It turns out what he saw were photos of the attacks.
From The Washington Post:
In his 2013 book, “Keep It Pithy,” the Fox News host recounted,“I’ve seen soldiers gun down unarmed civilians in Latin America, Irish terrorists kill and maim their fellow citizens in Belfast with bombs.”
On another occasion, he said, “I’ve covered four wars,” and ticked off El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s, the 1982 Falklands conflict, Northern Ireland and an unspecified conflict in Israel. “I’ve seen the best and the worst.”
…
O’Reilly traveled to Northern Ireland in 1984 to research a book about the Troubles, according to Fox News. The book was never finished, and it’s not clear whether he covered the conflict for any news organization. At the time, he was working for a Boston TV station, WCVB, but his then-boss, Philip S. Balboni, said that O’Reilly covered only local news and did commentary for the station.
…
Asked about O’Reilly’s statements Friday, a Fox News spokesman said that O’Reilly was not an eyewitness to any bombings or injuries in Northern Ireland. Instead, he was shown photos of bombings by Protestant police officers.
As The Post noted, this “clarification” is similar to O’Reilly’s defense of having claimed to have “seen guys gun down nuns” and having seen “nuns get shot in the back of the head” during the El Salvador civil war. In that case, O’Reilly “explained” (long after the fact) that he had seen videos of the nuns being executed.
So I guess that means, I can tell “the folks” I saw President Obama’s inauguration, the Ferguson riots, “shock and awe” in Iraq, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and every other major incident captured by photojournalists or on video.
But if there’s one thing nobody can dispute that I’ve witnessed first-hand, it’s Fox News lies.
(H/T Gawker)
photo credit: Bill O'Reilly, Inquisitor via photopin (license)
From the article – BOR to Tucker “dick” Carlson: “I’ve covered wars, okay? I’ve been there. The Falklands, Northern Ireland, the Middle East. I’ve almost been killed three times, okay.”
Curious to see what Mideast reporting BOR did and whether it was falsified too. And we know that BOR has told the tale that he was almost killed in Buenos Aires (an M16 to the head supposedly). But what were the other 2 incidents in which he had “almost been killed”?
BOR wanted people to think he saw those events happen. Any honest person would have said that they saw photos and/or videos of these events. But not BOR – he wanted to make his news exploits appear to be greater than they actually were (even if it meant violating the ethical principles of journalism). BOR’s code of conduct has been dishonorable and egocentric based. Luckily for him, he works for FOX “news” who cares naught for the truth and his publishing house isn’t concerned that they are putting out non-fiction books that should really be marketed as works of fiction.
The way this organization is run we say the IRA found refuge with the Workplace Bullies.
