Does Bill O'Reilly have a Brian Williams problem?

[MisterCreosote]

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.

 

[Steak Snabler]

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

This won't go anywhere.

 

[YankeeFan]

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)

 

[Dick Whitman]

Sounds a lot like covering a game.

 

[The Big Ragu]

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.

 

[Stoney]

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

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.

 

[Dick Whitman]

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.

 

[MisterCreosote]

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.

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.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

This is the 21st century. Nobody trusts journalists anymore.

 

[Dick Whitman]

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

 

[Dick Whitman]

This is the 21st century. Nobody trusts journalists anymore.

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

 

[MisterCreosote]

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

 

[The Big Ragu]

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.

Well then, it's a really good thing that Mother Jones is investigating this, and they have shattered that trust you have in Bill O'Reilly and his past as a "legit journalist" who has always told the absolute truth.

 

[Ace]

Bill O'Reilly called someone a "guttersnipe?"

Did he also claim to have had his pocket picked while covering the Oliver Twist trial?

 

[MisterCreosote]

Ragu, you do realize that probably 75 percent of an entire mainstream political party believe you can't get the truth anywhere EXCEPT from O'Reilly and his ilk, right?

 

[YankeeFan]

O'Reilly:

In the interview, O'Reilly said that he never claimed to have been on the Falkland Islands.

"I was not on the Falkland Islands and I never said I was. I was in Buenos Aires... In Buenos Aires we were in a combat situation after the Argentines surrendered."

As he writes in The No Spin Zone, O'Reillywas in Buenos Aires whenthousands of Argentines took to the streets to protest the military junta for surrendering to the Brits. O'Reilly says that the Army shot into the crowd. (Corn and his colleague Daniel Schulman say this was not war action.)

"It was clear that I did not say I was in the Falkland Islands. I've done myriad interviews over the years and I never said that," O'Reilly told On Media.

Bill O'Reilly: Mother Jones report 'garbage' - POLITICO.com

Except for all those times he did mention he was in the Falklands, he's right.

 

[steveu]

I'm of that political party ilk and I don't watch Fox News or listen to Hannity, Limbaugh, and Beck, etc. Sometimes those organizations do a lot more harm than good.

Oh... and you mean O'Reilly DIDN'T DO IT LIVE? (Longtime O'Reilly watchers will get the joke.)

 

[The Big Ragu]

Ragu, you do realize that probably 75 percent of an entire mainstream political party believe you can't get the truth anywhere EXCEPT from O'Reilly and his ilk, right?

Did Mother Jones verify that fact for you?

There are about 55 or 60 million registered Republicans nationwide.

Fox news averages about 2 million viewers during prime time (much less than that during non prime-time hours). 75 percent of that entire mainstream political party wouldn't even know how to find Fox News on their TV, let alone allow it to have the sway over them that you think it does.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Just because they average 2 million each night doesn't mean that only 2 million out of 55-60 million registered Republicans watch it on a semi-regular basis.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

Liberals need to tell themselves that THE GREAT MAJORITY OF REPUBLICANS spend hours masturbating to Fox News coverage. In fact, being the perverted Godless heathens they are, at least 75 percent masturbate to those very thoughts.