MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Looks At Bill O’Reilly’s Statesments About Lee Harvey Oswald Associate’s Suicide

Hien Lun

According to Media Matters, Bill O’Reilly has repeatedly claimed in his books and on Fox News that while he was reporting for a Dallas television station in 1977, he was directly outside the home at the moment that George de Mohrenschildt — an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald — shot himself in Florida.

Rachel Maddow of MSNBC took on O’Reilly recently, and she ran a clip of him on “Fox & Friends” repeating the story from 1977.

Maddow played audio tapes released by CNN last week of phone calls made by O’Reilly from 1977.   The recording was recently released by CNN on Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter.

On the tapes, O’Reilly can be heard asking the congressional reporter Gaeton Fonzi about the details of the suicide, and adding that he is not yet in Florida — a claim that is at odds with O’Reilly’s statements that he was near the home where de Mohrenschildt killed himself, states Media Matters.

What Publications Have Reported On Bill O’Reilly’s Questionable Facts?

David Corn and Daniel Schulman recently published a scathing article in Mother Jones attacking Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly for allegedly misspeaking about reporting from a “war zone” in the Falklands in 1982.

Corn and Media Matters exposed a series of questionable claims made about his reporting during the Falklands War and the El Salvadoran Civil War.

In the former case, O’Reilly repeatedly suggested to viewers he was in a combat zone in the Falkland Islands when no CBS News reporters (O’Reilly’s employer at the time) ever reached the islands.  He, instead, covered protests in the capitol of Argentina, Buenos Aires.   In the latter case, O’Reilly said on multiple occasions that he witnessed the execution of four American nuns in El Salvador – an event that took place before he was even in the country.

“It’s pretty lightweight to say you were in a war zone because you covered a protest,” said Corn to HuffPost Live.

The story about O’Reilly’s inconsistencies began with the publication Mother Jones and then spread to Media Matters. What other publications have reported on it?

USA Today’s editorial board is calling on Fox News to “distance itself” from the network’s “truth-challenged” Bill O’Reilly in the wake of revelations that the Fox host has repeatedly lied about some of his experiences as a reporter.

CNN’s Brian Stelter picked up the story. O’Reilly reportedly called Stelter “another far-left zealot … masquerading as a journalist. CNN can do a lot better than this guy.”

David Corn told The Huffington Post Live recently that O’Reilly “still has yet to refute a single fact” in his and Daniel Schulman’s original Mother Jones’ report on O’Reilly’s Falklands claims.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow did a segment about O’Reilly’s threatening behavior towards David Corn.

The British paper The Guardian published a piece relating to inconsistencies with O’Reilly’s reporting on the LA riots in 1992.

Politico reported that Bill O’Reilly threatened a New York Times reporter interviewing him about recent allegations he made up stories concerning his reporting on the Falklands War in 1982.

During a phone conversation, O’Reilly allegedly told Times reporter Emily Steel there would be repercussions if he felt her coverage was inappropriate. “I am coming after you with everything I have,” O’Reilly said. “You can take it as a threat.”

O’Reilly has also threatened David Corn, suggesting that he needs to be placed in the “kill zone.”

Updated post.