TJ Walker discusses why Bill O'Reilly's embellished war stories likely won't damage his career like Brian Williams' did. O'Reilly has a loyal conservative audience, Fox News backing, and he's already pushed back against the reporter. Williams faced harsher consequences at a traditional network.
Chapters
Uh oh.
Does fox news channel's bill o'reilly have.
A brian williams problem?
Well, this is a little bit awkward.
Mother Jones and ace reporter David Korn.
Has uncovered evidence that Bill O'Reilly has.
Perhaps stretched the truth in his own war stories.
Clips have been found of Bill O'Reilly.
Talking about covering wars in Argentina and in the Falklands, and it turns out.
He was never there. Is this going to unravel Bill O'Reilly's.
Career, his television career, in the same.
Way it did for Brian Williams?
Here's my prediction.
I feel much more confident about this.
Than with the Brian Williams situation. No, this is not going to unravel things for Bill O'Reilly.
He here's the big difference between Bill.
O'Reilly and Brian Williams.
For starters, Bill O'Reilly has millions of.
Rabid supporters, people who view him as their guy, captain of their team.
And anyone who attacks him is just.
An enemy who is out to attack the whole team. There's a team mentality behind Bill O'Reilly's audience in a way that Brian Williams.
Simply never had it.
To this day, I've never met someone who considered themselves a hardcore Brian Williams fan.
I don't even know what one would look like. Whereas Bill O'Reilly has strong, strong support among conservatives and primarily Republicans throughout the country, I've never, ever met a liberal.
Or a Democrat who viewed Brian Williams.
As somehow an intellectual thought leader the.
Way that Bill O'Reilly is to conservatives. So that's one big issue.
The second big issue is Bill O'Reilly.
Is fighting back dramatically. He is disagreeing with the allegations.
He is attacking the reporter, he is.
Attacking the source, and he is mobilizing his fans.
That's not something Brian Williams did. Brian Williams essentially said he was guilty and apologized from the beginning. The third big issue here, and some of you are going to think I'm partisan, but the Fox News brand is.
Simply not about the same thing as the NBC News brand. You can say you like one better.
Or worse, but the Fox News brand is about a worldview that is counter.
To the so called traditional media. I won't even say mainstream media because there's nothing more mainstream than being number.
One like Fox and the Wall Street Journal. But Fox is definitely newer than NBC.
Cbs, abc, and they view themselves as.
A counter to that worldview.
Therefore, if someone like a Bill O'Reilly.
Gets his facts wrong about something, it.
Doesn'T really diminish the primary purpose of what Fox News is all about.
I'll let you fill in the blanks, but for all of those reasons, I.
Don'T think this is any threat whatsoever to Bill O'Reilly's career.
