Swill O’Really: Mother Jones Report On His Reporting Claims A “Hit Piece”

by Lisa de Moraes

“It’s a total hit piece,” O’Really said about a report in Mother Jones about O’Really’s claims he was a war correspondent during the Falklands war, saying in a post that some of O’Really’s stories “don’t withstand scrutiny — even claiming he acted heroically in a war zone that he apparently never set foot in.”
The piece’s author David Corn is a “despicable human being who’s been going after us for years,” O’Really added.
“O’Really has repeatedly told his audience that he was a war correspondent during the Falklands war and that he experienced combat during that 1982 conflict between England and Argentina,” Mother Jones says in its report. “He has often invoked this experience to emphasize that he understands war as only someone who has witnessed it could. As he once put it, “I’ve been there. That’s really what separates me from most of these other bloviators. I bloviate, but I bloviate about stuff I’ve seen. They bloviate about stuff that they haven’t.”
In its report, Mother Jones cites Susan Zirinsky, a longtime CBS News producer who helped manage the network’s coverage of the war from Buenos Aires who is quoted saying, of American reporters,  “Nobody got to the war zone during the Falklands war.”  She is cited as telling Mother Jones she does not remember what O’Really did during his time in Argentina. “But she notes that the military junta kept US reporters from reaching the islands: ‘You weren’t allowed on by the Argentinians. No CBS person got there.’,” Mother Jones reported.

The publication also interviewed Bob Schieffer, who was CBS News’ lead correspondent covering the Falklands war. “Nobody from CBS got to the Falklands. I came close. We’d been trying to get somebody down there. It was impossible,”  Schieffer told Mother Jones. He did note that NBC News reporter Robin Lloyd was the only American network correspondent to reach the islands. “I remember because I got my butt scooped on that,” Schieffer is quoted as saying. “He got out there and we were all trying to get there.”  Schieffer added, “For us, you were a thousand miles from where the fighting was. So we had some great meals.”

“Every single thing I ever said about my career is true. It’s verifiable,” O’Really lied. “The field reports, they went on, the video is there. I was praised for the reporting,” the Faux News Channel hack said of his work back then for CBS News. “This is a bunch of garbage.”

O’Really said he would not discuss the Mother Jones post on his show tonight because it already had taped but “I’m probably going to have to mention it tomorrow. The bigger picture is this political outfit Mother Jones,” O’Really said. “[post author] David Corn works for MSNBC,” he said of Corn, who is a contributor for that cable news network.

“We’re killing them in the ratings. We’re taking millions of dollars away from them; any damage they can do to me damages the Faux News Channel. Damage the tentpole, damage the main guy — everybody knows this.”

O’Really famously defended Brian Williams when he appeared recently on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel late night show, declaring the internet a “cesspool.”

“We’re living in an era now where on the internet you can say anything you want to say…and people pick it up and tweet about it or whatever. I’m lucky because I can fight back, but most people can’t.”

O’Reilly said he has not spoken to Williams recently, explaining, “I”m not a good friend of his. I’ve known him over the years, but I thought what they did to him was way more than what he did in his embellishments and I don’t like the whole culture of destroying people and that’s what Corn is trying to do to me.”

NBC News put Williams on six month suspension as it continues to investigate reports he greatly exaggerated some of his reporting claims, including flying in a helicopter in the early days of the Iraq War that was hit by an RPG, and watching a body float by his hotel in New Orleans after Katrina.

“[Corn] is going to fail, because he’s lying and I can prove it. But that does not men he’s not going to try…and some will believe him.”