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Does Bill O'Reilly have a Brian Williams problem?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by MisterCreosote, Feb 20, 2015.

  1. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Mother Jones accuses O'Reilly of misrepresenting his time "covering" the Falklands war:

    Bill O'Reilly Has His Own Brian Williams Problem | Mother Jones

    To sum up: O'Reilly has stated repeatedly he was in a "war zone" and "combat situations" during the Falklands war, when in fact he arrived after the war had ended and had merely covered a war protest in Buenos Aires.

    O'Reilly responded by calling the reporter a "liar" and a "guttersnipe," and claimed he never said he was actually on the Falklands. But he did use "war zone" and "combat" many times.

    In my opinion, if Brian Williams' lies were a 10, these are a 4. But, if O'Reilly wants to screech about Williams and the leftist media "distortions" all the time, he needs to own it.
     
  2. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    I think everyone knows, or at least believes, that O'Reilly is an exaggerating blowhard.

    This won't go anywhere.
     
  3. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    LOL. Funny, and not surprising.

    Who was it who not too long ago made a crack about reporters in Iraq who don't leave their hotels and/or the heavily fortified Green Zone. They got a lot of blow back, with lots of references to all the reporters who have died covering conflict over the years, but, at least in regards to TV reporters, isn't it true?

    This is from 2005:

    "Hotel journalism" is the only phrase for it. More and more Western reporters in Baghdad are reporting from their hotels rather than the streets of Iraq’s towns and cities. Some are accompanied everywhere by hired, heavily armed Western mercenaries. A few live in local offices from which their editors refuse them permission to leave. Most use Iraqi stringers, part-time correspondents who risk their lives to conduct interviews for American or British journalists, and none can contemplate a journey outside the capital without days of preparation unless they "embed" themselves with American or British forces.

    Rarely, if ever, has a war been covered by reporters in so distant and restricted a way. The New York Times correspondents live in Baghdad behind a massive stockade with four watchtowers, protected by locally hired, rifle-toting security men, complete with NYT T-shirts. America’s NBC television chain are holed up in a hotel with an iron grille over their door, forbidden by their security advisers to visit the swimming pool or the restaurant "let alone the rest of Baghdad" lest they be attacked. Several Western journalists do not leave their rooms while on station in Baghdad.


    Hotel Room Journalism » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names


    Michael S. Schmidt described his time in Iraq similarly:

    In my seven days here, I’ve only left the house three times and for only a few hours each time. We can’t go out to dinner and can’t really go shopping, jogging or strolling through the streets. When we go out, we go to do our reporting and come back.

    Michael S. Schmidt (My Life in the Emerald City)
     
  4. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Sounds a lot like covering a game.
     
  5. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Bill O'Reilly has a nightly punditry show on a joke cable network that caters to people looking to confirm their beliefs.

    Brian Williams was the anchor of the nightly news for one of the three major networks.

    O'Reilly may be a hypocrite if he has been on TV screeching about Williams, but that is kind of the point. Nobody serious tunes into O'Reilly expecting him to be a bastion of journalism. A lot of people DO tune into the nightly news on the three networks expecting the anchor to be in the mold of Murrow, Cronkite and Brokaw.

    Mother Jones, of course, misses that point. It devoted what looks like a whole lot of resources to being the Fox News of magazines (catering to people who just want their beliefs affirmed). But that wouldn't surprise too many people who are familiar with Mother Jones, either. ...just as it wouldn't surprise people to find out that Bill O'Reilly is a hypocrite or a liar.
     
  6. Stoney

    Stoney Well-Known Member

    Exactly. Difference is there's an expectation of trust for the big 3 network lead anchor. Not so much for the guy on the Fox News screaming head show. I think the same people who were shocked to learn about Williams probably already assumed O'Reilly would do this sort of thing.
     
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    There are plenty of people who take what is said on Fox News as gospel.

    There are regular posters at this site who believe that O'Reilly is more credible than Brian Williams - before this all went down.

    You could name them.
     
  8. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    That's all well and good, except that O'Reilly WAS a legit journalist for CBS at the time.

    And, he's using the "I'm a journalist, I've always told the absolute truth" defense.
     
  9. Mr. Sunshine

    Mr. Sunshine Well-Known Member

    This is the 21st century. Nobody trusts journalists anymore.
     
  10. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    And, for the record, there are people here and everywhere who consider Jon Stewart a news source, as well.
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Nobody trusts any institutions. Except the military and, now, the police.
     
  12. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    In his defense, he's seen combat during at least four of the last six Wars on Christmas.
     
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