Bill O'Reilly Has His Own Brian Williams Problem

a reply to: ~Lucidity

Well, it gets a LOT weirder, O'Reilly wrote a fictionalized version of the story over the events he claims happened in the Falklands Argentina, which blurs the line between his facts and pure fiction:

Bill O'Reilly once wrote a wild story about the incident at the center of his scandal

O'Reilly's book was titled "Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Murder and Television." It is clearly a work of fiction, but several critics have pointed out the central characters bear a clear resemblance to O'Reilly. In 2004, the late Michael Hastings said the book offers "an inside view of the author’s mind." The New Yorker's Nicholas Lemann described the main characters as two versions of O'Reilly's "alter ego." One of those characters is Shannon Michaels, who like O'Reilly, is a tall, Irish-American journalist who was sent to cover the Falklands War for a television network. The protest is a life-changing moment for Michaels where, as he puts it, he "almost got killed." In O'Reilly's story, Michaels is on the scene reporting for the fictional network GNN on June 15, 1982 when thousands of Argentines angry over the surrender rioted in front of the president's residence, La Casa Rosada. O'Reilly has said he was also there reporting for CBS News, but his accounts of the protest have been disputed. O'Reilly has described his experience covering the aftermath of the Falklands conflict as being in a "war zone" and "combat situation." He has also said "many were killed" at the protest and that his cameraman was injured. These claims were disputed by a series of reports in Mother Jones and several of his former colleagues who have said no one was killed and no CBS staff was injured.

In O'Reilly's novel the protest was broken up by soldiers, or as the author put it, "combat-ready shock troops dressed in full battle gear and armed with machine guns." At this point, Michaels, one of the characters described as O'Reilly's fictional "alter ego" realized he "had to get away" with his cameraman and soundman. As Michaels and his crew escaped, the soldiers let loose on the crowd. "Without warning, they began firing directly into the crowd," O'Reilly wrote, adding, "Hundreds of people immediately fell onto the cement." O'Reilly wrote that Michaels "saw one man take a bullet squarely in the right eye" and he "was killed instantly." He described "ten thousand tightly packed demonstrators ... desperately trying to get away from the gunfire any way they could." These scenes written by O'Reilly contradict contemporaneous reports of the real-life protest, which do not describe widespread gunfire or any deaths. At this point in O'Reilly's tale, Michaels' cameraman and soundman, "Francisco" and "Juan" are knocked down by "a pack of fleeing young men." Michaels comes to their rescue by "fighting his way through the panicked mob." After their rescue, the two men are concerned with retrieving an expensive camera they dropped in the melee. "# the camera, it's gone. Get moving," Michaels declared. Juan resists Michaels' order leading the heroic journalist to hit him with what O'Reilly described as a "murderous" look and an order to, "Get the # out of here Juan." "The soundman finally got the message and moved out," O'Reilly wrote.

O'Reilly's story continued with Michaels carrying his injured cameraman away amid "gunfire and screams." As they escaped. Michaels noticed his colleague was bleeding badly and needed to get to a doctor. This was no simple task in O'Reilly's fictionalized version of the protest. "Movement of any kind would not be easy," O'Reilly wrote, continuing, "The crowd was in complete disarray. Scores of dead and wounded lay on the cold concrete." This scene echoed O'Reilly's claim a CBS cameraman was injured, which has been disputed by his colleagues. In O'Reilly's novel, before Michaels and his were able to escape, they faced two more life-threatening obstacles. Michaels was involved in a tense standoff with a soldier who had "an M-16 pointed directly at his head." Just as they were about to drive off they were also stopped by a secret policeman who attempted to take their tapes. Michaels eliminated the threat by knocking out the secret policeman with a punch O'Reilly described as guided by "pure instinct" and "pure adrenaline" that was fueled by the "violence" he "had just experienced." The protest is pivotal in O'Reilly's novel. After the dramatic escape, a colleague attempted to take Michaels' notes and tapes from the protest. This causes Michaels to have a violent outburst that leads to him getting ousted from the network. Michaels' rage at his co-workers who try to take credit for his Falklands reporting is reminiscent of claims the real-life O'Reilly has made about his experiences in Argentina. O'Reilly has implied other CBS reporters were not on the ground covering the protest, another claim which has been disputed.

Bill O'Reilly = "Shannon Michaels" (another nice Irish name) who was a "hero" journalist who saved his foolish cameraman. In reality, Billo was the fool who ordered his cameraman to turn on his camera's light when covering the protests against the security advisors order's not to do precisely that, and Billo was sent home shortly afterward.

O'Reilly has constructed this elaborate fantasy version of the events in Buenos Aires and he has clearly lost any grip on the reality of what happened there. If Brian Williams is going to be persecuted for "conflating" the events surrounding the two helicopters in his convey being hit by gunfire (one was, one wasn't) then how can the wingnuts watching his program give him a pass for constructing such an elaborate lie over his "war time" reporting?

