While Bill O’Reilly has called Mother Jones’ report on his Falklands War story a “lie,” former CBS correspondents who worked with him are also refuting the Fox News pundit’s stories.
Last week, Mother Jones, a left-leaning publication, published a report, investigating O’Reilly’s claims that he was in a “war zone” while covering the short 1982 Falklands War between Argentina and the U.K. He even suggested that he saved a cameraman’s life.
However, other CBS correspondents have noted that they were nowhere near the Falklands Islands and were instead covering the war from afar in Buenos Aires. Since the report was published, more correspondents have come forward, discrediting O’Reilly’s claims.
“Nobody remembers this happening,” CBS news cameraman Manny Alvarez told CNN. Former CBS sound engineer Jim Forrest added that he didn’t “recall” O’Reilly’s story.
Eric Engberg, who also covered the war for CBS, disputed O’Reilly’s claims in a lengthy Facebook post. “It was not a war zone or even close. It was an ‘expense account zone,’” Engberg wrote.
O’Reilly has continued to defend his statements, telling Fox News’ Howard Kurtz on Sunday that he would not have worded his stories differently, notes The Washington Post. He believes that he is not in the same situation as NBC News’ Brian Williams, who has been suspended six months for his inaccurate war stories.
“When you have soldiers and military police firing into the crowd, as the New York Times reports, and you have people injured and hurt and you’re in the middle of that, that’s the definition,” O’Reilly told Kurtz. “This is splitting hairs trying anything they can to bring down me because of the Brian Williams situation.”
O’Reilly also responded to Engberg’s Facebook post, claiming that Engberg never left his hotel. “His nickname was Room Service Eric,” O’Reilly told Kurtz.
Engberg told CNN that this was “the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard,” adding “I never ordered room service during a riot.”
image courtesy of INFphoto.com
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