Bill O’Reilly joined David Letterman on “The Late Show” on March 24. During the conversation, Letterman brought up the charges that O’Reilly had embellished his resume during his time as a reporter. O’Reilly’s defense of his record is incredible. The man makes more false claims, without batting an eye.
Letterman observes that the charges against O’Reilly go back over 30 years. While that much is true, he doesn’t bring up the fact that O’Reilly makes up stuff all of the time on his Fox News show.
O’Reilly’s response is amazing. He says, “What I did was accurate. What I said was accurate.”
Um, not quite. Put aside O’Reilly’s reporting from what he called a “war zone” in Argentina. He admitted that he had not actually seen nuns murdered in El Salvador, but that he had only seen pictures of their bodies. Likewise his claim that he heard the suicide of George de Mohrenschildt, who was connected to JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, also fell apart under scrutiny.
According to O’Reilly, lying is okay, because “ratings.”
And how does O’Reilly defend his lies? Ratings. He tells Letterman, “We put forth what my side was, they put forth what their side was, folks decided, and it worked out okay for me, and I got even more viewers.”
“So wait,” Letterman says, “You got more viewers?”
“Twenty percent up,” O’Reilly replies.
Letterman looks heavenward. “Twenty percent up. When people thought you were making stuff up,” he observes.
Watch Bill O’Reilly’s incredible defense of his fabrications, via The Late Show With David Letterman:
H/T Media Matters | Image via screen capture from YouTube
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