Here you go. This is the story.
Falklands War coverage
On February 19, 2015,
David Corn from
Mother Jones broke a story reporting a collection of inconsistencies of O'Reilly when recalling his experience covering the 1982
Falklands War.
[32] On April 17, 2013, O'Reilly said on his show "I was in a situation one time, in a war zone in Argentina, in the Falklands, (...)".
[102] In his book
The No Spin Zone, he wrote "You know that I am not easily shocked. I've reported on the ground in active war zones from El Salvador to the Falklands."
[103] On a 2004 column on his website he wrote: "Having survived a combat situation in Argentina during the Falklands war, I know that life-and-death decisions are made in a flash."
[104] Corn claimed O'Reilly was not in the Falklands, but in Buenos Aires and that no American journalist was in the Islands during the conflict. Also he pointed out that according to O'Reilly's own book
The No Spin Zone, he arrived in Buenos Aires soon before the war ended.
[32]
On February 20, 2015, O'Reilly said on his show "David Corn, a liar, says that I exaggerated situations in the Falklands War" and that he never said he was on the Falkland Islands. O'Reilly went on to describe his experience in a riot in
Buenos Aires the day Argentina surrender.
[105] David Corn replied that they didn't claim O'Reilly "exaggerated" but rather that there were contradictions between his accounts and the factual record, and that the 2013 clip from his show proves O'Reilly did in fact say he was on the Falklands.
[106]
Media Matters collected seven more examples of O'Reilly talking about the Falklands War coverage. Some of the quotes created the impression that he claim he was in the actual Island by using the words "war zone" or "combat situation". But in other quote he stated he was in
Buenos Aires covering the story and not in the Falklands: "And then in the Falklands War, I just didn't see you in Buenos Aires or Montevideo. I was there, but I didn't see you.".
[107] On September 2009, during an interview he said he covered the riots in Buenos Aires on the day Argentina surrendered.
[108] This is consistent with
Mother Jones report claiming that he was in Buenos Aires but not in the Falkland Islands, but not with his own 2013 claim that he was "in the Falklands".
During an Interview with
The Blaze, O'Reilly said "And if that moron [Corn] doesn’t think it was a war zone in Buenos Aires, then he’s even dumber than I think he is.".
[109]
"I was in a situation one time, in a war zone in Argentina, in the Falklands, Come on Bill. There was no war in Buenos Aires. AND HE PUT IT IN HIS BOOK!
