Some of Bill O’Reilly’s former colleagues at CBS News are ganging up on him to dispute his accounts of his Falkland War experiences and his short association with CBS News generally. O’Reilly sees himself as a brilliant and even heroic reporter who was held back by some pernicious good-old-boys system; his colleagues remember a callow hot dog who couldn’t follow direction.
See, for example, “How Bill O’Reilly imploded at CBS following his Falklands War ‘combat’ reporting.” By O’Reilly’s account, his career at CBS was blocked because he wouldn’t play their “games.” But his manager at CBS remembers him as the rookie who showed up at pro training camp for the first time with his scrapbook of press clippings. He was incensed because he wasn’t allowed to present his footage of an alleged riot himself on the nightly news, but instead the footage was spliced in with other footage and presented by Bob Schieffer. Worse, he disregarded instructions to keep camera lights off so as not to draw attention to the filming, putting his camera crew in danger.
In other words, he was oblivious to the deeper meaning of “new hire.” And because he obviously was too much of a prima donna — and more trouble than he was worth — he was quickly let go by CBS, and he is still pissed off about it.
This was all touched off last week when David Corn and Daniel Schulman wrote for Mother Jones that O’Reilly’s accounts of his “combat reporting” in the Falklands War simply didn’t past the smell test. Over the weekend one of Bill-O’s former colleagues at CBS came forward to corroborate what Corn and Schulman wrote. Crooks and Liars has a great video.
Unfortunately, it’s doubtful this revelation will end O’Reilly’s career. The first time I saw O’Reilly on television he struck me as being such an obviously narcissistic and witless gasbag I marveled he made it to national media at all. But Bill-O’s followers love him. They even read his books, such as his book on the Lincoln Assassination that is so riddled with errors that the National Park Service won’t carry it in souvenir shops. O’Reilly has defended himself by saying its hard to know what really happened after all this time, but in fact there is little about the Lincoln assassination that wasn’t documented and preserved down to fine detail. Victorian-era people were hoarders and record-keepers to a fault, and by now more than a century of excellent scholarship has sorted through it all. The truth is that Bill O is a sloppy researcher who didn’t bother to distinguish between good and bad source material. But you can’t tell that to his fans.
In 1976, a few years after he graduated, I also went to Marist College.
It was a blue-collar school, where many of us were the first ones in our families to go to college.
I had a great time, and got a great college education, and was very employable, based on my BA in Communications, and my minor’s in Russian and English.
When O’RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALY became a national figure back in the late 90’s at FOX “news,” he made a big deal out of going to Marist.
I sent him an e-mail, early in the 00’s, and said, “Please stop telling people that you graduated from Marist – you make the other graduate’s look as stupid and ignorant as you!
I said that, based on his world view, I doubted he actually graduated!
His response was:
GO FUCK YOURSELF!!!!
I wrote back, “See, now you’ve proved me right, because if you’d graduated, you’d know that that was anatomically impossible!”
His response?
Nothing.
I was at a reunion a few years ago, and he was signing copies of his latest co-written “biography” at the book store.
I saw no long line.
He left early, in his limo, I heard, pissed-off because the student’s at the college didn’t appreciate his co-written genius.
I asked a few of the older Professor’s – Marist Brother’s one and all – what they thought of him when he was a student.
All I got was eye-rolls and shrugs.
They detested the bastard, and were ashamed to have his name at all attached to the great college that they built.
Bill’s and old blow-hard who knows his time in the limelight is running out.
And, there’s nothing more dangerous that an old blowhard who know his/her time us about up.
I detest that bastard.
And I detest the fact that got a college degree from a great college, like Marist.
FUCK YOU, YOU PIECE OF SHIT, BILL O’REILLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, I don’t detest my college degree at all.
I’m proud of it!
It’s a tremendous college, in a beautiful spot in the Mid-Hudson Valley.
What I detest, is that one of its most prominent graduates, is a loud-mouthed jerk like Bill O’Reilly!!!
Gulag, I’m really sorry to hear that someone as despicable as BillO sullied your college memories/experience. What a jerk.
BillO reminds me a bit of Ed Anger, the opinion columnist at the dearly departed Weekly World News. The difference is that BillO is taken seriously and his ego absolutely needs this, where everyone knew Ed Anger was a fiction and a joke.
such an obviously narcissistic and witless gasbag I marveled he made it to national media at all.
America is full narcissistic and witless gasbags who long for a strong-daddy to tell them what to think and line up scapegoats for them to hate.
You should start spreading the rumor that O’Reilly went to “Marxist College”. The teabaggers might be stupid enough to fall for it.
His response was: GO F#CK YOURSELF!!!!
Gulag, did you save the email, maybe Corn would give you a few bucks for it as background!
“Unfortunately, it’s doubtful this revelation will end O’Reilly’s career”
Quite the opposite, it will improve his ratings, anytime BillO can go up against a member of the “liberal media†(and a jew too) the FAUX watchers will devour it!
uncledad,
Sadly, that disappeared with my RoadRunner account.
OT, breaking:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/24/obama-veto-keystone_n_6744128.html
Let the shrieking commence.
“it has earned my veto” 🙂
Well, I guess the repugs are going to crash the economy again to teach us all a lesson. Maybe it’s me, but isn’t the normal way of proceeding on a project such as the pipeline to eliminate all the apparent obstacles to complete the project before you get underway to construct it? It leaves me with a sense that it’s being stuffed down the throat of the American public by a foreign corporation.
Somebody should have thought of the possibility that a situation like that which exists now with the pipeline would surely arise. Maybe they didn’t give a shit because they know they’ve got the Repugs in their pocket.
Years ago a similar situation happened on Long Island. The Long Island Lighting Company built a nuclear power plant at approximately the middle of Long Island at a cost of around 10 billion dollars. They never considered an evacuation plan in case of a nuclear accident. There would be over a million people who would be trapped on the eastern end of the island if a nuclear accident happened, and on top of that, the roads leading off the island could hardly sustain normal commuter on the best of days let alone people fleeing for their lives in a nuclear meltdown.
The Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission never permitted the power plant to open because evacuation in a accident would be impossible. Again it was a case of somebody should have seen it coming or maybe somebody thought they could run roughshod over government oversight and protections.
Needless to say… the taxpayers ended up paying the tab.
There are enough who find comfort in listening to Bill-O that he will just go on the speechmaking tours and rake in more cash than before. If you don’t think his crowd has power, read this from here in The Old North State (just like the Old South state, with less learning over time): http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/02/24/senate-leaders-push-to-legalize-discrimination/
Senator Buck Newton? Buck Rodgers maybe, but Buck Newton? When I was a kid we had a neighbor named Buck. He was a wife beater. Whenever he came around all of us kids would scatter. Seems we had an intuitive sense of danger. I think the fact that he always had a hunting knife strapped to this side kinda aided us kids in knowing he was the type of guy to stay clear of. Even as a kid I used to feel sorry for his wife with her many black-eyes and bruised up face. Buck was a real nasty mountain man.
But Senator Buck Newton sounds like a godly man who is obedient to the word of God and only wants to do right by the Lord.
Swami,
That would be Shoreham.
And I was a fairly low-level Upstate CY activist against nuclear power for NYGPIRG – NY Public Research Group.
Is Bill still sexually harassing his female subordinates or has he mended his ways since he was slammed with that sexual harassment law suit? I would assume that getting slammed like he did, and the fact that he had to settle for big money out of court that he would keep a damper on things. But seeing how sexual harassment has more to do with inflated ego and power tripping than actual sexual desire that Bill might not be able to keep thing under control.