While Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly has criticized NBC News’ Brian Williams for his false reporting, O’Reilly himself is now being scrutinized. A site is now calling out O’Reilly’s repeated claims about his reporting during the 1982 Falklands War between the U.K. and Argentina.
Mother Jones’ David Corn notes that O’Reilly has referred to his time covering the conflict several times over the years. Whenever someone questions his own journalism resume, he brings it up. He wrote about it in his 2001 book, wrote that he “survived a combat situation” in a 2004 column and even mentioned it in 2013 during a segment on the Boston Marathon bombing.
In 2013, he claimed that he was on the ground, in the Falklands, where he rescued a photographer. However, as Mother Jones notes, his 2001 book, The No Spin Zone, doesn’t make any mentions of him physically covering combat while at CBS News during that war. Instead, he notes that he was - like other American journalists - staying in Buenos Aires, far from the islands that Argentina and Britain were fighting over.
“Nobody got to the war zone during the Falklands war,” Susan Zirinsky, who managed CBS News’ coverage during the war, told Mother Jones. “You weren't allowed on by the Argentinians. No CBS person got there.”
CBS News’ Bob Schieffer also said that no one from CBS NEws got there. He said he got close, but, “It was impossible.” He said that NBC News’ Robin Lloyd was the only American correspondent who got there.
O’Reilly already responded to Corn’s report, telling The Washington Post that Corn is a “guttersnipe liar.”
O’Reilly added, “Is that clear enough? For years he’s been trying to get Fox News. I would never speak to the man about anything at any time. He’s a disgusting piece of garbage.”
O'Reilly also spoke with Fox News, calling the report "a lie." He added that he has never claimed he was physically on the Falkland Islands.
"Nobody was on the Falklands and I never said I was on the island, ever," O'Reilly said.
Fox News did not give Corn a comment for his original report.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com