Supplemental: The New York Times submits to his threat!

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015

O’Reilly gets a pass:
Here at THE HOWLER, we have a bit of a cultural soft spot for Bill O’Reilly.

(Full disclosure. Years ago, we chatted with Bill on the phone. He called us, of course.)

That said, O’Reilly has made a number of statements down through the years about his journalistic service in the Falklands War. This conflict was fought between two actual nations (Great Britain and Argentina) on and around the Falkland Islands, pretty much way out at sea.

O’Reilly was never in the Falkland Islands, or anywhere close. As everyone agrees, he covered demonstrations about the war—demonstrations which occurred in Buenos Aires, a thousand miles away.

The British navy wasn’t present. Neither was Margaret Thatcher.

Despite these stubborn geographical facts, Bill has occasionally misstated the location of his service in the most elementary way. As recently as 2013, he said this on The Factor:
O’REILLY (4/17/13): I was in a situation one time, in a war zone in Argentina, in the Falklands, where my photographer got run down and then 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, you know, but 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.
Perhaps this was a slip of the tongue, but it was a basic misstatement. Mr. O was never “in the Falklands!”

(To watch tape of Mr. O making this statement, you can just click here.)

Bill was never “in the Falklands.” But uh-oh! In his 2001 book, The No-Spin Zone, O’Reilly said this:
O’REILLY (page 110): You know that I am not easily shocked. I've reported on the ground in active war zones from El Salvador to the Falklands.
O’Reilly wasn’t really in an “active war zone” when he was in Buenos Aires. But he certainly wasn’t in any such zone in “the Falklands,” an impression anyone would have gotten from reading that published statement.

O’Reilly has made other statements through the years which gave the impression that he was actually in the Falklands. But how strange!

The New York Times has now published two lengthy reports about this ongoing flap. But as the Times has sifted Bill’s comments, they’ve never noted that O’Reilly has sometimes directly said that he was “in the Falklands.”

Which he never was!

These Times reports have not been brief. On Tuesday, Emily Steel and Ravi Somaiya devoted 1267 words to the flap about O’Reilly’s alleged misstatements. This morning, Jonathan Mahler joined Steel for a report on the same topic which covered 1674 words.

That’s almost 3000 words in all! But in these reports, the Times has never noted the fact that O’Reilly has said, and directly implied, that he was physically present “in the Falklands.”

Instead, the Timesmen have piddled around with other alleged misstatements which are harder to parse. This morning, the Times even said this early on:
MAHLER AND STEEL (2/26/15): David Corn, one of the authors of the Mother Jones article and a former Fox News contributor, said he received the tip about Mr. O’Reilly the day after NBC News announced its suspension of Mr. Williams for six months without pay. According to Mr. Corn’s source, Mr. O’Reilly had repeatedly made false claims about his experience covering the Falklands war as a young CBS News correspondent.
“His experience covering the Falklands war?”

That lazy construction may give the impression that he actually performed that service. Arguably, that’s already a stretch!

According to Steel, O’Reilly dropped a T-bomb on her when they spoke on the phone this week. This is the way the incident was originally reported:
STEEL AND SOMAIYA (2/24/15): Mr. O'Reilly's efforts to refute the claims by Mother Jones and some former CBS News colleagues occurred both on the air and off on Monday. During a phone conversation, he told a reporter for The New York Times that there would be repercussions if he felt any of the reporter's coverage was inappropriate. ''I am coming after you with everything I have,'' Mr. O'Reilly said. ''You can take it as a threat.''
Full disclosure: Bill was much more polite to us when we spoke on the phone.

Mr. Bill dropped a threat on Steel. After reading the subsequent Times reports, our analysts came to us with tears in their eyes.

“At the New York Times, threats seem to work,” the youngsters sadly said.

