Bill O’Reilly is back and his commentary hasn’t lost any of its punch.
On an episode of his podcast No Spin News, Bill slammed the New York Times for sloppy reporting on an alleged FBI investigation into Trump with the kind of incisiveness that once made him the king of cable news.
O’Reilly slammed the Times for using all anonymous sources in a report last week which claimed that the FBI launched an “explosive” counter-intelligence investigation into Trump on suspicion that he was working with Russia in the aftermath of FBI director James Comey’s firing.
O’Reilly slams NYT for sloppy reporting
The pundit who changed cable news has been living as a commentator in exile since losing his perch at Fox News in 2017 over a sexual harassment lawsuit, but he’s still dishing out hot takes on politics in interviews and through his podcast and website, as well as Newsmax. In recent episodes of his podcast, O’Reilly has commented on the necessity of the border wall, the Democratic party’s turn toward socialism and mainstream media bias, especially on the wall and the Russia investigation.
In an episode released Monday, O’Reilly slammed the Times for lazy sourcing and wondered whether they even tried to find the truth when writing their “bogus” article, which cites anonymous “law enforcement officials and others” and even refers to its sources simply as “the people” at one point. The report claims that “agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign” and depicts agents as reluctantly launching an “explosive” inquiry after a series of events which made them suspicious that Trump fired James Comey to clamp down on the Russia probe and, of course, was maybe even working for Putin.
The article does not cite senior FBI or DOJ officials by name and is murky on how the investigation began. It describes the reasons why agents were concerned but does not say anything about how the investigation was authorized, and even appears to suggest that agents began the probe on their own initiative.
O’Reilly asked why the article did not cite top FBI officials in the chain of command who would have had to approve the counter-intelligence investigation. “But here’s the interesting part about this article. If such an investigation were actively launched by the FBI, it would have to be approved by Andrew McCabe, who was subsequently fired…..McCabe would have to OK that. FBI agents can’t just say on their own, ‘I’m gonna investigate the president of the United States for counter-espionage.’ It has to go through the chain of command.”
“So McCabe would have had to be the guy. But there’s no sign of McCabe in this article.”
O’Reilly wondered at the glaring omission of quotes from the former heads of the Justice Department, noting that there is no indication that the reporters even reached out to deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein or then- attorney general Jeff Sessions.
“Nothing. Nothing in the article about that. Didn’t even ask them….I don’t know if these reporters are really trying to find out what happened,” he said.
The bogus New York Times article on Russian collusion is full of anonymous sources – no solid reporting to be found. Did the three reporters make any effort to find the truth? pic.twitter.com/T3SNeH94sP
— Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News (@NoSpinNews) January 15, 2019
Leaked testimony?
The article does cite private testimony that was “read to” the Times that former FBI lawyer James Baker gave to the House, which O’Reilly said was a troubling sign that an anti-Trump lawmaker had leaked the testimony to the newspaper to “plant” a negative news story. Baker said that Trump’s firing of Comey could pose a national security risk, which fits into the article’s angle that Trump is a menace to the country, but he did not mention the investigation of Trump.
“Not only would it be an issue of obstructing an investigation, but the obstruction itself would hurt our ability to figure out what the Russians had done, and that is what would be the threat to national security,” Baker said in the apparently leaked testimony.
Comeback?
Questions have lingered over whether O’Reilly will ever make a return to television. O’Reilly has partnered up with Newsmax TV, which has a significantly smaller reach than Fox. But some say it could be a launch pad for a comeback.
He certainly isn’t keeping his opinions to himself. The exiled cable news king has continued to comment on Trump-era politics with his signature truculence, sharing his observations on the dishonest media and the radicalized Democratic party which he says are working together like never before to obstruct Trump.
Despite losing his job at Fox, O’Reilly is still smashing book sales records. His best-seller Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst Criminal in History hit number one on the NYT’s bestseller list in the fall, knocking down another best-selling book by the pundit who replaced him, Tucker Carlson’s Ship of Fools.
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