“Total lie”: Bill O'Reilly pretends he didn't smear the Obama administration

Written by Matt Gertz

Published

Last night, we pointed out that Bill O'Reilly and the legal analysts he hosted had criticized the Obama administration for not pursuing criminal charges against members of the New Black Panther Party. We pointed out that this criticism didn't make any sense, since it was President Bush's Justice Department that actually decided not to pursue criminal charges in the case.

Tonight, O'Reilly said that we were “amazingly dishonest,” and called the headline of our item (“O'Reilly Factor ludicrously blames Obama for not pressing criminal charges in New Black Panthers case”) a “total lie.” Watch:

Note that rather than actually attempt to rebut our statements -- which he can't do, because we accurately characterized his comments -- O'Reilly aired a different, entirely irrelevant part of that evening's show, in which he stated, “The evidence clearly shows the men breaking the law. So why give them a pass? Talking Points cannot answer that question. And Mr. Holder will not answer it either. Very disturbing. And President Obama should order his attorney general to clarify the matter.”

As the full video from last night makes clear, the comments O'Reilly aired in no way undercut our point that he criticized Obama's Justice Department for not pressing criminal charges, even though it was the Bush DOJ that actually made that decision:

This recalls false attacks O'Reilly made against us in April, after we pointed out that his claim that "[n]obody" on Fox News advanced the false claim that under the health care legislation individuals could go to jail for failing to purchase insurance was incorrect. O'Reilly said we “distorted” his comments, claiming that “Nobody at Fox News reported inaccurately about the Obamacare prison situation” because Fox had only reported on the “jail time” claim months prior when it was actually “on the table,” and stopped doing so after it “was taken off the table.” We pointed out:

  • That wasn't what he had actually said in his original comments;
  • “Jail time” was never on the table, those Fox reports had been inaccurate;
  • Fox Business' Eric Bolling had made the jail time claim the previous week.