Seven people who worked for CBS during the Falklands War essentially say that Bill O’Relliy is lying about his experiences. CNN talked to seven of O’Reilly’s former colleagues—four of whom asked for anonymity—and they all challenge his description of Bueons Aires as a “war zone” and “combat situation.” In addition, none of them have any recollection of a CBS cameraman being injured as O’Reilly claims. “Nobody remembers this happening,” said Manny Alvarez, who worked as a cameraman for CBS News in Buenos Aires.
Former CBS News correspondent Eric Engberg also went on CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday to refute Bill O’Reilly’s claims. Engberg said O’Reilly has turned the story “to a more frightening situation than it was.” Engberg says he was at the scene and didn’t see anybody get killed and didn’t even hear shots being fired. “I do have this personal dispute with him,” Engberg said. “He’s not a real reporter. And he was not in a combat zone that night. This was not a combat zone. Not even close.” Earlier, Engberg wrote a Facebook post challenging O’Reilly:
O’Reilly didn’t stand down though, calling into Fox News host Howard Kurtz’s program to challenge his former colleague by a New York Times story that mentions a police officer fired shots. O’Reilly also questions whether Engberg was even on location: “I’d like everyone to ask him, ‘Were you there?’ because his reputation was ‘Room Service Eric,’ because he never left the hotel.” Discrediting the messenger seems to be a regular feature of O’Reilly’s rebuttals. Earlier, he harshly criticized David Corn, one of the two journalists who wrote a piece for Mother Jones that first raised questions about O’Reilly’s claims.
