Despite Furious Objections, Bill O’Reilly’s War Claims Warrant Scrutiny : NPR
Despite Furious Objections, Bill O’Reilly’s War Claims Warrant Scrutiny
A Debate About Danger
More seriously, the article cast doubt on O’Reilly’s boasts (they can hardly be called anything else) of the peril he encountered as a reporter.
In one interview several years ago on a television program aired in the Hamptons, O’Reilly spoke of a young Argentine soldier, perhaps 18 or 19 years old, confronting him during street protests in Buenos Aires: “He’s got the M16 [rifle] pointed at my head. I thought it was over.”
O’Reilly said those riots turned deadly, that many people were killed, and that he saved a badly injured cameraman by pulling him to safety.
Argentines did demonstrate angrily against the ruling junta for losing the war with the British, and footage shows protesters turning hostile and even menacing foreign reporters.
Yet CNN’s Brian Stelter interviewed seven of O’Reilly’s former CBS News colleagues who had been present in Argentina for the network’s Falklands coverage (three spoke by name, on the record), and all took issue with O’Reilly’s twinned account of death and personal danger.
None of the former CBS staffers recalled police shooting into the crowd, and there is no evidence of fatalities.
More: Despite Furious Objections, Bill O’Reilly’s War Claims Warrant Scrutiny : NPR
It’s nice to see more people looking seriously at O’Reilly’s record. Perhaps the rest of that record will become subject to real cross examination in the long run…