Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly on Monday again took on a
Mother Jones report challenging his story of being in danger while covering Falklands War reaction in Argentina, saying he is ready to put the story to rest.
On Monday's
"O'Reilly Factor," he played video of the scene as CBS News anchor Dan Rather described public riots after the Argentine military surrendered to the British in June 1982.
"The demonstrators, as many as a thousand of them, began shouting traitor, traitor," Rather said. "Some television crew members were knocked to the ground."
Story continues below video.
CBS News corresponded Eric Engberg is heard saying, "There were arrests and beatings. Then, with guns that fired tear gas and plastic bullets, the police opened fire."
As gunfire is heard on the tape, Engberg continued, "It is not known how many were hurt, but witnesses reported at least some serious injuries."
Engberg has been among O'Reilly's critics, saying the clash between the military and protesters was not as serious as O'Reilly claimed.
Don Browne, former NBC News Miami bureau chief, told O'Reilly he first became aware of him when O'Reilly was covering the war in El Salvadore for CBS when Browne was NBC's bureau chief for Central and South America.
"You were there to cover the war because it was an opportunity for young journalists to get they're ticket punched," Browne said. "That was a time when satellites had just come on line, and that was a war that was the No. 1 news story at the time. So, you came down to get your ticket punched, and you did."
O'Reilly noted that afterward he moved down to Argentina to cover the Falklands War and asked Browne if he had made any false statements about the violence in the streets during the protests.
Browne said he had not.
Initially, Browne noted, the war was taken as a joke since the Argentine military was taking on the British. But as the war progressed it became more serious.
"There were tanks in the streets; it was a country at war," Browne said. "And as the military were losing badly, the populous began to turn on the military leadership."
Browne said NBC veteran correspondents saw the situation escalating.
"It was a very intense situation where people got hurt. And there was a very serious confrontation," Browne said.
The Mother Jones article challenged O'Reilly's claim that people were killed in the protests. He said Monday that people told him they had seen fatalities and he believes there were, but no media could get confirmation because Argentina was led by a dictatorship which would never release such information.
Joe Concha, columnist for Mediaite and host of "The Daily Wrap" on Newsmax TV, told O'Reilly to look at motive in the story.
Mother Jones is a niche website appealing to liberal Democrats, and they have to feed them red meat, Concha said.
The story was written by David Corn, a former Fox News contributor who didn't have his contract renewed, Concha said. Meanwhile, Engberg told CNN's Brian Stelter on Sunday he heard no gunshots or sirens, which contradicts the video released by CBS on Monday.
Concha noted that O'Reilly said Engberg's nickname was "Room Service Eric," because he didn't leave the hotel room and let lower-level reporters get all the video.
"I have got to think that turkey was on the menu that night because you would have to eat something that would make you fall asleep very heavily if you watched that video and you know and you say that there is no siren, no gunshots," Concha said.
O'Reilly said he has no way of knowing whether Engberg stayed in the hotel all day, but he said Engberg was there when O'Reilly left to cover the story and there when he brought the video back.
Concha said the fact that no mainstream media has jumped on the story is further evidence that Mother Jones' version is untrue.
Meanwhile,
Mediaite noted that a video of CBS News coverage posted on YouTube by Mother Jones has Rather describing reporters being knocked to the ground, though he does not specifically say they worked for CBS, as O'Reilly did.
O'Reilly quoted from a Christian Science Monitor story from the time in which the chaotic scene was described as a "battle zone."
"All right? So there you go," O'Reilly said. "I want to stop this now. I hope we can stop it. I really do."
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