February 25^th

Today we visit Fox News’ pundit Bill O’Reilly who seems to have exaggerated his risks when he described his role reporting on the Falkland War. Although no American reporters actually got to the Falkland Islands, O’Reilly makes some exaggerated claims about the danger he was in right there in Buenos Aires. He has claimed that just after the war the city was a “war zone.”  He describes a riot that turned deadly with the police firing into the crowd killing many people. His photographer was knocked to the pavement and was bleeding from his ear. This brave and colorful account receives no confirmation from his CBS colleagues who were also there.  A riot did happen but it seems that no one was killed by police.

One description, which O’Reilly himself reads as support for his version, does say that the police fired real bullets. Then the account says that these were fired over the heads of the rioters. O’Reilly leaves out the “fired over the heads of the rioters” part. There can be little doubt that O’Reilly has exaggerated the danger he was in and that this exaggeration is part of a pattern.

Fox News backs O’Reilly completely. Their right-wing viewers love the raw red meat the man presents every night. He gets, on a good night, over 3 million viewers. The amount charged for commercials depends on the number of viewers. Controversy creates viewers which creates income. O’Reilly will not be muzzled; he will be encouraged, once more money trumps truth.

Naturally he is now furious at the reporters who have “outed” him. Most of his invective and his ad hominem attacks are aimed at David Corn of “Mother Jones” who began it all. O’Reilly tells us that Corn is now in the “kill zone.” (When asked if that was a threat he claimed it was just “a slang expression.”) O’Reilly, who has never served in the military, has a peculiar affinity for the word “killed.” We see that in the titles of his books: “Killing Jesus,” “Killing Patton,”  “Killing Lincoln” and “Killing Kennedy.” Perhaps if he had ever served in a war he would have seen enough killing.