Mother Jones has written a letter to Fox News executives asking that Bill O'Reilly be asked to apologize for saying that Mother Jones reporter David Corn deserves to be "in the kill zone."
Corn and Daniel Schulman published a piece on the
Mother Jones website Thursday titled, "Bill O'Reilly Has His Own Brian Williams Problem," in which they said that the Fox News host claimed he was on the Falkland Islands during the Falklands war in 1982, which O'Reilly covered as a reporter for CBS News.
O'Reilly
told TVNewser that "everything I said is true," and "the whole report is a giant piece of defamation."
The "O'Reilly Factor" host went on to say that "when everybody writes the truth, I've talked to about eight or nine reporters, and when they verify what I'm saying, because it's easily verifiable, then I expect David Corn to be in the kill zone. Where he deserves to be. CBS News has the footage to this day. Everything I said about my reportorial career — EVERYTHING — is accurate."
Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffrey, co-editors of Mother Jones sent an email to Fox News Friday saying that O'Reilly should issue an apology for the comments,
The Washington Post is reporting.
"We are writing with alarm about Bill O'Reilly's response to our report investigating his characterizations of his reporting in 'war zones.' We welcome criticism, but calling for our reporter 'to be in the kill zone' crosses a line," the co-editors wrote.
"Mr [sic] ‘Reilly has indicated that he plans to address the Mother Jones story on his show tonight. He should use that occasion to renounce his 'kill zone' remark and apologize. If he does not, he should issue a separate statement renouncing the remark and apologizing," they added.
O'Reilly
told Variety Thursday that Corn is an "ideological zealot," calling the story "a totally contrived piece of garbage.
"Guttersnipes can write whatever they want and then it hits the Internet and takes on a life of its own," he added.
These comments were also cited in the letter from Bauerlein and Jeffrey.
"Mother Jones and the far left websites couldn't care less about the truth," O'Reilly said Friday on his show "The O'Reilly Factor." "They are in business to injure. This is a political hit job."