# Bill O'Reilly and his Falklands War experience **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 22, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359 "2015-02-22T18:08:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/201 "2015-03-02T10:46:20Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > One of the most famous scenes in science fiction history: > > Batty: I’ve… seen things you people wouldn’t believe… Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. > > Deckard: Really? > > Batty: Well, I have seen the photos… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/202 "2015-03-02T21:50:34Z")
So let’s recap: According to Tucker Carlson, O’Reilly said, “I’ve covered wars, okay? I’ve been there. The Falklands, Northern Ireland, the Middle East. I’ve almost been killed three times, okay.” We now know that he was never in the Falklands, his El Salvador and N Ireland “combat” experience consisted of looking at photos, and the riot he survived in LA consisted of an argument with one guy. I haven’t heard anything about the Middle East yet. So exactly where was he almost killed three times, and what’s his Middle East experience? Did he slip on some falafel in the shower? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/203 "2015-03-03T04:33:37Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Did he slip on some falafel in the shower? It was a million to one shot, Doc, million to one! ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/204 "2015-03-31T01:05:57Z")
who’s wrong? Bill O’Reilly Rescue Story Refuted by Cameraman; O’Reilly Denies Working With Him > **[Bill O’Reilly Lying About Rescue Story, Says Cameraman; O’Reilly Denies...](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/s/bill-o-reilly-rescue-story-refuted-cameraman-o-172549768.html)** > > The most direct challenge to multiple Bill O’Reilly controversies was published on Monday, as a cameraman whom O’Reilly claims to have rescued during 1982 coverage of Buenos Aires riots says the Fox News host made up his account. On Fox News in... ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/205 "2015-03-31T01:29:18Z")
Ah, good to see this bumped, just for posterity’s sake, this thread needed a note on how O’Reilly did a “Brave” Sir Robin in El Salvador: > **[What's Really Wrong With Bill O'Reilly's El Salvador Reporting](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bill-oreilly-el-salvador_n_6764112)** > > What's Really Wrong With Bill O'Reilly's El Salvador Reporting > [@](#): > > “It’s an extraordinarily lazy piece of reporting,” Doyle told The Huffington Post. “There’s essentially what amounts to stand up in front of one burned building. There aren’t interviews with witnesses to what he claims has been a guerrilla attack. He appears to have kind of gone with the soldiers’ statements about what happened and just left it at that. That’s not reporting, that’s stenography.” > > Doyle wondered why O’Reilly failed to mention the allegations that the military had committed a large-scale massacre just a few miles away. > > “It had been reported on the front pages of the two most important papers in the world,” Doyle said. “You can’t miss that. That’s just downright strange.” > > Historian Virginia Garrard-Burnett, who specializes in Central America, likewise viewed O’Reilly’s failure to mention the allegations of a massacre at El Mozote as a major lapse. But she also said it was common at the time for foreign journalists to over-rely on sources in the U.S. government and Salvadoran military, leading to what she described as superficial or inaccurate reporting. > > “There were some very brave journalists at the time in El Salvador, but there were others that were not as brave,” Garrard-Burnett told HuffPost. “They weren’t all the same kind of free and independent thinkers that you might wish. They weren’t all questioning government sources … I don’t want to make it sound like I’m giving Bill O’Reilly a walk, but there were a lot of people there who were lazy back then, or scared.” ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/206 "2015-03-31T03:54:38Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Ah, good to see this bumped, just for posterity’s sake, this thread needed a note on how O’Reilly did a “Brave” Sir Robin in El Salvador: > > [What's Really Wrong With Bill O'Reilly's El Salvador Reporting | HuffPost Voices](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/27/bill-oreilly-el-salvador_n_6764112.html) Given the performance of almost the entire US media during the 2003 Iraq invasion and its leadup, they should be very careful casting any stones about “stenography.” That said, this whole O’Reilly thing is just bizarre. The guy has been caught red-handed in multiple lies, and he has the balls to go on Letterman (whom I am very disappointed with for his softball questions, especially when he’s on the brink of retiring) and say he’s vindicated. I wouldn’t have the nerve to be seen in public if I had been exposed the way O’Reilly has, but I guess he literally has no shame. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/207 "2015-03-31T03:59:00Z")
