Bill O'Reilly is currently facing allegations that not only are his accounts of coverage in conflict areas exaggerated or completely fabricated, but that he has also lied about his involvement in the suicide of George de Mohreschildt, an acquaintance of Lee Harvey Oswald. In his book, Killing Kennedy, O'Reilly alleges that he was on Mohreschildt's doorstep when the geologist took his own life. Many are now disputing the accuracy of this statement, pointing to phone records that show O'Reilly was informed of Mohreschildt's death over the phone by congressional investigator Gaeton Fanzi.

This controversy follows the embarrassing Fox News “no-go-zone” debacle, where guests and hosts of the conservative news channel repeated for about a week that there were areas in France and Britain that were completely controlled by radical Islamic populations.

“There are over seven-hundred of them [“no-go-zones”] in France.” Alleged Fox News security analyst KT McFarland on January 11. Her account was preceded by the striking analysis by Fox News analyst Steve Emerson.

“Well, these no-go-zones exist not only throughout France, but all of Europe. [...] They are places that governments ... don't exercise any sovereignty, so you basically have zones where sharia courts are set up, where Muslim density is very intense, where the police don't go in, and where it's basically a separate country. [...] And in Britain, it's not just no-go-zones, there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim, where non-Muslims simply don't go in. And parts of London, there are actually Muslim religious police that actually beat and actually wound seriously anyone who does not dress according to Muslim religious attire.” Said Emerson (emphasis added).

Fox News really put its foot in its mouth when it let loose on this topic. The allegations of “no-go-zones” were completely false. There are not seven-hundred no-go-zones in France. There are none. The city of Birmingham has a cosmopolitan population; forty-six percent of which is Christian, twenty percent of which is Muslim, and twenty percent of which holds religious belief. Clearly not one-hundred percent Muslim.

Fox News has since apologized for reporting on “no-go-zones.”

But with only a month between that major gaffe and now their biggest word-vomit generator Bill O'Reilly facing allegations of lying about his war coverage, can we expect the news agency to be held to a higher standard of accuracy in the future? Will there be repercussions for these major journalistic falsehoods? In the case of the “no-go-zone” reports, was anti-Islamic sentiment the reason for the negative and false portrayal of European Muslim populations? Is O'Reilly's coverage of “four wars with a pen” offensive to people who have actually served and fought in wars, especially now knowing many of his accounts are apparently false? Is Fox News offensive to conservatives due to being a prominently conservative news agency that is liberal with the truth?

In this humble estimation, the United States would be in much better health without Fox News spewing its garbage at the elderly and paranoid.

This journal article likely will not receive much attention. Please leave some feedback if you have some thoughts on the topic.