Another Fabrication: O'Reilly Never Witnessed The Murder Of Nuns In El Salvador

[Judi Lynn]

Another Fabrication: O'Reilly Never Witnessed The Murder Of Nuns In El Salvador

O'Reilly's Claim To Have Seen Nuns "Shot In The Back Of The Head" Contradicted By His Own Timeline

Blog ››› 49 minutes ago ››› OLIVIA MARSHALL

Bill O'Reilly has claimed repeatedly that he witnessed the execution of nuns while reporting in 1981 on the civil war in El Salvador, an apparent fabrication that is at odds with both history and what O'Reilly himself has said about arriving in the country after the event took place, according to new information unearthed by Media Matters.

The Fox host has faced withering scrutiny from historians, former colleagues, and others for having exaggerated his claims of being in a "combat situation" during the Falklands War.

O'Reilly's El Salvador Fabrication Revealed

Between 1980 and 1992, a civil war raged in El Salvador between the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the government of El Salvador. On December 2, 1980, four members of the Salvadoran national guard raped and shot "three American nuns and a layworker." The tragedy ''did more to inflame the debate over El Salvador in the United States than any other single incident,'' according to a 1993 State Department report. After the death of Silvia Arriola, a member of a religious order killed six weeks after those four churchwomen, "no priests or nuns were killed in El Salvador for more than eight years," according to Dr. Anna Lisa Peterson, a professor of religion at the University of Florida.

O'Reilly has spoken on several occasions about his time covering the Salvadoran civil war as a CBS correspondent in 1981, suggesting at least twice that he witnessed the murder of the churchwomen. On the September 27, 2005, edition of his talk-radio program The Radio Factor, O'Reilly said, "I've seen guys gun down nuns in El Salvador." And on the December 14, 2012, edition of his Fox News show, O'Reilly spoke of telling his mother that "I was in El Salvador and I saw nuns get shot in the back of the head."

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More:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/02/25/another-fabrication-oreilly-never-witnessed-the/202667

[KamaAina]

1. Maybe he and Brian Williams could co-anchor a new show.

"All The News That's Fit To Make Up".

[pinboy3niner]

7. Yikes!

[uhnope]

20. Maybe he'll get a job on RT!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KamaAina]

21. DUzy!!

[randys1]

2. The dipshit has lied so much, that it is now open season on him, not that it matters

Fox not only wont punish him, they will reward him

[olegramps]

13. Yes, he will get a raise and fawning listeners will knight him for truth in reporting.

Each day that goes by I become more and more pessimistic about the future of our Republic. It seems that it is beyond repair and is spiraling into hopeless chaos. Perhaps the younger people will awaken to the threat and elect responsible representatives, however, the apathy that now prevails makes this less than certain. Our government has become an evil Hydra whose tentacles ensnare and poison any attempt for the just treatment of the poor and working class. Those who are in need are condemned as shiftless leeches who are deserving of their miserable fate. Greed has been ordained as the most cherished virtue.

[louis-t]

3. He also wasn't there when we landed on the moon...

discovered penicillin, invented the wheel.. jeez, it's gonna get a lot worse for him before it gets better.

[leveymg]

4. Did he also claim to be there when they were raped before being shot?

Wouldn't that kinda make him an accessory to the act?

[upaloopa]

5. That whole station is one big lie machine

O'Riley fits right in. If they go after him for lying what will they have to do to all the other lying liars?

[Blue Owl]

6. Bill-O's got a nasty habit

The lies, the lies...

[Kingofalldems]

8. Down goes O'Reilly!

[elehhhhna]

9. zelig gump

[cynzke]

10. Bill O'Reilly destined for Knighthood.....

Sir Lie-A-Lot!

[Tanuki]

11. He reminds me of Woody Guthrie's "Historical Bum"

as sung in this version by the Chad Mitchell Trio:

[Botany]

12. Don't forget about Bill O's try out w/the NY Mets

Detailing his baseball career, O'Reilly told Le Batard about the time the New York Mets brought him in for a tryout. While at the now-leveled Shea Stadium, O'Reilly recalled brushing shoulders with another pitcher who was about 5-foot-10 and "threw twice as hard as me." The pitcher turned out to be Hall of Famer Tom Seaver.

Olbermann, a baseball maven, took an axe to O'Reilly story, noting that he got the 6-foot-1 Seaver's height wrong. But the more egregious error, according to Olbermann, came with O'Reilly's timeline of the events.

