Bill O'Reilly Has His Own Brian Williams Problem

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Mother Jones

After NBC News suspended anchor Brian Williams for erroneously claiming that he was nearly shot down in a helicopter while covering the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly went on a tear. On his television show, the top-rated cable news anchor declared that the American press isn't "half as responsible as the men who forged the nation." He bemoaned the supposed culture of deception within the liberal media, and he proclaimed that the Williams controversy should prompt questioning of other "distortions" by left-leaning outlets. Yet for years, O'Reilly has recounted dramatic stories about his own war reporting that don't withstand scrutiny—even claiming he acted heroically in a war zone that he apparently never set foot in.

O'Reilly has repeatedly told his audience that he was a war correspondent during the Falklands war and that he experienced combat during that 1982 conflict between England and Argentina. He has often invoked this experience to emphasize that he understands war as only someone who has witnessed it could. As he once put it, "I've been there. That's really what separates me from most of these other bloviators. I bloviate, but I bloviate about stuff I've seen. They bloviate about stuff that they haven't."

Fox News and O'Reilly did not respond to multiple requests for comment.


Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/bill-oreilly-brian-williams-falklands-war

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NBC holds their flagship host accountable, but FOX will let Bill O'Reilly, of imaginary multiple Peabody awards fame, continue to lie and embellish his career with no consequence

[kairos12]

1. He conflated the Falklands experience with his Battle of the Loofah.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. WE'LL DO IT LIVE

[hibbing]

10. hehehe

I'm surprised he didn't say he was also a reporter during the epic battle of Grenada during Reagan.

Peace

[awoke_in_2003]

36. The tide goes in, the tide goes out...

you can't explain it.

[TrollBuster9090]

12. What about his combat experience during the SECOND BATTLE OF FALAFEL?

I think he was with a 'Loofah' platoon.

[Chakab]

2. What about his general problem of being a race baiter, a disgusting bully and

one of the most divisive voices in the history of American politics?

O'Reilly and the rest of his cohort tell ridiculous lies on a regular basis. If the media in the US had any credibility, they would have shunned Fox News years ago. Instead, they protect them to avoid ruining any chance of working their in the future.

[BlueJazz]

4. Bill O'Reilly is bother by "distortions by left-leaning outlets" ???

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. I'd love it if Billo was bloviating about Brian and then have him show up to kick his ass....

Then as he's getting chased all over the studio Brian is screaming, "We'll do it live!".

[tularetom]

6. This is almost as funny as the time he tried to get his wife's boyfriend fired from the police dept.

I hope she got a few million from him in the divorce settlement.

[NewJeffCT]

7. You're forgetting an important adage - IOKIYAR

It's OK If You're A Republican.

Of course, I always thought Williams was a Republican, but I guess he wasn't Republican enough?

[bvf]

8. To quote Stephen Colbert,

Fuck that noise.

[JackRiddler]

9. The entire apparatus is fictional.

The only treatment is for people to stop drawing any information from the corporate fake news shows.

[TrollBuster9090]

11. When is he going to produce those two PEABODY awards for us to look at?

Oh, I think I know were we can find them.

He loaned them to the good people over at THE PARIS BUSINESS REVIEW.

http://www.parisbusinessreview.net/

[El Shaman]

13. That's where I saw the guy, Central America!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/05/24/521165/-Bill-O-Reilly-Combat-Veteran#

[El Shaman]

14. P.S. BS:

#t=16

[Judi Lynn]

16. Super oily, twisted, pathological liar. n/t

[Enthusiast]

19. In other words, the perfect Fox anchor.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

26. They sure love to try to project the image of them being badasses.

I was listening to Hannity a few weeks ago and he went on for several minutes about the guns he owns and all the various martial arts training he takes. I do know a few liberals with experiences, but it does seem like the more conservative a person is, the more they feel the need to tell everyone about such things they have done and often embellish.

