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Katy bar the door!
If you hear some explosions and fireworks coming out of your television set later tonight-don’t be alarmed-it’s just Washington Post columnist George Will and Bill O’Reilly, host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, exchanging some mighty blows.
Mr. O’Reilly will interview George Will, considered by the Wall Street Journal as "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America’’ on the O’Reilly Factor tonight which begins airing at 8 p.m. EST.
Mr. Will landed the first haymaker in his latest column: ``Bill O’Reilly slanders Ronald Reagan’’ in which the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist took O’Reilly to task for not only slandering the Gipper, but questioning his professionalism and reckless distortion of the facts.
In particular, the conservative columnist wondered why top officials who worked closely with Reagan during his presidency, namely Ed Meese (Attorney General) George Schultz (Secretary of State) and James Baker (U.S. Treasury Secretary) were never contacted by O’Reilly in connection with the book.
Will additionally questions the authenticity of O’Reilly citing 151 footnotes to make it appear like scholarship. Will writes: ``The book’s pretense of scholarship involves 151 footnotes, only one of which is even remotely pertinent to the book’s lurid assertions. Almost all contain irrelevant tidbits (”Reagan’s hair was actually brown”).''
O'Reilly is the author of over a dozen books, including ``Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever'', ``Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot'', and ``Killing Jesus: A History.''
Will has been a contributor for Fox News since 2013. Prior to jumping to Fox , he was a news analyst for ABC News since the early 1980s and was a founding member on the panel of ABC's ``This Week with David Brinkley'' in 1981, now titled ``This Week with George Stephanopoulos.''
No one really knows what’s in store when the two right-wingers exchange some left hooks tonight in prime time.
But if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll witness another live epic battle on national television, much like the William Buckley/Gore Vidal eruption from the summer of 1968. https://goo.gl/2JMK4b
Mr. Will concludes his stinging indictment of Mr. O'Reilly's latest effort by writing; ``This book is nonsensical history and execrable citizenship, and should come with a warning: “Caution — you are about to enter a no-facts zone.’’
Stay tuned!
Bill Lucey
November 6, 2015
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Bill O’Reilly slanders Ronald Reagan
By George F. Will
Selected Excerpts:
- ``This book is nonsensical history and execrable citizenship, and should come with a warning: “Caution — you are about to enter a no-facts zone.’’
- “Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency” by Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly and his collaborator,, Martin Dugard, will distort public understanding of Ronald Reagan’s presidency more than hostile but conscientious scholars could.’’
- ``The book’s pretense of scholarship involves 151 footnotes, only one of which is even remotely pertinent to the book’s lurid assertions. Almost all contain irrelevant tidbits (”Reagan’s hair was actually brown”).
- ``Ed Meese was, from Sacramento to Washington, Reagan’s longest-serving adviser. George Shultz was Reagan’s confidant and secretary of state. James Baker served Reagan as chief of staff and treasury secretary. None was contacted in connection with the book.’’
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