Wed, Jul 7, 2004 2:18pm ET

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O'Reilly ignored his own interview with Edwards; misstated position on border security

FOX News Channel host and radio host Bill O'Reilly claimed that Senator John Edwards (D-NC) favors an "open border" for immigrants, in spite of the fact that Edwards said just the opposite on O'Reilly's TV show last fall.

On the July 6 broadcast of The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, O'Reilly ran down a list of Edwards's policy views and interpreted them for listeners; in the process, O'Reilly misstated Edwards's position on immigration:

O'REILLY: He doesn't like the PATRIOT Act. He's for the death penalty. He's against private-school vouchers. He wants to welcome immigrants with earned-legalization program. That means it's an open border, pretty much because -- I'm gonna talk to him about this, you'll hear in a minute about the border.

Though O'Reilly never did "talk to him about this" during the July 6 Radio Factor, he did replay a relevant portion of his fall 2003 interview with Edwards on that evening's edition of FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor. In the following excerpt from the 2003 interview, Edwards made clear that -- contrary to O'Reilly's July 6 claim -- he advocates increasing border security:

O'REILLY: The border is out of control on the south end with Mexico. Do you have any solutions on how to stop the rampant illegal immigration and the narcotics traffic?

EDWARDS: We ought to be willing to spend money to put more border patrol agents in place.

—G.W.

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