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

That is weirder. Then again maybe not...we always knew he was good at (cough) fiction.

Rachel Maddow Slams "Ballistic" Bill O'Reilly Over Threats to Reporter

During the "Debunktion Junction" segment on her show Tuesday night, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow slammed O'Reilly over his latest personal attacks and threats.

"Fox News has a bunch of folks like Mr. O'Reilly on their shows—part of why I call them 'Republican TV,'" Maddow said. "But they also have a lot of real reporters on staff who do real reporting all day long on real news...I'm sure they don't take kindly when their own reporters get threatened for trying to do their jobs. But it is hard to imagine what this is going to do to the work environment at Fox News channel for the Fox News channel's real reporters, and they do have them."

Video at link.

a reply to: Sremmos80

Actually, motherjones went on a fishing trip and other scribblers of that particular leaning , such as the nutball Madcow,have attempted to make something out of nothing. They have nothing.

I doubt Brian Williams would have been nailed if he had written a fictional story about a helicopter shoot down...instead of telling his tale with embellishments by the telling, all around the world.

There really is nothing similar in these two stories. It's just dems upset that one of their lying anchors got nailed, AGAIN.

a reply to: UFGarvin

There is link after link in this thread showing how it is not something out of nothing...

I will agree Brian took it one step further, but Bill is still doing the same thing, lying.

The Daily Show covered this last night. Haven't had a chance to see it.

Knowing how much Stewart and O'Reilly love each other, this oughta be good.

Mother Jones brought a magazine article to a TV fight!

originally posted by: UFGarvin
There really is nothing similar in these two stories. It's just dems upset that one of their lying anchors got nailed, AGAIN.

No, actually it's a certain delight in that cretinous O'Reilley being caught with his 'liar-liar pants' down, and his credibility shot. Though that doesn't seem to bother some. Figures.

a reply to: ~Lucidity
And the hits just keep on comin'...

O'Reilly Also Lied About Witnessing Nuns' Execution in El Salvador, Report Claims
Yet more allegations have emerged against embattled Fox News host Bill O'Reilly following claims he embellished his war reporting experiences in Argentina during the 1982 Falklands war and lied about witnessing a suicide in Florida.
According to information collected by liberal watchdog group Media Matters, O'Reilly may also have fabricated a story about witnessing the execution of four nuns during El Salvador's civil war in 1980. HuffPo

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

They've been hinting at that one all day.

Did you happen to catch the piece that says this whole Mother Jones hit piece has "backfired" and given O'Reilly and FoxNews more ammo for their righteous indignation against the liberal media?

I feel so sorry for people who only think in terms of left-right, liberal-conservative, instead of in tms of ight-wrong, honesty-dishonesty and then base their whole world view on it. Sigh....

originally posted by: ~Lucidity
I feel so sorry for people who only think in terms of left-right, liberal-conservative, instead of in tms of ight-wrong, honesty-dishonesty and then base their whole world view on it. Sigh....

Indeed. Newscasters and journalists assume a position of public trust. Obviously, if they lose that, they are a liability to their organisations. I wouldn't know Brian Williams if he stuck a mike in my face...I don't watch NBC News...but he made his bed, right?
Now, 'Oh, Really?'...here's a guy that manages to stick his bloviation into public awareness, and thrives on being a loud opinionated bully, masquerading as a journalist. I'm delighted to see him get his comeuppance. Those who aren't...well, they're disappointed. I get it.

Feb 24, 2015
Rachel Maddow sorts fact from fiction in several of the day's top stories, including whether Fox News' Bill O'Reilly really threatened a reporter doing a story about his lies, and the surprising legal status of sledding on Capitol Hill.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

He kinda just skipped over it, I thought he was gonna hit harder but he just brought it up, commented on it and went on.

a reply to: Sremmos80

He did have a point. There are bigger things to worry about. And now I'm not remembering how hard hitting he was or was not on Williams. Maybe he's remaining fair. Plus he and O'Reilly are on each others' shows a lot. Or maybe he's just afraid of O'Reilly. LOL

Couldn't resist this one...

MORE lies from Billo - is this guy a pathological liar?

originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
MORE lies from Billo - is this guy a pathological liar?

I do believe he is. And he's just a plain old nasty person.

This is a great summary of events thus far. There's a 21-minute video at the link.

Bill O'Reilly 'wobbly' on the facts of his own story

Bill and the people at Fox want to thank everyone for the free exposure and the jump in his ratings.

a reply to: thesaneone

We just want to thank them for admitting they are not a news channel but purely and entertainment show.

a reply to: Sremmos80

When did they admit that?