Why this website?
19 August 2009 | 1:51 by admin
We’re Robbert (26) and Elian (28), we live in Amsterdam. We set up this website as a response to the worldwide pre-assumptions about our city. TV host Bill O’Reilly from Fox News (USA) is one of the most hilarious representatives of these false ideas. We aim to show you a more realistic view of Amsterdam.
We hope that this site inspires you to come up with your own Amsterdam video, showing us and the world what you think it’s like. We’ll also continue to post new videos from time to time. We started the forum because we believe in freedom of speech and the power of internet. So please don’t hold back if you got something to say.
We are working on another reply to Bill. Keep checking our site as we’ll post it soon!
Elian & Robbert
Lex
June 4th, 2010 at 6:19 pm #
I am one of the unfortunate US people that have been unable to visit Amsterdam but do planning on going one day. I agree with the many that say that the US needs to adopt the Dutch ways. I feel that Bill O’Reilly needs to taken off the air and never allowed back into the media field for any reason. One of the rules for the media is not to report lies and false statements, so I’m wondering why it is he is still allowed to be on the air. I truly hope that one day the US wakes up and realizes just how much it could help to follow in the Dutch’s foot steps.
Carol Bontekoe
April 6th, 2010 at 9:53 pm #
This is a Great Website. Good Work Guys!
julien
January 9th, 2010 at 2:09 pm #
Brilliant, thanks for this!
Bryan
October 28th, 2009 at 9:14 am #
I am an American, former US Marine, and embarrassed, not by O’Reilly’s comments, but that certain sections of our populace take this espousing of distorted facts and ratings grab, as the truth.
O’Reilly started off as a sensationalist, Hollywood paparazzi reporter on Inside Edition, that he tried to pass it off as a real news program. He then moved to Fox News to be the voice of conservatives. His show has no real news value it is all about outrageous statements to inflame his audience for ratings.
FOX stands for Feed Our Xenophobics.
Tim
October 8th, 2009 at 5:03 am #
Well done!
I went to Amsterdam in January ‘09 to see for myself. I can’t add anything to the discussion; it’s all been said.
My only criticism is that you are wasting too much time and effort on what these people think.
Do you really want people that believe Bill and Company visiting you?
Let them think what they want.
See you all again soon!
Pieter
September 12th, 2009 at 8:32 pm #
Geweldig gedaan jongens !!
Tja, Bill, wat moet je daar nu over zeggen … Anyway, for your American readers I’ll continue in english. Bill, when you said “cute propaganda”, did you mean it doesn’t live up to your standards ? I mean seriously, when I watch your show (which is usually for a couple of minutes because after that I start feeling sick because of all your comments), isn’t your complete show propaganda ?? If you, or your fellow/buddy host Glenn Beck, know everything so well of how things should be done in the USA, why don’t you two try to run for the presidency ? Or will the PUBLIC embarrassment be too big for you ? …. If you ever make it through the primaries !!! Robbert and Elian, I applaude your video, your reporting on the facts (instead of trying to make fiction a fact, what Bill does anyway) and you made it to the “Bill O the Clown show” to have him look stupid for a second time !!! This week the celebrations of New York 400 are happening, and I guess Bill O never paid much attention when he had history class in school. The same liberty, right of an opinion and freedom of speech but still equal rights for everybody are here BECAUSE of the Dutch !! That is exactly how they started their first community on MANHATTAN !!! Manhattan … you know, that’s where Bill lives !! I especially say community because of the acceptance of ALL people who wanted to start a new life on Manhattan.
Anyway, people of the world, Amsterdam is a great city, a relaxed city, a safe city and yes it has it’s flaws and down sides. But hey, don’t all cities in the world have their down side ? Look at New York City’s Bill O’Reilly …..
Pieter, NY
(by the way …. O’Reilly …. isn’t that irish ?)
Gavin
September 11th, 2009 at 5:42 pm #
I am a Scotsman who spent 19 years in the States. I have been back in the UK since 1998 and have visited Amsterdam 9 times. It is a fantastic, safe city with friendly people and a great atmosphere. Bill is a pompous moron that actually believes his own right wing rhetoric.
LJJ
September 8th, 2009 at 3:51 pm #
Well done! I’ll bet Bill won’t even come up with a reply anymore.. He’ll just move along like he didn’t get owned (again) at all..
