Bill O’Reilly’s L.A. Riots Stories Disputed By Former ‘Inside Edition’ Colleagues
Six former colleagues of Bill O’Reilly have cast doubt upon his reporting in the 1992 L.A. riots, claiming they do not recall an incident in which a fusillade of bricks and rocks rained down upon reporters.
O’Reilly covered the riots with Inside Edition, and as the Guardian reports, details that he has related in the past about the experience are being challenged by several of his former colleagues. The Fox News host has previously claimed that an incident occurred, during which protesters attacked the Inside Edition reporters, lobbing concrete down upon them. O’Reilly’s cohorts at the time, however, recall events differently.
Is Bill O’Reilly really in trouble? This time, there’s plenty of spin http://t.co/1nLCa8oBqR pic.twitter.com/yqSF9qUr9b
— Mashable (@mashable) February 23, 2015
Bonnie Strauss, Tony Cox, and Rick Kirkham, all reporters, and crew members Theresa McKeown, Bob McCall, and Neil Antin failed to recall the incident. Kirkham, who served as Inside Edition‘s lead reporter on the riots, adamantly asserted that the situation O’Reilly related never took place.
“It didn’t happen,” he claimed. “If it did, how come none of the rest of us remember it?”
Show librarians from the time failed to recall the incident as well, while several staffers declined to comment. Other members of the team recollected an interaction in which a local man, allegedly enraged by O’Reilly’s attitude during filming, threw a brick and damaged a camera. They assert, however, that characterizations O’Reilly made of concrete “raining down on” the team were false.
That time when Kinsley nailed Bill O’Reilly for telling another not credible story in 2001: http://t.co/QkrOBRSujG pic.twitter.com/TLPYugNfpz
— Slate (@Slate) February 27, 2015
Politico noted that a Fox spokesperson responded to the Guardian‘s allegations with the same blanket statement that has characterized their response to other reports critical of O’Reilly.
“Bill O’Reilly has already addressed several claims leveled against him. This is nothing more than an orchestrated campaign by far left advocates Mother Jones and Media Matters. Responding to the unproven accusation du jour has become an exercise in futility. Fox News maintains its staunch support of O’Reilly, who is no stranger to calculated onslaughts.”
Over the last week, allegations have surfaced that O’Reilly lied about several situations he reported on in the past. They range from his time reporting on the Falklands War, to an assertion that O’Reilly was standing on the porch of a Florida house when a man connected to the Kennedy assassination inside took his own life. Bill O’Reilly has also faced scrutiny over claims that he witnessed the killing of several nuns in El Salvador, as the Inquisitr previously noted.
[Photo by Jamie McCarthy/ Getty Images]
