Weeks ago, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly used appearances on both Good Morning America and Fox and Friends to tie Park51 spiritual leader Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf to the 9-11 truth movement, linking Rauf with admitted truther Faiz Khan. O'Reilly had discussed the issue on his own show, featuring on-screen text calling Faiz Khan a “Muslim 9/11 truther & fmr associate of Imam Rauf.”

The narrative linking Imam Rauf to trutherism quickly dissolved: Khan denied ever discussing 9-11 truth issues with Rauf or his wife Daisy Kahn, Rauf has repeatedly stated that 9-11 was the action of Muslim extremists, and Park51 stated that they had no knowledge of Khan's views and would no longer invite him to lead prayer at the mosque.

Tonight on The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly aired an ambush interview with Faiz Khan which entirely undercut O'Reilly's previous smear of Rauf. Khan reaffirmed that he didn't think Rauf was aware of his views, and that he has no present relationship with Rauf. Khan also said that he is not involved with the Park51 project.

At no point in O'Reilly's segment did he mention Imam Rauf's frequent statements that the attacks on September 11 were the enacted by Muslim extremists, and at no point did O'Reilly make any effort to retract or apologize for his manufactured truther smear. Instead, O'Reilly repeated his prediction that the project would fail due to trouble fundraising: “All right, now the Factor has also learned that the mosque is having big problems. As we predicted here, we don't think it's going to be built.”