O'Reilly aired clip of Bennett defending McCain without disclosing he's McCain's attorney

Summary: While discussing a New York Times article on Sen. John McCain's relationship with a lobbyist, Bill O'Reilly aired a clip of McCain's attorney Robert Bennett defending McCain against the article's allegations, but did not disclose that Bennett represents McCain and was reportedly hired for the explicit purpose of dealing with the controversy.

During the February 21 edition of his Fox News show, Bill O'Reilly aired a clip of attorney Robert Bennett defending Sen. John McCain against what Bennett called a "shameless" New York Times article about McCain's relationship with a telecommunications lobbyist, but O'Reilly did not disclose that Bennett now represents McCain and was reportedly hired for the explicit purpose of dealing with the controversy. Rather, O'Reilly described Bennett only as an "attorney" who "was hired by the U.S. Senate to investigate McCain during the Keating Five incident" in the early 1990s. O'Reilly's description of Bennett echoed a McCain campaign fundraising letter, which characterized Bennett simply as a "Washington attorney" and "Democrat counsel during the Keating investigation."

Earlier, in a previous segment on The O'Reilly Factor, former White House press secretary Tony Snow noted that Bennett was "his [McCain's] attorney," but O'Reilly did not discuss Bennett at that time.

From the February 21 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: Now for the top story tonight: analysis of the situation -- joining us from Washington, former White House spokesman Tony Snow. What do you think?

SNOW: You know, I think you're absolutely right. It's unbelievably sloppy. Look, you can't have an innuendo saying they had a personal affair without any details, or say that he was intervening inappropriately on the part of clients that she was representing without having any details. And furthermore, what you didn't mention, Bob Bennett, his attorney, has pointed out that they submitted 30 or 40 pages of answers to written questions. And they had something like a dozen different cases in which Ms. Iseman had recommended one course of action, and John McCain had opposed it.

So, it strikes me as somebody trying to retell gossip, spinning it out into a 3,000-word piece, giving it the impression of death by going into a lot of the processes involved here in Washington, and it's a nothing burger. I think it's something that is going to do a lot more damage to The New York Times than to John McCain.

O'REILLY: Now, you would think that the Times would know that, with their reputation of being a far left agenda-driven vehicle. They know this program, talk radio, commentators like yourself, are all going to question this kind of anonymous reporting. So, why would The New York Times, already in economic trouble, already with the perception of being unfair across the board, why would they do it?

[...]

O'REILLY: Continuing now with our lead story: Did The New York Times smear John McCain? Attorney Robert Bennett thinks so. He was hired by the U.S. Senate to investigate McCain during the Keating Five incident, and last night on Hannity & Colmes, Bennett said this.

[begin video clip]

BENNETT: I think what The New York Times did here was shameless, just shameless. As you pointed out in the lead, it's almost entirely unsourced. And I think for The New York Times to dig this up just shows that Senator McCain's public statement about this is correct. It's a --

ALAN COLMES (co-host): You actually --

BENNETT: It's a smear job.

[end video clip]

O'REILLY: Joining us now from Washington, Jane Hall; and from Greenville, South Carolina, Bernie Goldberg. Both are Fox News analysts.

—A.I.