O'Reilly don't know much about (WWII) history
January 28, 2009 1:52 pm ET by Karl Frisch
From MSNCB’s Courtney Hazlett at The Scoop:
Alba schools Fox’s O’Reilly in WW II history
Jessica Alba is setting the record straight: Sweden was neutral during World War II.
Alba and Fox TV show host Bill O’Reilly traded punches last week after the presidential inauguration. After Alba told a Fox reporter that O’Reilly was “kind of an a-hole;” he retaliated by calling her a “pinhead” for telling a reporter to “be Sweden about it,” assuming she meant Switzerland.
“I want to clear some things up that have been bothering me lately,” Alba blogged on MySpace Celebrity. “Last week, Mr. Bill O'Reilly and some really classy sites (i.e.TMZ) insinuated I was dumb by claiming Sweden was a neutral country. I appreciate the fact that he is a news anchor and that gossip sites are inundated with intelligent reporting, but seriously people... it's so sad to me that you think the only neutral country during WWII was Switzerland.”
Although Switzerland is more frequently cited as an example of neutrality, Sweden did indeed follow a policy of neutrality during World War II. History point to Alba.
It is worth noting that Alba wasn’t speaking with a Fox reporter – it was one of O’Reilly’s ambush-obsessed-producers. Also worth noting, O’Reilly takes issue with Alba’s naming of Sweden as a neutral country during WWII not with her contention that he is “kind of an a-hole.”











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It turns out that Bush isn't any better. Here he is in 2002:
''I don't know why you're talking about Sweden,'' Bush said. ''They're the neutral one. They don't have an army.''
Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: ''Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They're the ones that are historically neutral, without an army.'' Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.
Bush held to his view. ''No, no, it's Sweden that has no army.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html