# Bill O'Reilly: Combat Vet **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 26, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668 "2008-05-26T17:03:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/1 "2008-05-26T17:03:08Z")
[This exchange](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WObY922U-Ms&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/24/121820/279/574/521165) is from Bildo’s radio show on friday: > [@](#): > > O’Reilly: But I tell you what, I’ve been in combat. I’ve seen it. I’ve been close to it. And if my unit is in danger and I got a captured guy and the guy knows where the enemy is and I’m looking him in the eye, the guy better tell me. That’s all I’m gonna tell you. If it’s life or death, he’s going first. Roger, Portland, Oregon. What say you, Roger? > > Roger: Yeah, hey, Bill. Bill, first things first. Ummmm, you just said that you’ve been in combat, but you’ve never been in the military, have you? > > O’Reilly: No I have not. > > Roger: Then why did you say you’ve been in combat? > > O’Reilly: Why do I say that, Roger? Because I was in the middle of a couple of firefights in South and Central America. > > Roger: But you’re a media guy. > > O’Reilly: Yeah, a media guy with a pen, not a gun. And people were shooting at me, Roger. > > Roger: Because people might think that you actually were in the military. > > O’Reilly: Ahhhhh. We don’t want to mislead anybody, but I’ve made it quite clear in many, many circumstances … > > Roger: No, we don’t want to do that, Bill, because we know how fair and balanced we are … > > O’Reilly: Yeah, hey, listen, Roger, you know what? You can take your little “fair and balanced” uhhhh snip remark and shove it. Okay? You’re not getting on this air. And you, Mr. Macho Man, would have never come close to anything that I’ve done down where I’ve been. Okay? So take a walk and … well, 'nuff said. For the record, O’Reilly isn’t even telling the truth about having been close to any shit as a journalist. He’s made these claims before, but the closest he’s ever come to combat is covering the Falkland Island War from a hotel room in Buenos Aires. I’d like to know what makes him so sure the caller has never “come close” to whatever fantasy bio Bill-O has created for himself. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/2 "2008-05-26T17:06:11Z")
By the way, I love the sound of (what I imagine is) O’Reilly’s crew guys snickering in the background when the caller calls him on his bullshit. Even his employees can’t stand him. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/3 "2008-05-26T17:09:06Z")
Thank you, Roger, from Portland, Oregon! ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/4 "2008-05-26T17:25:25Z")
When Bill said he was a media guy with a pen instead of gun getting shot at, Roger should have said “Is that how you won your Peabody awards?”. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/5 "2008-05-26T17:30:18Z")
From what I’ve read over at Free Republic, even the posters there can’t stand him. I really want to see their reaction. But not nearly as much as Keith Olbermann’s. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/6 "2008-05-26T17:39:35Z")
I came across this video yesterday. It’s a “remix” of Bill’s recently-unearthed meltdown. I thought it was funny. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2YDq6FkVE) ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/7 "2008-05-26T17:47:26Z")
I’m almost positive I saw that exchange posted somewhere (or maybe saw it on that MSNBC show thats always making fun of O’Reilly) a year ago or more. Re-run maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/8 "2008-05-26T17:52:02Z")
Who listens to this guy, anyway? Somebody must be watching the advertising during his shoe, or he’d be off the air. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/9 "2008-05-26T18:32:04Z")
[QUOTE=Simplicio] I’m almost positive I saw that exchange posted somewhere (or maybe saw it on that MSNBC show thats always making fun of O’Reilly) a year ago or more. Re-run maybe? [/QUOTE] Same issue, but not a re-run. O’Reilly was shown up long ago for claiming he was in combat, be shot at (during the Grenada skirmish.) It was featured in an Al Franken book. However, O’Reilly still clings to the claim, and still uses it to embellish his argument for torture. He makes the claim again, some caller knocks his dick in the dirt again, and he gets pissed off again. Most people, having been embarrassed over a false claim, would stop making the claim. It doesn’t work that way in the No-Spin Zone. Every time Media Matters for America catches him lying, they nail him to the wall for it. Instead of apologizing for the lie, BillO calls MM Islamofascist assassins, and he sticks with the lie. [http://mediamatters.org/items/200803260003](http://mediamatters.org/items/200803260003) ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/10 "2008-05-26T18:41:17Z")
The Google ad is **Bill O’Reilly Goes Crazy**. I thought he was already crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/11 "2008-05-26T18:54:55Z")
What a fucking putz this guy is. His claims of being in combat are an insult to those who have served, and those who have died while doing so. Ernie Pyle was a combat reporter, asswipe. You, sir, are a poseur of the worst kind: someone without a callus or a resume, someone who feeds off public paranoia, a leech battened on the ass of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/12 "2008-05-26T19:14:47Z")
It give me great pleasure to think how Bill O feels about Colbert getting the award he never got for making fun of him. Sometimes there is justice. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/13 "2008-05-26T19:59:10Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] Same issue, but not a re-run. [/QUOTE] He may have mentioned a similar issue before too, but I mean that I’ve seen precisely this clip at least a year ago. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/14 "2008-05-26T20:08:18Z")
Ah, I’m not crazy. [This page](http://politicalhumor.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&cdn=entertainment&tm=9&f=00&su=p284.8.150.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//skinthefox.com/news_003.htm) was making fun of O’Reilley for the same quote in January of 2005 ---
**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:** [May 26, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/15 "2008-05-26T20:15:48Z")
Bill O’Reilly has his skill set: he’s a master at stoking outrage. Why oh why doesn’t he mix in some deserving targets then? Some years back, the NYT’s Nicolas Kristoff challenged him to travel to Sudan and turn the heat on the genocidal bastards that transformed Darfur into a humanitarian catastrophe. Sure, it would be hard, but I would think that someone with Bill’s delusions of grandeur would be up for the task. No dice. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/16 "2008-05-26T20:16:26Z")
“Fuck it, we’ll do it live!” is much older than that, but still new to the Intertubes. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/17 "2008-05-26T21:25:26Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] It give me great pleasure to think how Bill O feels about Colbert getting the award he never got for making fun of him. Sometimes there is justice. [/QUOTE] Perhaps that’s why O’Reilly goes around claiming he got a Peabody-he figures that Colbert is such an accurate parody of him, that he can claim it by default? ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/18 "2008-05-26T21:32:46Z")
[QUOTE=Measure for Measure] Why oh why doesn’t he mix in some deserving targets then? Some years back, the NYT’s Nicolas Kristoff challenged him to travel to Sudan and turn the heat on the genocidal bastards that transformed Darfur into a humanitarian catastrophe. **Sure, it would be hard** , but I would think that someone with Bill’s delusions of grandeur would be up for the task. [/QUOTE] Emphasis added, 'cause you really answered your own question. Bill O’Reilly doesn’t want to do anything hard. He’s a bully; bullies go after easy targets. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/19 "2008-05-26T21:47:23Z")
Is it everybody, or just us, who has this romantic notion that combat experience makes a better man? Is that why so many men are anxious to pretend to it? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668/20 "2008-05-26T22:07:40Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] Is it everybody, or just us, who has this romantic notion that combat experience makes a better man? Is that why so many men are anxious to pretend to it? [/QUOTE] I think it’s also interesting that, in my experience, the guys who have really been there usually have no wish to talk about it. The best way to give the impression of being a true combat vet is to never bring it up. _They_ don’t. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-combat-vet/450668.md?page=2)