrating to me to hear commetns about the ignorant youth when it’s clear that in this video, and in life, the critics are looking at a select few, ignoring the many others of this generation that have already achieved so much.
Nevertheless, it is hardly the uneducated’s fault for not knowing Watters’ trivia questions. Blaming the interviewees for not knowing historical facts is like blaming a dog for not knowing a trick you haven’t taught him yet (or a trick you’ve taught him poorly). Even though the result is disappointing, they are not entirely to blame.
While part of my frustration is directed to Watters for mocking the young people who were trying to enjoy the beach, another part is due to the characters he chooses to interview. The majority of the Millennials he shows are young, beautiful women wearing limited clothing (because why not? They’re at the beach).
It is clear that Jesse Watters purposely chose to highlight the women’s bodies by showing full body shots and having them turn around for no real reason. However, most of the young men were fully clothed. In my opinion, this shows him choosing to place greater value on a woman’s body rather than on her mind, resulting in a furthering of the sexism prevalent in many parts of our society.
Maybe if Watters had a better understanding of the history of women in the United States, he might have known to pick a greater variety of interviewees…
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