[mwooldri]

15. John Simpson wearing a Burka. Bill O', your argument is invalid. nt.

[world wide wally]

17. yeah. But they don't care at Fox

[davidpdx]

18. And people wonder why he attracts flies when he opens his mouth.....

[charles d]

20. Yeah, but

did anyone ever really consider Bill to be an actual journalist?

[Turborama]

21. The Guardian are on it...

Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly accused of exaggerating war zone exploits

Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly has falsely claimed to have reported from war zones and has made a series of exaggerated statements about his career, according to Mother Jones magazine.

The magazine accused O’Reilly of having his “own Brian Williams problem”, after the Fox News host was fiercely critical of NBC News anchor Williams, who was suspended for six months after he made exaggerated statements about his reporting.

Mother Jones said O’Reilly has described being under fire in “war zones” in South America during the 1980s, when in fact he was miles away from any armed conflict.

O’Reilly had “repeatedly told his audience that he was a war correspondent during the Falklands war and that he experienced combat during that 1982 conflict between England and Argentina”, said the magazine.

Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/20/fox-news-bill-oreilly-accused-of-exaggerating-war-zone-exploits?CMP=fb_gu

[bulloney]

23. ESPN radio interviewed O'Reilly on his recently released biography.

O'Reilly in his book made it sound like he competed in college varsity sports, but it was actually club sports. When the ESPN hosts Dan LeBatard and Jon "Stugotz" Weiner called him out on his athletic exaggeration, O'Reilly hung up on them.

Couldn't handle the truth, I guess.

[Botany]

31. Bill said that he was the best punter in the nation and that he was so good in baseball ..

.... The Mets brought him in for a try out.

And on a CBS interview Bill O said that God came to him in the middle of the night
and told him to write the book, "Killing Jesus."

[Major Nikon]

24. With Faux news, lying is an asset, not a liability

[riversedge]

25. Whow--read lots of the long story--O'Lielly really

is a bunch of lying crap!!



some good comments:


Wesley Adetunji • a day ago

Wow....I always hated Bill O'Reilly but I would've never accused him of being THIS bad until now


Jim C Wesley Adetunji • a day ago

One really can't overstate what a lying, cowardly piece of scum Bill O'Reilly is, he's a classic republican/conservative chicken hawk .


cujokay Jim C • a day ago

Jim,

You're being so vague. You should say what's on your mind! lol!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

27. I want to know about the time he raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi

I could hear him tell that war story again and again.

[COLGATE4]

28. Mt. Suribachi, hell! He was on the ground reporting

live when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

32. No, he doesn't.

Not at all. You see, Brian Williams and all those librul newsies are a danger to society. If they dissemble, they deserve to be fired. When it comes to Fox News readers and bloviators, they are first and foremost performance artists, who are gently guiding this deluded, badly ruled nation away from its socialist, Kenyan, muslin, anti-Murrican ways and bring it back to god.

So you see, Billo did not lie. He did not dissemble. He was doing his job, taking back Murrica.

[erpowers]

33. Good Reporting

The article seems to be a good report. The authors, contrary to what O'Reilly said, put forward clear evidence, using O'Reilly's own words and news reports to prove that O'Reilly, on multiple occasions mislead people about his reporting experiences. The Mother Jones report proved that Bill O'Reilly did the same thing Brain Williams did. On multiple occasions Bill O'Reilly made statements about his reporting experiences that did not correspond with the truth.

[KansDem]

34. He and FOX are pathological liars...

...laughing all the way to the bank.

[bulloney]

35. The fact that Faux Snooze has given no indication of suspending or firing O'Reilly speaks volumes

about their standards for credibility and accuracy in reporting.

Faux Snooze knows they have a captive audience that tunes in to their media just to hear what they want to hear. Facts be damned. It's high time that people wake up and regard them as a RW propaganda piece and nothing else. The fact that they have a seat at major news conferences and the like is a joke.