“The O’Reilly Factor” Debates Jesse Jackson’s Role in Illinois’ KidCare

Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" on March 5 examined an Illinois controversy regarding Jesse Jackson's involvement in promoting KidCare, the state's CHIP program. Questioning a $763,000 contract that Illinois awarded to Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Bill O'Reilly, the show's host, said that Jackson had "blast[ed]" Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R) "for not signing up children fast enough" for KidCare, but the "attacks" stopped when the contract to promote the program was "given to Jackson alone." According to O'Reilly, the Rainbow Coalition began receiving money last July, when 109,000 Illinois children were enrolled in KidCare. Since then, 36,000 additional children have been added to the program. O'Reilly asked, "Why does the State of Illinois have to pay Jackson $750,000 to enroll 36,000 kids? The state could have done that without Jackson." Responding to O'Reilly's remarks, Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D) called Jackson a "leader" on "trying to get more kids enrolled in health insurance," and said that the state contract was "not a payoff to Reverend Jackson." She added that "to the extent that more kids weren't enrolled, the real scandal has nothing to do with Jackson at all. It's the fact that there's so much bureaucracy and red tape in order to get signed up." O'Reilly said, "This looks like he's criticizing Ryan, Ryan wants to shut him up, shuts him up with three quarter of a million dollars ... and boom, Jackson does zip for it." Schakowsky responded, "It is not true that Reverend Jackson did not continue to say that the way kids are signed up is not the most efficient way. He continued to criticize the program while he went out to try and get more kids signed up" ("The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News, 3/5).