Bill O’Reilly Gets His Wittle Fee-Fees Hurt By Critics Of His Reagan Biography

Bill_O'Reilly_(commentator)
Image Via Wikimedia available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

Looks like Bill O’Reilly’s penchant for telling lies has caught up with him again, and this time he’s so mad with historians that he spent the last few minutes of the Friday edition of his show, The O’Reilly Factor, trying to defend his hack reputation.

If you don’t know, O’Reilly’s latest book, Killing Reagan, is the subject of great controversy among fellow biographers and former Reagan Administration officials for several notable inaccuracies. But O’Reilly would have none of their criticism, saying:

“Killing Reagan is a book that tells the truth. It accurately portrays Reagan’s incredible journey from a flawed, shallow man to a courageous, brave man. Why anybody who respects President Reagan would want to denigrate that story is a mystery.”

But former Reagan National Security Advisor Richard Allen begs to differ, noting:

“This is simply an unserious attempt that blunders into, I believe, plagiarism, simplicity, and deception.”

Most of the criticism has arisen over a section of the book in which O’Reilly asserts there was discussion Reagan had in 1987 with then-White House aide James Cannon to Reagan’s Chief of Staff, Howard Baker, and counsel A.B. Culvahouse that supposedly was intended to be a “quiz” as to whether Reagan was still mentally fit to serve as President of the United States.

But Canon and Culvahouse have both said such a thing never took place. Culvahouse remarked:

“The myth that Howard Baker and I, at the Monday luncheon or otherwise, were contemplating whether President Reagan should be removed from office under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment was thoroughly discredited when it first appeared 27 years ago. It should be returned to the dustbin of fiction masquerading as history.”

How dare they question the credibility of Bill O’Reilly, even if he has been caught in numerous lies over the course of his career. Feelings hurt, O’Reilly went on the attack Friday evening, declaring:

“My books on Lincoln, Kennedy, Jesus, and Patton were all attacked by zealots and jealous people. And their garbage didn’t work.”

Translation: The Bloviator in Chief could care less if what he wrote is the least bit accurate. All he cares about is hearing the cash register ring as gullible acolytes buy his latest tome.

Featured image by Wikimedia, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.