He saw _pictures_ of dead nuns, what more do you people want??? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/208 "2015-03-31T07:02:27Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > who’s wrong? > > Bill O’Reilly Rescue Story Refuted by Cameraman; O’Reilly Denies Working With Him > > [Bill O’Reilly Lying About Rescue Story, Says Cameraman; O’Reilly Denies Working With Him](https://www.yahoo.com/tv/s/bill-o-reilly-rescue-story-refuted-cameraman-o-172549768.html) [Original reporting by David Corn and Daniel Schulman](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/cameraman-disputes-bill-oreilly-falklands-war-story) at Mother Jones. O’Reilly doubles down, saying he never worked with the cameraman. This is bizarre: [INDENT]In response, Medrano-Carbo tells Mother Jones, “I don’t know what to say… Ninety-nine percent of that footage in his report was mine. How’d he get that footage, if I’m not his cameraman?..I have the footage to show.” Medrano-Carbo shared with Mother Jones the raw footage he shot that night, and it does match the video in the report O’Reilly filed. He adds, “You can see me in the BBC report. Why would I lie? You used 99 percent of my stuff, and I’m not your cameraman? I certainly did not get beat up. You did not help me.” [/INDENT] I predict that O’Reilly will continue to be wildly popular among those lacking sufficient critical facilities. O’Reilly’s howlers are regularly documented at Media Matters. Those who get their information from him are necessarily swimming in the very deep end. So this shouldn’t hurt him. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/209 "2015-03-31T18:21:21Z")
None of this says much about O’Reilly the well known lying scumbag. It says a lot about his Fox employer, that he’s not put out on the street after so much proof of his lying has surfaced recently. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/210 "2015-03-31T18:28:10Z")
While I agree that O’Reilly has been exposed in these instances, I would suggest that liberals may want to calibrate their outrage in case Hillary “named for Sir Edmund” “landed under sniper fire” Clinton is the Democratic nominee. Gotta think ahead. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/211 "2015-03-31T18:58:25Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > While I agree that O’Reilly has been exposed in these instances, I would suggest that liberals may want to calibrate their outrage in case Hillary “named for Sir Edmund” “landed under sniper fire” Clinton is the Democratic nominee. > > Gotta think ahead. As usual the sources you used did not tell you the whole bit (From 8 years ago): > **[Clinton 'misspoke' over Bosnia sniper claims](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna23789011)** > > Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said she "misspoke" when saying last week she had landed under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia as first lady in March 1996. > [@](#): > > When asked Monday about the New York senator’s remarks about the trip, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson pointed to Clinton’s written account of it in her book, “Living History,” in which she described a shortened welcoming ceremony at Tuzla Air Base, Bosnia-Herzegovina. > > “Due to reports of snipers in the hills around the airstrip, we were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac with local children, though we did have time to meet them and their teachers and to learn how hard they had worked during the war to continue classes in any safe spot they could find,” Clinton wrote. > > “That is what she wrote in her book,” Wolfson said. “That is what she has said many, many times and on one occasion she misspoke.” Wake me if she starts using that anecdote again and after ignoring what her spokesman said, of course it has to be mentioned also that Clinton is not a reporter and O’Reilly \*\*continues \*\*to this day to deny that he has done anything wrong and his network only goes lower with its credibility levels (as if that was possible) by keeping him. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/212 "2015-03-31T19:14:18Z")
As for the Sir Edmund story, [it’s \*her mother \*you’re calling a liar.](http://www.snopes.com/politics/clintons/hillary.asp) :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/213 "2015-03-31T19:20:16Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > As usual the sources you used did not tell you the whole bit (From 8 years ago): > > [Clinton 'misspoke' over Bosnia sniper claims](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23789011/ns/politics-decision_08/t/clinton-misspoke-over-bosnia-sniper-claims/#.VRro1I5BnsE) > Wake me if she starts using that anecdote again and after ignoring what her spokesman said, of course it has to be mentioned also that Clinton is not a reporter and O’Reilly \*\*continues \*\*to this day to deny that he has done anything wrong and his network only goes lower with its credibility levels (as if that was possible) by keeping him. What I find interesting about this is that you disparage “the sources \* used” without knowing what they are, while trotting out, as the credible source which refutes my supposed sources: _Hillary’s spokesman_. As it happens, it was Hillary’s spokesman who misspoke on that occasion, and actually Hillary [repeated that embellished story until it was refuted