Final point, with one army in flight: In today’s report, the Times has even toned down what Mr. O is said to have said to Steel on the phone. An unpleasant word has been softened:
MAHLER AND STEEL (2/26/15): In the days after the Mother Jones article was published, Mr. O’Reilly mounted an aggressive campaign against the article and its authors on Fox, and aired a video clip and an interview with a former NBC journalist that he said supported his version of events. He also threatened a New York Times reporter that he would come after her “with everything I have” if he deemed her reporting unfair. “I don’t want you to get hurt,” he said. “This is as serious as it gets.”
In today’s report, his actual quote with the T-bomb has been disappeared. Again, this suggests a possibility:

At the New York Times, T-bombs may actually work!

51 comments:

  1. “I don’t want you to get hurt,” he said. “This is as serious as it gets.”

    That's toning it down?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, because "hurt" is vague. One can have hurt feelings, one can say it wouldn't hurt to put salad dressing on the endive. "Threat" is more specific. It suggests intent to do another person harm. It may have legal definition.

      Delete
    2. 6:19. What a real piece of work. So in love with that man Somerby. Didn't notice the word "threatened" is in the Times second piece. In the sentence before the word "hurt."

      Bob says the "T" bomb was "disappeared." Therefore she doesn't have to believe her lying eyes.

      Delete
    3. "Yes, because "hurt" is vague."

      I'm going to presume that this sentence has to be satire, which doesn't always come through in a combox.

      The alternative is that it is an incredibly dumb thing to say.

      Delete
    4. Forget the alternative. My guess is it was written by Disclaimers Anonymous.

      Delete
    5. Where was the disclaimer for this post? Does its absence reflect a ripple in the wide pool of esteem in which the author is held by those interested, if silent, readers?

      Delete
  2. Did I read that right, "... He would come after HER' ... "I don't want you to get hurt"?! What a POS

    ReplyDelete
  3. Indeed, he is... and I'm afraid in this matter of conduct: "It IS just Fox News!!!"

    ReplyDelete
  4. But here at Greg in the comment section... we just keep getting results!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If Giuliani is up next for Defense Force Somerby, you get the crown for a month.

      Delete
    2. Upon further review, in the cold light of a late February morn,we realize you did not predict Giuliani. And you hedged your bets on whether the O'Reilly making an appearance at all. "Stonewall" Tsk, tsk.

      But, uh oh!

      "Has "It wasn't just Fox News" morphed into "It's never Fox News?"

      You were spot on with your prediction there.

      Delete
  5. I don't get it, one of the chief complaints from the critics is that this blog never makes mention of Fox News transgressions, here's a hanging curveball right over the heart of the plate and nary a peep.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You don't get it? Find a point in this post where Somerby writes the words Fox. And please don't count the times it is mentioned in words he cuts and pastes.

      Delete
    2. Yes, in a post which the main point is how the New York Times clearly caved in to bullying, how can we fail to see that it is really, really about the transgressions of Fox News?

      Delete
  6. O'Reilly/Fox? O'Reilly is Fox's top draw. All that complaining, then nothing to say in the wake of a hundred+ bitter, butt hurt posts protesting criticism of their pal Nicky K.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Morning @ 2:42. I am sure you would classify some of my comments during Someby's recent binge as butt hurt posts protesting criticism of Nicky K.

      Your comment displays the rare perceptive intellect of those who wrote that all criticism of Somerby in the first quarter of
      last year was paid for by Rachel Maddow.

      Delete
  7. I am totally non-surprised that after spending so many days and posts on the critical issue of The Lies of Brian Williams, the first thing Somerby says about O'Reilly turns into a criticism of the New York Times.

    Somerby is so predictable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The NYT-loving troll is hurt because Bob Somerby is schooling the NYT on how to dig dirt on Bill O'Reilly.

      Delete
    2. Why dig dirt on O'Reilly when the school bully is standing in the sand box shoveling it on himself?

      Delete
  8. "I'm afraid in this matter of conduct: "It IS just Fox News!!!"

    Amen, Greg. And that should be remembered the next time Somerby tries to play the false equivalency game.

