Originally posted by: Harvey
Originally posted by: mugs
:thumbsup: I like Olbermann and can't stand O'Reilly, but for instance when he was calling O'Reilly out over the Malmedy cock-up, you could tell it was more about sticking it to O'Reilly than genuine outrage.
Umm... you omitted
a few salient details of O'Reilly's "cock-up" regarding Malmedy that were good reason for Olbermann's outrage:
Malmedy massacre controversy
On October 3, 2005, retired four-star general Wesley Clark was a guest on The O'Reilly Factor. A topic of debate on the program was a ruling regarding the potential release of more photos from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Clark defended the release of the additional Abu Ghraib photos saying the country needed to know what happened. While debating with Clark, O'Reilly incorrectly stated a historical fact of World War II when he said "General, you need to look at the Malmedy massacre in World War II and the 82nd Airborne that did it." Historically, German troops were actually responsible for the massacre of 84 American soldiers in the town of Malmedy, Belgium during World War II.
On May 30, 2006, Clark again appeared on The O'Reilly Factor. While discussing "the apparent murder of Iraqi civilians in Haditha", O'Reilly once again incorrectly referred to the Malmedy massacre, stating "In Malmedy, as you know, US forces captured SS forces, who had their hands in the air and they were unarmed and they shot them down. You know that. That's on the record; [it's] been documented."
The next day, on May 31, 2006, O'Reilly addressed a viewer email regarding the inaccuracy. As reported on The O'Reilly Factor, the email came from a Fort Worth Texas viewer named Donn Caldwell and stated: "Bill, you mentioned Malmedy as the site of an American massacre during World War II. It was the other way around, the SS shot down U.S. prisoners." O'Reilly responded to this by saying: "In the heat of the debate with General Clark my statement wasn't clear enough Mr. Caldwell. After Malmedy, some German captives were executed by American troops."
According to Keith Olbermann and Media Matters, Fox News' website edited the transcript of O'Reilly's second interview with Clark, changing the line to, "In Normandy, as you know, U.S. forces captured SS forces" when the video clearly shows that O'Reilly said "Malmedy" rather than "Normandy."
This second instance of O'Reilly misstating the facts of the massacre, combined with his denial of doing so and the apparent cover up in the transcript by Fox News prompted a harsh response by Olbermann on the June 1, 2006 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Olbermann showed video clips of O'Reilly making these incorrect statements from the October 3 and May 30 editions of The O'Reilly Factor and showed the clip of O'Reilly addressing the viewer email the following day. Olbermann lambasted O'Reilly, calling him a "false patriot who would rather be loud than right." He also compared the editing of the transcript to George Orwell's 1984.
After the airing, Fox News corrected the afore-mentioned transcript on June 2, which was noted in a follow up report on Countdown with Keith Olbermann the following Monday. The Media Matters for America website also posted a report detailing the correction of the transcript that same day.
Billo's "cock-up" was stating during an interview with Gen. Wesley Clark that American troops massacred captured German troops. As noted in the above quote, the truth was exactly the inverse. Historically, German troops were actually responsible for the massacre of 84 American soldiers in the town of Malmedy.
Olbermann noted it the first time Billo booted the facts. He had every right to be outraged seven months later, when Clark returned to Billo's show, and Billo, ever detached from reality, made the same exact mis-statement of the facts.
Even worse, Faux attempted to cover up Billo's second gaff on their site by editing the transcript to replace
Malmeady with
Normandy, which would still be false, even if the transcript was accurate. Olbermann blasted O'Reilly for repeating the same stupid lie in a second interview with the same person and Faux for editing the transcript.
Faux restored the transcript the next day, well after being called out for it across the media.
Olbermann's outrage was justified. Falsely stating that Americans committed a massacre is one thing. Doing it again seven months later is just nuts, and Faux should rightly be ashamed of themselves for trying to cover up Billo's bullshit...
should being the operative word, but they've got so much more to be ashamed of that his is just one drop in a major ocean of continuous lies from a network of pathological liars.