I’m surprised at you guys. Bill O’Reilly may at times approach the boundaries of good taste in his lonely fight to defend America from … things, and in his zeal he sometimes gets minor details wrong (like the time a Polk award he didn’t win became, in the telling, two Peabodys that he did). But to vilify the man by denying his very real combat history (in the trenches, at the front, taking no prisoners) in a recent war is beyond the pale (and Billy O. knows from pale).
The truth of the matter probably goes something like this:
FBI: Mr. O’Reilly, this is agent Worth. We saw your interview with ABC and we’re afraid there may have been some miscommunication.
O’Reilly: What, about me being shortlisted for Pope, but declining it out of respect for the Lethal Weapon franchise? Listen, I can explain that–
FBI: It’s not about that.
O’Reilly: (Pause) Oh. Good. 'Cause that’s a fact. I check my facts, mister, especially when they’re about His Holiness, me.
FBI: It’s Mrs., actually. But the claim I’m calling about is the one about you being on an Al Qaeda hit list.
O’Reilly: Also a fact.
FBI: Um, no, it really isn’t.
O’Reilly: That’s impossible. You guys came to my office and said you had good information – intelligence, you called it – that I was personally marked for death.
FBI: That much is true.
O’Reilly: And that it was a result of my hard-hitting, no-spinning fight for an America I can believe in.
FBI: Also more or less accurate.
O’Reilly: Then what’s the deal? I mean, if Osama –
FBI: That’s it. That’s the problem. We didn’t say Osama.
O’Reilly: That’s ridiculous, I heard the guy say –
FBI: Not Osama. Santa. Santa is what we said.
O’Reilly: (Long pause) As in Claus?
FBI: Yes.
O’Reilly: Saint Nick?
FBI: Yes.
O’Reilly: Kris Kringle?
FBI: A frequent alias.
O’Reilly: Santa wants me … dead?
FBI: “Pushing up mistletoe” is how he put it.
O’Reilly: But why?
FBI: Apart from his professed distaste for “that sanctimonious asshole” – I’m just quoting, here, you understand –
O’Reilly: Yes.
FBI: --it’s this whole War on Christmas thing. Apparently Santa really doesn’t like your style there. He doesn’t want you on his side, or any side, really.
O’Reilly: So you didn’t say I’m a target of “The Raghead himself?”
FBI: No, Mr. O’Reilly. What we said was, and I quote… “You’re going to be fragged, by an elf.”
O’Reilly: (Really, really long pause)