    Once can only imagine, given the days upon days Somerby spent condemning Williams, his reaction had Williams followed the O'Reilly script.

    Imagine for just an instant if Williams had threatened the person exposing his lies with "I'm coming after you with everything I have. Consider it a threat. I don't want you to get hurt. But this is as serious as it gets."

    And after all that, NBC stood by their man.

    Somerby would no doubt find some way to accuse the NYT of cowardice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And in case we need another reminder of how Fox News is "different," consider the case this week of another ego-driven bully, Keith Olbermann, and how his latest network handled that.

      Delete
    2. Oh yeah, cause Olbermann threaten another journalist. Except of course, he didn't.

      Delete
    3. Poor Keith. He used to be important. And he used to disparage Twitter.

      Now he is just road kill beside Rachel Maddow in the rear view mirror of Culture Crusader Bob Somerby as his mechanized division bears down on the last hold outs in the Maoist pseudo-lib tribal regions.

      Don't tell me Somerby has never been in a War Zone. He he roomed with Al Gore and once had Bill O' himself on the phone. He is just too modest to claim it.

      Delete
    4. Yep, all Olbermann did was start a juvenile Twitter flame war with Penn State students and alum, beginning with his reaction of "Pitiful" to a link to a story about the students raising $13 million for pediatric cancer research.

      Suddenly, an apology appears, and the news is issued that Olbermann has been yanked off their air for the rest of the week.

      Before we think that's a "wrist slap," we must also wonder if there is talk at ESPN along the lines of, "Why did we re-hire this asshole?"

      I would say that Mr. Olbermann is likely skating on very thin ice. Again.

      Contrast that to the reaction of Fox News to O'Reilly:

      “Ailes and all senior management are in full support of Bill O'Reilly.”

      Delete
  9. Every day, Bob Somerby hurls a hot potato at the trolls. Today's hot potato is "Did the NYT drop the ball"? The trolls won't say.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Give us time AP. We've barely had time to read our office e-mails from Thursday yet and we still have to kill some time with co-worker friends around the water cooler. Unlike some, we still have friends.

      Delete
    2. Typing that you have friends doesn't necessarily mean you do.

      Delete
    3. Your bitter attack motivated by lonely reflection on your sad situation has made some of our analysts cry. Fortunately other trolls are Tweeting that, unlike ours and Bob's, their analysts are emitting mordant chuckles.

      Delete
    4. Short answer to your burning question, no, the NYT didn't drop the ball. In fact, they have reported twice that their reporter was threatened by O'Reilly?

      Now the more important question, did Somerby turn himself into a pretzel to find some way to twist the whole O'Reilly mess into yet another criticism of the NYT? In his very first post about it?

      Delete
    5. Pretzel???? Another troll with no reading comprehension.

      Somerby eats bagels. And befriends small children and ragged strangers while doing so. They discuss big books.

      Delete
    6. But does he asked the "ragged strangers" about their kids? If not, then he cares not a whit about them.

      I must say that the words he has spent on Kristof alone has certainly helped close the "30 million word gap" among that segment of his readers who grew up impoverished and didn't yearn to learn Croatian when they were five years old.

      Delete
  10. "But as the Times has sifted Bill’s comments, they’ve never noted that O’Reilly has sometimes directly said that he was “in the Falklands.”

    Bob Somerby


    "The central dispute is whether Mr. O’Reilly reported from active war zones, as he has repeatedly said on the air and in his 2001 book, “The No Spin Zone: Confrontations With the Powerful and Famous in America.”

    The New York Times

    No doubt about it. The word "Falklands" cannot be directly found in that paragraph. Just the one immediately before it.

    Bob's excessive literalism may be a symptom of mental illness or brain injury.

    That said, it could be just another example of the creepy, combative dishonesty that has made him adored by as many readers as there are college students who call their lady professors "bossy."

    ReplyDelete
  11. I don't get it. How old is Emily Steel? Where did she go to college? Was she in the war zone during the War on Gore? Bob never directly anwsers these questions.

