On the June 9 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that it is “a lie” that he “called George Tiller 'Dr. Killer' while covering his murder last week.” O'Reilly made the claim while criticizing a San Francisco Chronicle article that reported his reference to “Dr. Killer.” He then added: “Transcripts prove what reporter Joe Garofoli was false.” In fact, as video of the June 2 edition of his program shows, O'Reilly did refer to Tiller as “Dr. Killer.” On June 2, O'Reilly stated: "[I]n order to terminate a life, that has to be catastrophic. And I think it has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, in Dr. Killer's case, that wasn't what he was doing." Guest Patricia Ireland, former president of the National Organization of Women, then remarked: “You call him Dr. Killer, and he was murdered.”
As Media Matters for America has documented, O'Reilly previously falsely claimed that he only “reported” anti-abortion groups referring to Tiller as “Tiller the baby killer.”
From the June 2 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: Well, in order to terminate a life --
IRELAND: The fact that Dr. Tiller was murdered is --
O'REILLY: In order to terminate a life, that has to be catastrophic. And I think it has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, in Dr. Killer's case, that wasn't what he was doing. But Ms. Ireland, we appreciate you coming him on.
IRELAND: You call him Dr. Killer, and he was murdered. And I think that that is --
O'REILLY: He was murdered.
IRELAND: -- just outrageous.
O'REILLY: And so do I. I agree 100 percent with you. It cannot happen in America. Thank you for appearing tonight.
From the June 9 edition of The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: “Unresolved Problem” segment tonight: More bad news for liberal newspapers.
As you may know, the very liberal Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- gone. And the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, as well as the Chicago Sun-Times, have filed for bankruptcy. Also, The New York Times and Boston Globe in big financial trouble.
My analysis is that traditional and conservative Americans have walked away from these papers because they are so radically left, unfair, unbalanced.
Here's another example: On Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle printed that I called George Tiller “Dr. Killer” while covering his murder last week. That's a lie. Transcripts prove what reporter Joe Garofoli wrote was false.
But the Chronicle will not correct the story -- we asked them to -- which is one of the big reasons it's on the verge of bankruptcy, as well. Readers cannot trust the paper to print the truth, so why buy it?
