O'Reilly again misrepresented prior comments about terrorists attacking San Francisco

Summary: Bill O'Reilly again misrepresented comments he made in 2005 about a possible terrorist attack on San Francisco, stating on his Fox News show: "I made a joke out of San Francisco. If they didn't want the military, then the next time there was a terror attack, they're on their own." In fact, O'Reilly had said: "[I]f Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."

During the April 25 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly again misrepresented comments he made about a potential terrorist attack on San Francisco. Referring to the "We Can Solve It" ad campaign with Fox News analyst and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who appeared in one ad with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), O'Reilly stated: "Tell me about Nancy Pelosi. She won't talk to me. In fact, she tried to get me fired because I made a joke out of San Francisco. If they didn't want the military, then the next time there was a terror attack, they're on their own." In fact, during the November 8, 2005, broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, O'Reilly declared, "[I]f Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."

O'Reilly has previously distorted the nature of his comments. Less than a week after making the original comments, O'Reilly defended them as "satirical" and played an audio clip of his comments but omitted the part that caused the controversy; Fox & Friends likewise excluded the relevant portion of O'Reilly's comments.

From the April 25 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: Continuing now with former Speaker of the House and current Fox News analyst Newt Gingrich. You may have noticed there are a series of television commercials running, pairing unlikely people like Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson there. The commercials are produced by Al Gore's company and are designed to bring awareness to environmental concerns. Now, we got kick of seeing the latest -- kick out of seeing the latest one: Nancy Pelosi and Mr. Gingrich.

[begin video clip]

PELOSI: Hi, I'm Nancy Pelosi, lifelong Democrat and speaker of the House.

GINGRICH: And I'm Newt Gingrich, lifelong Republican and I used to be speaker.

PELOSI: We don't always see eye to eye, do we, Newt?

GINGRICH: No, but we do agree our country must take action to address climate change.

PELOSI: We need cleaner forms of energy and we need them fast.

GINGRICH: If enough of us demand action from our leaders, we can spark the innovation we need.

PELOSI: Go to wecansolveit.org. Together, we can do this.

[end video clip]

O'REILLY: You know, she's looking rather adoringly at you. You know, it's kind of like Hansel and Gretel there. You know? You guys should have been in lederhosen. I -- she really looks like she likes you.

GINGRICH: What a way to spend a Friday evening, getting you raking me over the coals.

O'REILLY: Tell me about Nancy Pelosi. She won't talk to me. In fact, she tried to get me fired because I made a joke out of San Francisco. If they didn't want the military, then the next time there was a terror attack, they're on their own. But tell me about Nancy Pelosi? Do you like her? Do you have a --

GINGRICH: She is a --

O'REILLY: -- cordial relationship with her?

GINGRICH: No. Look. Look, she is a very tough, very professional, very wealthy, liberal woman who earned becoming speaker. She -- I knew Nancy back when she was the national committee woman before she came to Congress. She worked very hard as a liberal Democrat. She is about 70 miles to the left of me. And she's a tough professional. We're not personal friends, but I respect that she managed to get to be speaker of the House.

—A.I.