Bill O'Reilly's combat experiences....hmmm?

[Jimmy Higgins]

Yep. I would forgive something like this in certain situations, like if the person wasn't a bullying, pontificating blowhard and a warmonger who's used this particular lie to try to boost his credibility over the years but, well...you can see where the problem lies here.

What do you mean? He is a Peabody Award winning journalist...

...wait... I mean Polk Award...

...alright, the show won a Polk...

...fine! I wasn't doing the show anymore when they won it.

- - - Updated - - -

It's called hypocrisy. He's dissing Williams for doing the same thing that he did.

I see, he dissed Williams first. Ok, that's better.

Did you actually have any doubts?

 

[dismal]

You can no more be '...in Argentina, in the Falklands...' than you can be '...in New York, in Death Valley...'

These are distinct and geographically distant locations.

In context he appears to be saying he was in Argentina during the Falkland crisis not that he was in two places at once.

 

[Warpoet]

In context he appears to be saying he was in Argentina during the Falkland crisis not that he was in two places at once.

"In the Falklands" is the only important part of the statement, because it's wrong, and because he's trying to boost his credibility be saying he covered "combat." He's said this numerous times, and if he simply misspoke, he should have admitted it instead of responding like an asshole, but that's all he knows how to do.

Regardless, the entire "war zone" premise is simply a lie, but again, nobody seems to care. All of the headlines about this read "O'Reilly TEARS Mother Jones a new asshole over allegations" or "Mother Jones full of SHIT, says O'Reilly," not "O'Reilly caught in apparent lie, responds by ignoring evidence and being a dick." But that's the media doing what it does best.

 

[Ford]

Regardless, the entire "war zone" premise is simply a lie, but again, nobody seems to care. All of the headlines about this read "O'Reilly TEARS Mother Jones a new asshole over allegations" or "Mother Jones full of SHIT, says O'Reilly," not "O'Reilly caught in apparent lie, responds by ignoring evidence and being a dick." But that's the media doing what it does best.

Actually I'd say the folks over at NBC demonstrated best practices in a difficult situation, and the way Fox has handled this one stands out in stark contrast.

When Brian Williams was caught stretching the truth (to put it kindly) he delivered an on-air apology and then his network took him off the air. He might not return.

O'Reilly gets caught telling perhaps an even bigger whopper, and his network not only keeps him on the air, but doesn't bat an eye when instead of apologizing he throws a temper tantrum.

NBC realized their credibility was at stake, and went into damage control mode. Fox (perhaps realizing they have no credibility) went into Tammy Wynette mode, and are standing by their man.

 

[Warpoet]

Actually I'd say the folks over at NBC demonstrated best practices in a difficult situation, and the way Fox has handled this one stands out in stark contrast.

When Brian Williams was caught stretching the truth (to put it kindly) he delivered an on-air apology and then his network took him off the air. He might not return.

O'Reilly gets caught telling perhaps an even bigger whopper, and his network not only keeps him on the air, but doesn't bat an eye when instead of apologizing he throws a temper tantrum.

NBC realized their credibility was at stake, and went into damage control mode. Fox (perhaps realizing they have no credibility) went into Tammy Wynette mode, and are standing by their man.

I think this article may actually be on to something:

http://crooksandliars.com/2015/02/why-bill-oreilly-will-skate

There is a difference in that O'Reilly is a commentator and not an anchor (not that there is much difference at FOX), but the more important difference is that it's FOX and lying doesn't mean anything there.

That said, one of O'Reilly ex-colleagues who was in Buenos Aires at the time has authored a very lengthy post that essentially says BillO is a fucking liar (and on top of that, a horrible person who was fired for being a shithead), so it's possible this isn't going to go away so quickly. This should be fun to watch.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

BillO is a fucking liar? Is that something new? I don't think the BillO itself realizes this.

 

[Warpoet]

It gets better:

Bill O'Reilly's account of a 1982 riot in Argentina is being sharply contradicted by seven other journalists who were his colleagues and were also there at the time.

The people all challenge O'Reilly's depiction of Buenos Aires as a "war zone" and a "combat situation." They also doubt his description of a CBS cameraman being injured in the chaos.

"Nobody remembers this happening," said Manny Alvarez, who was a cameraman for CBS News in Buenos Aires.

O'Reilly's response, shockingly, has been to insult and malign the first reporter who spoke up and double down on his increasingly obvious lies. Oh, and produce a NYT article saying that a cop fired his gun in the air during the protests, because that proves something about a "war zone" and "many fatalities."

I am watching this pretty closely, mostly out of amusement and because I consider O'Reilly the single biggest cunt in the media today. It would be hilarious to see his career end in disgrace and with his tail between his legs, but I'm still not confident that's going to happen.

 

[Underseer]

These Are the Questions Bill O'Reilly Won't Answer

On Thursday, Mother Jones published an article by Daniel Schulman and me that documented how Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has mischaracterized his wartime reporting experience. Most notably, he has more than once said that during his short stint as a CBS correspondent in the 1980s, he was in the "war zone" during the Falklands war between the United Kingdom and Argentina in 1982. He even once told the story of heroically rescuing his cameraman in this "war zone" while being chased by army soldiers. Yet according to O'Reilly's former CBS colleagues in Argentina and other journalists there during the war, no American journalist reached the war zone in the Falkland Islands and other territories iin the southern Atlantic Ocean during this conflict. O'Reilly and his colleagues covered the war from Buenos Aires, which was 1200 miles from the fighting.

https://twitter.com/MotherJones/status/568588373658636288/photo/1

Bildo O'Reilly works for FOX News, and thus must be held to a lower standard than someone from the mainstream media. If we start to fire FOX News personalities for lying, we would have to shut the entire station down.

