A supposedly shocking event occurred on Monday night’s edition of The O’Reilly Factor.
Retired Lt. Col Tony Shaffer, formerly of the US Army, came on as a special spokesman to speak in regards to the Bergdahl case. According to Shaffer:
The Army has come to its conclusion, and Bowe Bergdahl…Sgt Bergdahl….will be charged with desertion. I’ve been told. I’ve been confirmed by two other sources that his attorney was given what we call a charge sheet. A charge sheet essentially is a set of the results of the investigation listing out the articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that have been violated. The key violation is desertion and this has been done. The decision has been made. Let me be clear, as a corporate entity the Army has decided that they want to pursue Bergdahl for this violation.
O’Reilly initially attempted to question the veracity of the charges but quickly acquiesced to the narrative being spun by Shaffer. ?So long as the narrative plays into O’Reilly’s warped perception of the world, he will accept it and not challenge it. So, he touted this unverified allegation as fact and in doing so lit the conservative blogosphere afire.
Once this news had been absorbed by the rightwing pundits, they went full-steam ahead without looking into clarifying the veracity of the supposed source or the nature of how this information came about. Partisan pundits from Allen West, Jeff Poor of Brietbart, and even Dinesh D’souza (who narrowly avoided prison in a corruption case) followed up with inflammatory blog posts attempting to not only defame Sgt Bergdahl but also his family who had nothing to do with the young soldier’s decision whether or not to desert.
The sad thing about this is seeing Republicans eat their own. Bergdahl’s father is a registered Republican who has had his own party turn on him all in an effort to paint President Obama in a bad light no matter the situation.
The US Army came out with an official statement just a couple hours ago rebutting the fires springing up across conservative social media surrounding everything involved in the Bergdahl controversy. It appears Fox?jumped the gun.
According to the US Army:
Sgt. Bergdahl has not been charged with any crime.?No decision has been made with respect to the case of Sgt. Bergdahl. None. There is no timeline to make that decision, and Gen. [Mark] Milley is being put under no pressure to make a decision.
Additionally, Paul Boyce, a spokesman for the US Army stated:
The Fox News story seems to be speculative in nature.
Chalk this one up as another attempt by Fox News to smear Obama via proxy and failing epically.
You can watch?The O’Reilly Factor segment below.