(but it’s ok, he and his co-workers are just a sad bunch.. lets all feel sorry for them
)
JG
September 8th, 2009 at 2:08 pm #
Maybe Bill O’Reilly is doing us all a favour: Those Americans that are so ill-informed and prejudiced as to believe this stuff won’t come to Amsterdam or anywhere in Europe. Bill is helping to weed out the uneducated from those Americans who visit Europe. I guess they will all go to places like Miami or LA (which are of course, free of drugs, prostitution and other aspects of organised crime due to the recent years of his party’s administration).
Alex
September 8th, 2009 at 12:04 pm #
You cannot compare Bill O’Reilly with Glen Beck. Bill knocks everything he doesn’t agree with from his right-wing, republican background and lies about it. He presents it with pretty ladies, so people may pay attention to it. He even appeared on Oprah.
Glen opens up a discussion or spreads an idea and doesn’t distort or lie about it. You don’t have to agree with him.
Towly
September 7th, 2009 at 5:45 pm #
I bet Bill O’reilly has never even been to our peaceful city.. So? Bring it on, Bill!
Bob Horrow
September 6th, 2009 at 4:09 pm #
Having spent 14 years living and working in Amsterdam, I was very much engrossed in the Dutch way of life and experienced every aspect of that life. To say I miss the life, city and the people
is an understatement. The quality of life, the city with its rich history and beauty and the people, are not rivaled by our life in America. There will always be some asshole who, without their own knowledge and experience, will condemn things they are jealous of. So it is with Bill O’Reilly. He is an ignorant fool and he doesn’t know any better. His opinion is of no importance.
Olli
September 6th, 2009 at 1:21 am #
I lived in the states a few years ago going on a student exchange from germany.. I think the main Problem is that the most people in the USA haven’t any idea what it’s really like here.. The american students on our exchange belived that amsterdam is a restricted town in germany where to buy drugs for free (yeah – thats really the only thing they knew about “germany”) – the most people only know what they’ve been informed “wrong” by the media i.e. by Bill O’Reilly..
So guy’s keep on your good work – i love visiting Amsterdam, Venlo or Winterswijk… But for SHOPPING an seeing the sights..
Debs
September 5th, 2009 at 8:13 pm #
I love Amsterdam and the Netherlands.
I studied and worked in Maastricht and I’m now planning to comeback, after a 5 years ‘break’.
As a European, i can only say, ‘well done guys’.
Ann Marie
September 4th, 2009 at 8:20 pm #
I am an American married to a Dutchman. We live in the US, but I have been to your wonderful country many times. Amsterdam is a lovely city, as are Nijmegen, Utrecht, Maastricht and on and on. In my opinion, we in the US should adopt the Dutch policies on the decriminalization of marijuana as well as a version your health care system, but sadly, I doubt that will happen.
Also, rest assured Bill O’Reilly is regarded by most thinking Americans as a one-man clown act. He is not taken seriously by anyone with a brain.
Eliot
September 4th, 2009 at 7:29 pm #
Great job guys! Having visited and worked in Amsterdam and Haarlem several times, I just laugh when I see O’Reilly make such ridiculous statements about your beautiful city.
Keep up the good work!
~ Dallas, Texas
Peter, San Francisco
September 4th, 2009 at 7:26 pm #
Folks: you don’t take Bill O’Reilly seriously, now do you? Fox Channel is well known as a politically conservative right wing network who will take aim at anything from President Obama to perceived liberals anywhere on this or that side of the Atlantic. Crime statistics are deceptive by the way – many violent crimes in the US are gang related and oftentimes geographically confined to certain cities or neighborhoods (Palo Alto and East Palo Alto are adjacent but two completely different worlds). Legalizing marihuana is currently a hot button issue which may well be why Amsterdam and the Dutch liberal drug enforcement policies are in the crosshairs of the politically conservative media.
Neil
September 4th, 2009 at 4:02 pm #
I am an American who lives in Boston. I am appalled by the lies Bill O’Reilly will bear witness to. Is he just impressively stupid or are his lies in the service his right-wing agenda? Sadly, it’s both and yet because he makes money for the program, he is not held accountable for accuracy.
The only way to fight this malicious and anti-social force is to ask O’Reilly’s advertisers to stop advertising on his show. Every person in the Netherlands can write advertisers and ask them to remove their advertisements from the O’Reilly Factor. Advertizing is how Fox makes money. See http://www.colorofchange.org
O’Reilly is not alone on FOX NEWS as a embarrassment to free speech.