 

[Bronzeage]

Maybe Bill O'Reilly is really Billy Pilgrim.

 

[Jarhyn]

What I find most telling is the you-too and 'Brian Williams lied so libruls is just as bad' seems to be the response, when there is one. The more common response seems to be a wall of silence, at least while Fox News prepares it's spin, as us 'libruls' seem a little too 'weak' to really go on the offensive over this.

Give it a week. The story will be buried on both sides except for the occasional under-the-radar snipe, or Fox will spin Williams as a crack smoking kiddie diddler who can't be trusted to wipe his own ass.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Was reading an article this morning and the BillO wants this to end. BillO is fortunate there is a network like Faux or he'd have to find a real job.

 

[Warpoet]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/02/23/bill_o_reilly_argentina_claims_why_the_fox_news_host_will_survive_his_war.html

While this is largely correct, it ignores the point Jarhyn just made: the media is spineless and easily intimidated/bullied by neanderthal tactics like those from FOX.

While the case isn't as simple as Williams', O'Reilly lied, and it's obvious he lied. Even if we cut him some slack about saying he was in the Falklands (which we shouldn't), Buenos Aires was not a warzone, people were not gunned down in the streets and there is not a single shred of evidence that anyone was killed.

O'Reilly is the vulnerable one here, and yet he still gets away with shit like this. If the media had a backbone, that would be a death sentence for O'Reilly's career, and he would be dogpiled on until social media was overflowing with stories about this and he was either fired or at least forced to publicly admit his error and apologize. But instead, we have a media in which volume, bluster and aggression triumph over substance.

 

[dismal]

Awww, it's like the people that hate Bill O'Reilly decided to throw a "Hate Bill O'Reilly Party" and only the people who hate Bill O'Reilly showed up.

On to the next outrage!

 

[Warpoet]

Awww, it's like the people that hate Bill O'Reilly decided to throw a "Hate Bill O'Reilly Party" and only the people who hate Bill O'Reilly showed up.

On to the next outrage!

If by this you mean "a gargantuan blowhard was caught in a lie that he's been telling for decades and refuses to acknowledge it," then yes, that's what's happening.

But yeah, if you don't want to hear about it you're free to read other threads instead of shitting up this one.

 

[Horatio Parker]

You speak as though BillO were some kind of journalist.

 

[dismal]

Awww, it's like the people that hate Bill O'Reilly decided to throw a "Hate Bill O'Reilly Party" and only the people who hate Bill O'Reilly showed up.

On to the next outrage!

If by this you mean "a gargantuan blowhard was caught in a lie that he's been telling for decades and refuses to acknowledge it," then yes, that's what's happening.

But yeah, if you don't want to hear about it you're free to read other threads instead of shitting up this one.

I'm also free to point out your little Bill O'Reilly outrage party doesn't seem to be catching on in this thread.

You don't even have Slate.

 

[fromderinside]

Awww, it's like the people that hate Bill O'Reilly decided to throw a "Hate Bill O'Reilly Party" and only the people who hate Bill O'Reilly showed up.

On to the next outrage!

Well let's see. CBS reporters are telling different stories than is Blowhard, there is no evidence of killings in Argentina riots, blowhard neglected to note that the one policemen who fired shots did so above the heads of rioters leaving room for his 'many killed' interpretation, no cameraman has come forward to confirm Blowhard's brag, there seems to be no reportage of deaths during the festive rioting which Blowhard even acknowledges by saying its tough to find such stuff, no cameramen were reported injured during the riots, it wasn't a war zone which was the Falklands, inviting persons to 'The Fiction' who didn't show up is not confirmation of anything but the fiction of 'The Fiction'.

Blowhard misremembered and reported his misremembrances as facts on 'The Fiction' which is really nothing compared to Williams reporting as fact his miss remembrances on celebrity shows is it? Face it 'The Fiction' isn't even in the category of a celebrity show, its much less trusted than that.

People are coming as I point out above and they are real newsmen. My only question is why? Everybody knows Blowhard is just a blowhard.

I love busting fiction bubbles.

 

[Warpoet]

I'm also free to point out your little Bill O'Reilly outrage party doesn't seem to be catching on in this thread.

Really? Because last I checked, you seemed to be the only person raising any objections here. Not that anyone is taking them seriously in the first place.

 

[arkirk]

Awww, it's like the people that hate Bill O'Reilly decided to throw a "Hate Bill O'Reilly Party" and only the people who hate Bill O'Reilly showed up.

On to the next outrage!

If by this you mean "a gargantuan blowhard was caught in a lie that he's been telling for decades and refuses to acknowledge it," then yes, that's what's happening.

But yeah, if you don't want to hear about it you're free to read other threads instead of shitting up this one.

There is very little a journalist has to do to retain his standing as a journalist. One thing they absolutely should never do and expect to still be called a journalists is to lie about their exploits through the media. Because he is at Faux, he does not have to pay attention to any of the ethical restraints of the profession of journalism. He is a long way from alone in this distinction. Pretty much the entire mainstream press is compromised in one way or another by its oligarchical ownership, but lying about one's own exploits and getting caught is usually the kiss of death for public mouths. I wish only justice for O'Reilly.

Dan Rather got caught, not lying about himself, but presenting a facsimile of an actual existing document regarding Dubbiya's military career that actually reflected Dubbiya's actions and he was sent to the Siberia of the internet for that...just saying...may O'Reilly get his justice.

 

[dismal]

I'm also free to point out your little Bill O'Reilly outrage party doesn't seem to be catching on in this thread.

Really? Because last I checked, you seemed to be the only person raising any objections here. Not that anyone is taking them seriously in the first place.

No, you misunderstand. It's not catching on out there in the world. I am free to point that out in this thread.