Bill O'Reilly is a lot of things to a lot of people.
And by any rational assessment O'Reilly is at least a Media "Agenda-setter" -- as demonstrated by his recent calls for 'a Holy War against ISIS and radical Islam before it destroys us'.
And at most, O'Reilly is a National 'Thought Leader' -- as he tells millions of Americans "what they should think about, and how to sell it" -- every evening, on one of the most popular "news reports" on Cable TV.
As Cable's number one anchor, Bill O'Reilly is in every-way as influential as Brian Williams was -- if not more so. Because on Fox News, apparently anything goes. On Fox News they never apologize; On Fox, they never correct the record.
They never correct grandiose mis-statements like this -- arguably much more "untrue" than any mis-statements Williams has made:
"And the Army was chasing us."
Bill O'Reilly Tells How He Rescued a Photographer in Falklands "War Zone"
link
Bill O'Reilly:
"Because I was in a situation one time in a war zone, in Argentina in the Falklands,
where my photographer got run down -- and hit his head and was bleeding from the ear, on the concrete.
And the Army was chasing us.
I had to make a decision. And I dragged him off. But you know at the same time, I'm looking around and trying to do my job -- but I figure I had to get this guy out of there, because that was more important."
Mis-statements that O'Reilly was "
in a war zone" or
"in the the Falklands" -- which were over a thousand miles away at the time.
Mis-statements that O'Reilly had "the Army was chasing us" -- when the video of that fog-of-war event tells quite a different story ...
So which is it, Mr O'Reilly -- author and issuer of America's daily Talking Point Memos ...
Was the Army chasing you ... or were the local police engaging in some minor 'crowd control'?
Bill O'Reilly Lies -- but Some Lies Matter More Than Others
by Jim Naureckas Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, fair.org -- Feb 21, 2015
[...]
And when O'Reilly speaks about "having survived a combat situation" in Argentina? He explains that he was talking about covering the anti-government protests that followed the military's defeat in the war (Daily News, 2/20/15):
The Argentine army pulled up in giant trucks, came out with guns and opened fire on the crowd. The video [we filed for CBS Evening News] shows that; it's on the Internet, you can see it. We shot it…. That was combat. Soldiers shooting at people who were trying to overthrow the government.
That video is on the Internet; matter of fact, it's right here (thanks to Mother Jones, which posted it to accompany Corn's story):
link
Unfortunately for O'Reilly, that video doesn't show any "soldiers shooting at people trying to overthrow the government," or anything that resembles "a combat situation." It does feature a voiceover from Bob Schieffer saying, "The police threatened to use teargas at one point, and several North American television crews were jostled." That's presumably a reference to what O'Reilly "survived."
Bill O'Reilly somehow "survived" that harrowing experience of
being pushed in demonstration. But will he manage to survive the current onslaught "from the sewer of the Internet" as he calls it?
Will Bill O'Reilly somehow survive, the mercilessly attacks from "the guttersnipes," who would use his own words against him -- as he routinely does to the guests, on this soapbox of a News show?
The from-on-high "Standard-setting" words such as these ...
Bill O'Reilly on Brian Williams Scandal
link -- posted on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Bill O'Reilly setting some standards for Brian Williams:
Is it a character flaw? I don't know. If it is he is going to lose his job. If another one comes out that he exaggerated a story that he reported, he is going to lose his job. He can get one [mistake].
[...]
Look he's going to ride it out. He's either going to make it, or he isn't. And it just depends on if he did it, as I said, a number of times, then he has to give up the position.
As the report from fair.org (above), and this
detailed report from MediaMatters.org shows, Bill O'Reilly has retold his inaccurate "war zone" story --
way more than once. (It's more like a dozen times.)
And the way Fox's number one anchor, relives the "adrenaline of combat" -- combat that never was -- it's enough to make one question:
"Whether Bill O'Reilly indeed has the 'right stuff' to be the Fox's Ambassador calling for: a "Holy" World War III?"
Even Fox News should adopt, for a brief season, the "same minimal standards," as their top spokesman. As 'flawed and exaggerated', as those story-telling standards may be.