Glenn Beck, who has called President Obama “a racist” who has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” Beck is on a campaign to convince the American public that President Obama’s agenda is about serving the needs of Black communities at White people’s expense. It’s repulsive, divisive and shouldn’t be on the air. We’ll save Hannity for another time.
Nico
September 4th, 2009 at 6:50 am #
Please, please, please keep up the good work! As a Dutchman living in the USA (Atlanta), we need all the ammo we need to counter ppl like Bill O’Reilly. He is the most outspoken, but certainly not the only one that feels this way in this country. If it were true, then it were another story. But most Americans are great people and just laugh at him.
Greetings from Georgia!
Marcelo
September 4th, 2009 at 5:17 am #
Very interesting how your video defied Bill and Fox news. Well done!
I left Amsterdam more then 15 years ago after I had lived in the city for more than 10 years. Since then I have travelled the 7 seas but I go back, if I can, once a year. It is a wonderful city even compared to the most exciting cities in the world. Basically because it offers everything any other big and exciting city has to offer, while it has not lost its human scale. You can do everything by bike or strolling along.
Andy
September 4th, 2009 at 5:00 am #
I have been to Amsterdam twice in my life, once as a young boy and the second time as an adult; both times I found the city to be safe and absolutely beautiful.
Bill O and the others at FAUX News have an agenda that they maintain because it pays. They may or may not actually believe the disgusting things that they say but it really doesn’t matter. I’m just glad to see other citizens of the world starting to stand up to the despicable right wing hate that has plagued America and the rest of the world for far too long. Cheers!
Sincerly,
Not all Americans are ignorant racist fools.
Henry
September 4th, 2009 at 2:38 am #
@Jefferson: FYI, crime is not on the rise in Amsterdam. Look at the CBS (central bureau of statistics) stats. Crime rates are dropping since the early 90’s.
Erik
September 4th, 2009 at 2:13 am #
If you liked Amsterdam, try Nijmegen! Shops are closed on sundays and nightlife starts thursday at 0:00!
Johan
September 4th, 2009 at 1:10 am #
I am living in Mexico and see a lot of American channels for international news. In the USA there is no news as we are used to in The netherlands or like the BBC offers etc.
News is a show in the USA, presented by people with an agenda. FOX is with distance the worst and FOX presentators as O’Reilly, Glen Beck and Sean Hannity are really dangerous people.
Indie
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:17 pm #
No city or country is perfect. Even the Netherlands has its problems. However if you compare those with much other parts of the world, those issues are peanuts. I don`t think there are much other places where the quality of living is better.
Robbert Sr
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:15 pm #
Absolutely brilliant. Couldn’t have expressed it better.
Amsterdam deserved this.
“To see filmmakers closing their eyes for reality like this is quite sad”
Which filmmaker (or journalist) closed his eyes for what ??
Thomas Jefferson
August 30th, 2009 at 5:59 pm #
Bill O Reilly isn’t right about anarchy, he isn’t right about Amsterdam being liberal either.
.
But.. Amsterdam is ruled by scared politically correct communist green fanatics together with criminal gangs and religious bigots. Tax payers money is being spent on keeping this holy trinity under control by subsidizing them all. Expansion of government control, expansion of intimidation by criminals (gangs) and expansion of power and intimidation of religious groups is caused by ignorance in tolerance.
.
Amsterdam is not in (visible) anarchy (yet). However, the freedom of it’s inhabitants IS under pressure, organized crime IS on the rise, segregation IS on the rise, corruption by left politicians IS an every day practice and intimidation by religious groups towards gays, women and other minorities by moroccan street youth IS a fact. Make a movie about those subjects instead of devoting your precious time on O’ Reilly with a silly promo video with a douchebag on a bike.
.
To see filmmakers closing their eyes for reality like this is quite sad.
Sabri
August 28th, 2009 at 8:28 pm #
Just go’s to prove that even ignorant and dumb, senseless people can still get well payed jobs, for instance in broadcasting
Laurens
August 28th, 2009 at 12:09 am #
Culturally, socially and intellectually some Americans are centuries behind… right Bill?
Pedro
August 27th, 2009 at 5:12 pm #
Great work guys! Can’t wait for video #2