Bill O'Reilly needs to take a good long look in the mirror if he wants to know why journalism has declined in this country.
While discussing the latest news on the police in Virginia saying that they had found “no substantive basis” to support a Rolling Stone magazine article depicting a horrific gang rape at UVA, O'Reilly and his guest John Stossel wondered if the fraternity was going to be able to sue Rolling Stone, never mind this statement from Charlottesville police chief Timothy Longo:
“We’re not able to conclude to any substantive degree that an incident occurred at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, or any other fraternity house, for that matter,” Chief Longo said. “That doesn’t mean something terrible didn’t happen to Jackie on the evening of Sept. 28, 2012. We’re just not able to gather sufficient facts to determine what that is.”
Bill-O and Stossel were sure the law suit would fail because they'd have to suffer the indignity of the lawyers looking into the behavior of the fraternity and whether there was underage drinking or if any of the members have had issues in their sexual history. Never mind the possibility that the story is not a hoax or that Rolling Stone didn't do anything wrong by reporting it.
Regardless of the outcome of the UVA story and whether anyone ever presses charges against Rolling Stone, it's pretty rich that one of the worst fabricators and horrid excuses for a so-called "journalist," Bill O'Reilly has the gall to attack Rolling Stone for anything.
Compared to the nightly dose of garbage O'Reilly spews night after night, the actual journalists over at Rolling Stone look like saints in comparison even if it turns out they got this UVA story completely wrong.
That didn't stop Bill-O from saying this and managing somehow not to be struck down by lightening on the spot.
O'REILLY: Obviously the standards of journalism, and we've talked about this before, and you and I have been in the business for a long time, you about 65 years, me 35, but they have declined dramatically in this country, and it's not a big issue for the folks because... ah, the business, but I think it hurts the country. I think it really does.
STOSSEL: And I don't agree that it's declined so much. I think they were always bad. When we started, there was only the liberal way and it's true, they didn't publicly sneer in the media, but they were pretty biased. At least now there's an alternative.
O'REILLY: If I made a mistake reporting at WCBS where you worked, Channel 2 here in New York, I mean, these guys were on me. I mean, you know, you had to do it right. And now, you know, on the Internet, you can say whatever you want. You don't have to back up anything. You throw it right out there and then some people say “Well, I didn't report it. They did.” And they throw it right into the mainstream.
If O'Reilly really thinks blogs and the people over at Media Matters who this was probably directed at are actually lying about him, he'd be suing. He knows he doesn't have a leg to stand on if he tried, so he's not.
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