{"id":14425,"date":"2008-01-31T13:38:46","date_gmt":"2008-01-31T18:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14425.html"},"modified":"2008-01-31T13:38:46","modified_gmt":"2008-01-31T18:38:46","slug":"homeless-veterans-bringing-their-fight-to-bill-oreilly-directly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/homeless-veterans-bringing-their-fight-to-bill-oreilly-directly\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeless veterans bringing their fight to Bill O’Reilly — directly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up on an item<\/a> from a couple of weeks ago, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly told his television audience recently that John Edwards was wrong to assert that there are 200,000 homeless U.S. military veterans. He told his viewers “there’s not many of them out there,” and said he would intervene to help veterans sleeping under bridges.<\/p>\n

On the facts, not surprisingly, Edwards was right<\/a> and O’Reilly was wrong. The real entertainment came a day later, when O’Reilly insisted that Edwards apologize for using “class warfare<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

The story more or less faded from public view, but it appears poised to make a comeback. Jason Linkins has the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This afternoon in New York City, some of that work will resolutely continue, as a group of homeless veterans – one of the segments of the population of forgotten Americans that Edwards spoke of so often on the stump – will swarm FOX News Channel’s Studios to bring their fight to Bill O’Reilly, the millionaire celebrity host of The O’Reilly Factor. […]<\/p>\n

Now, a group from Fitzgerald House, an “organization representing homeless veterans,” plans to bring their fight for recognition to Fox’s doorstep. They plan on visiting the Fox News Channel Studios today at 3:00 pm, and will come carrying a petition signed by 17,000 people demanding an apology from O’Reilly for his ignorance and abuse. In a press release, Brave New Films and Fitzgerald House say thay “have found that it is very easy to locate homeless veterans and are willing to help O’Reilly find them if his desire to help homeless vets is sincere.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have a hunch his stated intention to help was probably less than sincere, but I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.
\n
\nIf you’re just joining us, here was the original exchange<\/a>, on Jan. 15, between O’Reilly and progressive talk-show host Ed Schultz.<\/p>\n

O’Reilly: Well, we’re still looking for all the veterans sleeping under the bridges, Ed, so if you find anybody, let us know, because that’s all the guy said for the last three nights\u2013<\/p>\n

Schultz: Well they’re out there, Bill. Don’t kid yourself. <\/p>\n

O’Reilly: They may be out there, but there’s not many of them out there. Okay? So if you know where one is, Ed\u2013<\/p>\n

Schultz: Well, actually, now, wait a minute\u2013<\/p>\n

O’Reilly: Ed, Ed. If you know where’s a veteran, sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it, is not there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It wasn’t altogether clear who O’Reilly was referring to with “we,” but given the context, it sounded like O’Reilly was vowing publicly, in front of a national television audience, that either his show or his network (or both) might provide the resources and housing necessary to protect homeless vets.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, O’Reilly didn’t just let this go. He was still ridiculing Edwards’ claim after the fact, telling his audience, “Well, we’re still looking for all the veterans sleeping under the bridges…so if you find anybody, let us know.”<\/p>\n

It’s a good thing O\u2019Reilly speaks before he thinks, otherwise he wouldn’t humiliate himself quite so often.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following up on an item from a couple of weeks ago, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly told his television audience recently that John Edwards was wrong to assert that there are 200,000 homeless U.S. military veterans. He told his viewers “there’s not many of them out there,” and said he would intervene to help veterans sleeping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}