    Oh, yeah. Almost forgot. When Somerby had Bill O'Reilly on the phone, did he ask him how much he was paid?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Does Emily Steel really care about children? Has she ever written about the remarkable gains "by a very rough rule of thumb" of African-American children on the "gold standard" of testing?

      This would be evidence that both the "achievement gap" and the "30 million word gap" are closing. But obviously, Steel doesn't care.

      Delete
    2. Steel may be a nom de plume. Stalinistas use those. Like Digby, who may be Dolly's cousin for all we know.

      Delete
  12. Howler critics get results!

    In the past, it has been the practice of the Daily Howler to disappear the male half of a double byline, even when the male's name comes first.

    In this post, the names of both males sharing the byline with Emily Steel are noted!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Somerby: "That said, O’Reilly has made a number of statements down through the years about his journalistic service in the Falklands War."

    Mahler and Steel: "According to Mr. Corn’s source, Mr. O’Reilly had repeatedly made false claims about his experience covering the Falklands war as a young CBS News correspondent."

    Only one of these is a "lazy construction." Guess which one?

    And before Bobfans yell "Taken out of context!" isn't that what Bob did to call the Mahler-Steel sentence a "lazy construction"?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To us it seems fuzzy. And kind of creepy. We've always preferred fuzzy over lazy. The implication suggests something you might see as similar. Perhaps the inference is different which makes liberals feels good. In our view taken "in" or taken "out" of context are two possibilities among an infinite array of "anythings" that are possible.

      Your tribe may differ. And that's the way the culture melts this Thursday, February 27.

      Delete
  14. So the lib defense of Brian Williams is that Bill O'Reilly does the same thing?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Silly. Real Libs don't defend privileged white men. What moonbeam did you ride in on? Must have been made of green quiche.

      Delete
    2. I'm trying to think of the "lib" who defended Brian Williams. Can't come up with one, can you?

      While you are at it, could you explain to me why "libs" would feel compelled to defend Williams?

      I am also curious about the "con" defense of O'Reilly's lies. Is it somewhere along the lines of Williams lied, so we gotta give O'Reilly a pass on his lies?

      Delete
    3. John Stewart defended him by suggesting that his lies were trivial in light of the lies told to get us into the Iraq war, carefully omitting that Williams told those lies too.

      Delete
    4. Don't know what John Stewart said, but Jon Stewart said the same thing about Williams that he is repeating now with O'Reilly.

      And it sounds pretty similar to what you say that John Stewart said. Unfortuately, unlike Jon Stewart, John Stewart is apparently some cad who has disappeared Williams altogether.

      Delete
  15. Look, Bob admits he is giving O'Reilly a pass. He has often, but not always, done this before.

    It probably fair to say at this point that Bob is an old fashioned type of guy who likes old fashioned guys of bullies, which may be what makes it impossible to cover Military reporting. O'Reilly, by the by, has made these kinds of threats before, memorably to Al Franken, he better not go to Levittown because Bill had people there waiting to beat him up.
    In the more troubling sense,O'Reilly also threaten anyone else who would criticize America and it's Military during the invasion of Iraq. If they did, Bill said without fear of rebuke, he would, well, come at them with everything they had. I guess since the Invasion/occupation went so well this was neither remarked upon nor remembered.
    And to Bob's generation that's how it's supposed to work: as Bogie said to Petter Lorre: "When your slapped you'll take it and like it." Keep it polite, liberals, keep it artful."
    And that would be the cultural origin of Bob's pass.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Williams. O'Reilly. Somerby.

      East coast Irish Catholics from the last century.

      Show biz guys.

      Liars.

      Pseudo-men.

      Delete
  16. I remember Bill O'Reilly, he was also a school teacher back when that kept him from having to serve in Vietnam. Of course he had to embellish his teaching bonifides by declaring that it was one of the toughest neighborhoods in America…BOCA RATON!!!

    ReplyDelete


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