Bill O'Reilly is "furious" about a Mother Jones magazine article charging that he exaggerated war stories while covering the Falkland Islands War back in the 1980s, and he fought back on his popular Fox News cable show and on the network Sunday.
Mother Jones last week attempted to link O'Reilly's Falklands Island reporting with of Brian Williams, the NBC News anchor suspended from his anchor spot without pay for six month after admitting he embellished a 2003 incident while covering the Iraq War.
The Mother Jones article charged that O'Reilly claimed that he reported from the Falkland Islands but he was actually in Argentina with the rest of the CBS reporters and staff sent to cover the war at the time. The article questioned O'Reilly's recollection of his experiences while in Argentina.
O'Reilly fought back on Friday during the "Talking Points Memo" segment of his show
"The O'Reilly Factor."
"I was covering the conflict from Argentina and Uruguay for CBS News," O'Reilly said on his show Friday, according to Fox News Nation. "After learning of the surrender angry mobs in Buenos Aires stormed the presidential palace the Casa Rosada trying to overthrow the government of General Leopoldo Galtieri. I was there on the street with my camera crews."
"The violence was horrific as Argentine soldiers fired into the crowd who were responding with violent acts of their own. My video of the combat led the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather that evening. And later on I filed a report that ran nationwide. That's what happened," O'Reilly continued.
O'Reilly saved his harshest criticism for David Corn, the co-author of the Mother Jones article in the segment, calling him "a liar."
"Corn actually wrote that I hammered Brian Williams when everyone knows I went out of my way on ("Jimmy Kimmel Live") and the Factor to be compassionate to the man," O'Reilly said, noted Fox News Nation. "Corn must think the folks are as dumb as he is."
On Sunday, O'Reilly continued to defend his record with Fox Media critic Howard Kurtz after former CBS colleague Eric Engberg appeared on CNN to refute O'Reilly's account of his Argentina reporting,
noted CNN Money.
"This is splitting hairs, trying anything they can to bring me down because of the Brian Williams situation. That is exactly what this is," O'Reilly told Kurtz
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