January 20, 2005

Bill O'Reilly & His Tales of Combat Bill O'Reilly attempted to mislead his audience about how he has seen combat. A caller made O'Reilly admit that he has never been in the miltary. James Poling is offering a reward to anyone that can find a reported incident of O'Reilly was actually in a firefight. Here is the audio of Reilly on his radio show.
posted by Sullivan 19 years ago
  • Pledge drive time, eh?
  • Not my site. So I wouldn't know.
  • Typical O'Reilly bashers...the only newsman who speaks the truth and gives people there fair say Typical O'Reilly listeners....can't tell the difference between there and their. Seriously, this guy is a joke. As bad as right-wingers think Michael Moore makes the Democrats look bad, this guy makes the Republicans look worse. Look, the guy said he was "in combat." Any reasonable person who didn't know better would think he was saying he had been in the military, in battle. He knew what he was doing. If no one had called him on it on air, do you think he would have gone on the next day, or after a break, and said, "Hey, folks, just wanted to make a clarification - my exposure to combat was in reporting on it, I wasn't enlisted in the military. I didn't mean to give that impression, and I realized I may have." Fat chance. I'd throw a few bucks into that reward pool if they allow it.
  • Just noticed he's allowing it. I'm throwing in five bucks (not a lot, but I'm 'po).
  • I'm not even sure he saw combat as a reporter. If he did and any of you monkeys know then you're entitled to a reward. I somehow doubt anyone is going to find stuff on O'Reilly the combat reporter. When I heard the audio I laughed my ass off. This guy is the gift that keeps on giving. O'Reilly doesn't realize that he's making Al Franken rich with his stupid remarks.
  • O'Reilly's combat experience.
  • Idon't think that's good enough for the reward money, hikikomori.
  • Only if he can prove 'ol Billy's actually used the stuff...hidden camera, hikikomori?
  • No reward money for me? Damn. Well, that's all I could find on ol' Bill's "combat" experience after an exhaustive search.
  • According to NewsMax
    Then O'Reilly's television career began. His first stop was WNEP-TV in Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Pa. He then landed at WFAA-TV in Dallas, where he won a Dallas Press Club Award for excellence in investigative reporting. From Dallas, it was on to KMGH-TV in Denver, where O'Reilly won an Emmy for his coverage of a skyjacking. After two years in the Rocky Mountains, O'Reilly returned to the East Coast and joined WCBS-TV in New York City, where he won his second Emmy for an investigation of corrupt city marshals. O'Reilly was then promoted to the CBS network, where he reported on the wars in El Salvador and the Falkland Islands from his base in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  • C'mon guys. Fighting falafels. Launching loofas. The struggle to get that dildo up his ass. The guy is a veteran.
  • I just threw up in my mouth a little.
  • I didn't know O'Reilly was a reporter! Thanks for the capsule of his career, Sullivan.
  • Interesting capsule Sullivan. So the question is: At what point did O'Reilly go bad? Or was his entire career an exercise is BS, as other reporters' careers have recently proven to be?
  • I don't think his entire career was BS, I think when the trajectory of news changed from informing the public to entertaining them he rode the wave like that guy rode the bomb in Dr. Strangelove.
  • where's the mention of his illustrious gig as anchor on "Inside Edition," one of the first scandal-rag TV shows? i think that's where he started going downhill.
  • Reporter is at least in the ballpark -- did you know he was a teacher? Can you imagine? "Shut up, Billy -- just SHUT UP!" He also makes flagrant use of the word "dis" in his book for teens.