TJ Walker examines three disputed stories from Bill O'Reilly's past: civilians shot in the Falklands, a 1977 Kennedy-associate suicide, and murdered nuns in El Salvador. Walker argues these factual discrepancies won't hurt O'Reilly's brand or job security, pointing to rising ratings as proof his audience remains intact.
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So how exactly could Bill O'Reilly not survive his current scandal and get fired? We're in the second week of Bill O'Reilly under siege for Brian Williams style discrepancies when it comes to tales he's told over the years. Here are the three big ones right now that have not been accounted for. Bill O'Reilly claims that he covered the Falklands War from a Falklands war zone. That's not the part that's troublesome. It's that he claims to have seen civilians being shot at by the military. All other evidence suggests that simply is not true. No one else has said that's the case. A lot of people have said it's a lie. And O'Reilly is offered no evidence. Case number O'Reilly has said repeatedly books interviews that he actually heard in 1977 someone associated with the Kennedy assassination kill himself. By all evidence put forth so far, O'Reilly was in a completely different state when it happened. He was in Texas the day the guy killed himself and he didn't show up in Florida until the next day at the guy's house. So there's no possible way he could have killed himself. The third issue that is now Currently in contention, O'Reilly claims to have seen nuns shot in the head murdered in El Salvador at a time when all the evidence suggests there were in fact, no murders of nuns or priests in that country. Now, how has O'Reilly responded to these charges? He's essentially ignored the charges and just attacked those who accuse him of getting his facts wrong. He says that anyone who disagrees with him, anyone who criticizes him is automatically illegitimate because it's a political hit. He says that anyone who criticizes him is a part of some radical far left agenda. Anyone who attacks him, criticizes him is a hack and here's my favorite word, a gutter snipe. So O'Reilly simply attacks the messengers and doesn't really deal with the issues at hand. Now folks, as I mentioned yesterday, don't try this at home. If you are a politician under siege, if you're a CEO, if you are a network news anchor or analyst at a mainstream news organization, this won't help you. It'll get you fired quickly. It will be career suicide. But is this going to hurt Bill O'Reilly? My prediction, absolutely not. Not it's not going to hurt him because it's not going to hurt Bill O'Reilly's brand. What is Bill O'Reilly's brand? It's not as the neutral, impartial gatherer of facts the way Brian Williams ostensibly was. What are the elements of Bill O'Reilly's brand? Well, for starters, it is that he is a hero looking out for you on all of these stories. He's kind of the hero looking out for people. He's there looking out for average people. So these stories don't hurt his credibility there. The next thing that his brand is all about is that he is sort of a larger than life important person. A hero and important person. Well, these stories amplify that. They don't take away from that. The third big part of his brand is, is that he is great at painting a worldview of how liberals, Democrats and moderates are all evil socialist, leftist out to destroy the world. That's his brand. That's what he's selling every day. There's nothing in any of these factual discrepancies that hurt that part of his brand either. So by my analysis, nothing has happened that's hurting Bill O'Reilly's brand. The other part of his brand is he's the guy who is standing up to the mainstream media, standing up to all those bad people at the New York Times and CNN and Mother Jones. Well, this story doesn't hurt that part of his brand. It actually builds his brand. It strengthens his brand. It makes him better than ever in the eyes of his followers. So here's my prediction. He's not going to be fired like Brian Williams or suspended like Brian Williams. And in fact, the only conversations he's having with Roger Ailes, the president or CEO of Fox News Channel, is how big his bonus is going to be this year and how big a salary increase he's going to get for next year. That's my guess. Now, it is possible for Bill O'Reilly to be fired. What would it take for him to get fired? Here's my prediction. He would have to do one of the following things. He would have to endorse Hillary Clinton for president. That might get him fired. He'd have to say that he was wrong about Obamacare and Obamacare was actually a good Republican idea. Good when Mitt Romney did it. And it's reduced cost. And it's a good thing if he said that he would be fired. If he called for higher progressive taxation, Bill O'Reilly would probably be fired. And certainly if he used his forum to put out news. So if he were the person, for example, to find the 47% secret tape from Mitt Romney and actually bring that to the world and help destroy a future Republican nominee, that would get him fired. Now, interesting. All the things I just mentioned have nothing to do with being factually inaccurate, but they are things that would get Bill O'Reilly fired because they would go against his brand. His brand is all about being a great propaganda artist, a caricaturist, essentially saying that all liberals are evil and factually always wrong and always doing horrible things and all conservatives are great people serving the world. That's what his brand is all about. So I do kind of get a kick out of people who are say, well, he's gotten his facts wrong. Surely Fox must fire him. Well, no, they're not going to fire him. Attacking and trying to punish Bill O'Reilly for getting his facts wrong and for telling a story where the facts don't add up. That's kind of like trying to punish Michael Jordan for scoring the winning basket or scoring a great dunk. Well, no, that's what Michael Jordan does. That's what Bill O'Reilly does. So that's why I predict Bill O'Reilly is going to be around for quite some time. By the way, his ratings are up 20%. That tells you anything about how this whole issue has affected his brand. I'm TJ Walker. Post your comments.