by video evidence](http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/03/26/us-usa-politics-clinton-idUSN2540811420080326). But I actually find the thought process more interesting. > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > As for the Sir Edmund story, [it’s \*her mother \*you’re calling a liar.](http://www.snopes.com/politics/clintons/hillary.asp) :dubious: Very helpful of you to link to Snopes. But odd, because Snopes addressed the very claim you’re making and said they found it “extremely unlikely” for reasons provided. Here too, what’s more interesting is why you would put out a link that ostensibly supports your claim when it actually does the exact ooposite. Question is whether you didn’t read your cite before posting it, or just assumed no one else would read it afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/214 "2015-03-31T19:33:15Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > .Very helpful of you to link to Snopes. But odd, because Snopes addressed the very claim you’re making and said they found it “extremely unlikely” for reasons provided. Read it a little closer and you have a chance of grasping the point that it’s\* her mother\* you’re calling a liar. > [@](#): > > Question is whether you didn’t read your cite before posting it, or just assumed no one else would read it afterwards. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/215 "2015-03-31T19:39:56Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Read it a little closer and you have a chance of grasping the point that it’s\* her mother\* you’re calling a liar. So I guess it’s the second. For those who can’t be bothered to read the link, Snopes said the notion that Hillary was just repeating what mother had told her about being named for Sir Edmud was “extremely unlikely” > [@Snopes](#): > > We still find this explanation extremely unlikely. In order to accept it, one has to believe that only after Hillary Clinton was nearly 60 years old, and only after she had been pilloried in the press for more than ten years for claiming she had been named after someone who was virtually unknown in the U.S. at the time of her birth, and only after her husband had presented the fictitious story as true in his own autobiography, did Dorothy Rodham finally confess (or Hillary finally admit) that the “sweet family story” she once told her daughter wasn’t the truth. (Hillary Clinton didn’t have the excuse that it was other people who were spreading a falsehood about her, as she herself was the one who initiated the claim back in 1995.) > > As we noted back in 2003, this story was likely a little white lie concocted to curry favor with the public for a special occasion back in 1995, and even if it really was a “sweet family story” Dorothy Rodham told had her daughter Hillary many years earlier, the latter had almost certainly known for quite a long time that it was just a story. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/216 "2015-03-31T19:44:59Z")
Yes, see? It’s her mother you’re calling a liar. Unless you can link to HRC saying something other than “My mother once told me …” Maybe you need to read _more than_ a little closer, hmm? ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/217 "2015-03-31T19:46:26Z")
By this point I assume that everyone else besides you realizes how silly you’re being, and I don’t need to argue this point further. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/218 "2015-03-31T19:48:35Z")
I know how badly you want to believe what your sources have been telling you for years, but this board is about _fighting_ ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/219 "2015-03-31T19:54:28Z")
**Elvis** , snopes doesn’t say Hillary’s mom was lying. Their conclusion is that probably Hillary knew it wasn’t true. Her telling Sir Edmund Hilary she was named for him when she wasn’t doesn’t get me too excited, though. The Bosnia bit does a little bit, although I’m willing to grant both O’Reilly and Clinton a little leeway for faulty memory. Memories do tend to get more exciting with time. O’Reilly’s lied about other things, though, that you just can’t get wrong - saying _Inside Edition_ (_Inside Edition!_)won two Peabodys during his tenure, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359/220 "2015-03-31T19:59:15Z")
> [@bup](#): > > **Elvis** , snopes doesn’t say Hillary’s mom was lying. Their conclusion is that probably Hillary knew it wasn’t true. Which is why she began every such statement with “My mother told me …” or something like that. That’s called making small talk with someone you wish to be pleasant with. A pol needs to know how to do that well, even more so than most people, wouldn’t you say? Or is it that you’re claiming you know her mother _didn’t_ tell her that story? > [@](#): > > Her telling Sir Edmund Hilary she was named for him when she wasn’t doesn’t get me too excited, though. That’s not quite what she said, now is it? If you’re accusing someone of lying, you do have to be sure you know what the lie is, and who actually told it. Some posters here would rather leave a bag of dog shit on the porch and scamper away giggling, however. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-and-his-falklands-war-experience/713359.md?page=12)