Seaver’s rookie year was 1967, when Bill O’Reilly had just turned 18. In his biography, O’Reilly put the alleged Met tryout in his senior year of college, 1970 or ’71, by which point the Mets had already won the World Series, and Seaver had won the Cy Young Award. The only part of this story he hasn’t changed was that he — ‘lifelong Met fan’ — did not recognize Tom Seaver.
O'Reilly eventually hung up on Le Batard after swatting away a series of questions about a "controversy" that may have "embarrassed" him and caused "turbulence."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/keith-olbermann-fact-checks-bill-oreilly-baseball-mets-tom-seaver

[left-of-center2012]

14. In O'Reilly's defense ....

I've heard not one word that O'Reilly did not witness the assassination of Julius Caesar on March 15, 44 BCE.

[jayschool]

16. Colloseum

Actually, Bill was trying out for the Rome Gladiators at the time of the assassination, but he did witness Brutus' suicide at Philippi.

At least that what Bill-O told Shakespeare.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

[Stuart G]

15. Did O Reilly witness the birth of Jesus?? hasn't said so yet...k and r. nt

[yellowcanine]

22. He did but Luke bigfooted his report so he did not get credit for it.

That was the beginning of the War on Christmas. It was all Luke's fault.

[Stuart G]

23. just a minute..are you talking about Luke Skywalker??Bet O Reilly was a jedi knight???

yep..all Lukie's fault

[tblue37]

17. If he did, he should have stepped up against the murders--but of course he was NOT THERE. nt

[hedgehog]

18. The women were beaten and raped before they were murdered, then buried in shallow graves.

Their bodies were recovered two days later.

"I would like to suggest to you that some of the investigations would lead one to believe that perhaps the vehicle the nuns were riding in may have tried to run a roadblock or may have accidentally been perceived to have been doing so, and there had been an exchange of fire, and perhaps those who inflicted the casualties sought to cover it up, and this could have been at a very low level of both competence and motivation in the context of the issue itself."

By this verbal fog, Mr. Haig sought to convey that the women were killed by low-ranking guardsmen in an exchange of gunfire when they tried to run a roadblock. He did not even say the guardsmen murdered or killed; they "inflicted casualties."

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/12/opinion/l-film-preserves-haig-s-words-on-murders-563593.html


For O'Reilly to claim to have witnessed this is absolutely disgusting.

[certainot]

19. i wonder if at some point and maybe even now he was in some way CIA

the CIA used to and still maybe does recruit americans working overseas to do simple stuff like report what's going on at parties etc. he spent time overseas in media and would be a perfect fit to be a tool for use someone stroking his ego. and oreilly is clearly severely flawed and blackmailable.

i wonder if oreilly ever clarified that it was reagan supported military and death squads doing the killing, or if he used the opportunity or context to suggest it was 'liberals'

[tiptonic]

24. Big body

Little man in a big body.

[c588415]

25. I guess Bill OhReally really lied.

[joanbarnes]

26. I bet Bill O'Lielly saw Rasputin get murdered!

[libodem]

27. .

Pompous ass.

[LiberalLovinLug]

28. And he will ride it out...

They never pay a price for their double standard. Both the Republicans and those working their megaphone Fox News. While Williams resigns, Rather resigns even from more middle of the road networks.

Because O'Reilly and the rest of the personalities in right wing media have no personal ethics

Their carriers and owners have no journalistic ethics

And most importantly, their loyal conservative viewers have no comprehension of what ethics even means. All they have been conditioned to know is that if "one of their own" is being criticized the criticizer must be in the wrong, and probably has a lib'rul agenda....because they cannot, even for a minute, consider that they have wasted their time, and loyalty to a false god. That if they allow themselves to accept there is even the smallest of chinks in the armour, then it will all collapse. So Murdoch is fully aware that these loyal stupid viewers, will probably galvanize even tighter, and we witnessed some of that in O'Reilly's spike in numbers lately.

Its a real handicap for those center > left. We just assume that everyone has at least a modicum of ethical standards. So we voluntarily play by a stricter code than they do. Its a disadvantage.

But we have our advantages. Comedy is one. Conservatives do not have much of a sense of humor or talent in producing it. They have no answer to talents like Jon Stewart for instance. So there is that.