In an interview with The New York Times Monday, Bill O’Reilly made a pointed threat that he’d come after the Times if he deemed the paper’s coverage of his Falklands war claims inappropriate.
“During a phone conversation, he told a reporter for The New York Times that there would be repercussions if he felt any of the reporter’s coverage was inappropriate,” a story by the Times’ Emily Steel and Ravi Somaiya said.
“I am coming after you with everything I have,” O’Reilly said. “You can take it as a threat.”
O’Reilly was referring to the ongoing media story regarding his claims of being in the midst of a combat zone while covering the 1982 Falklands War between Argentina and England.
On his Fox News program “The O’Reilly Factor” Monday night, O’Reilly aired footage of a riot in Buenos Aires he covered that’s been in question. “As I reported accurately, the violence was horrific,” O’Reilly said before airing a CBS report anchored by Dan Rather that gave credence to O’Reilly’s claims of having covered a violent riot. “There were arrests and beatings,” the voice of former CBS correspondent Eric Engberg said over the video package.
Engberg has been an outspoken critic of O’Reilly since the initial Mother Jones report came out, suggesting he’s exaggerated his reporting to make the riots and war sound more violent than it really was.
O’Reilly then spoke with former NBC News Miami Bureau Chief Don Browne, who oversaw the Falklands war coverage.
Browne backed O’Reilly’s claims of the war, saying “It was a real country at war, it wasn’t a joke. It was a real war, and they were taking it very seriously. At first, Buenos Aires was a pretty nice place to be if you were covering the war, but as it turned out, it got progressively more intense.”
Hours before O’Reilly interviewed Browne, Fox News came out in full support of its star host.
“Fox News Chairman and C.E.O. Roger Ailes and all senior management are in full support of Bill O’Reilly,” a spokeswoman said.
Watch O’Reilly below.