Argentina at this time. All of them are refuting oreillys version of the events. One will join me live in a moment. First let me back up and tell you why this is a big story. Here is the headline that started all of it. It came out thursday evening and said bill oreilly has its own Brian Williams problem, thats what the left leaning magazine mother jones said. Brian williams has been suspended because of misstatements about Iraq War Mission amid strut any of other past claims. Obviously different kinds of television stars. Oreillys main selling point is his point of view. He calls himself a journalist and correspondent so his journalistic credibility matters. Mother jones asserted oreilly has repeatedly in books, on his show repeatedly exaggerated his war zone experience. This is an example of one episode of his show notice how he links argentina and falklands. I was in a situation one time in a war zone in argentina in the falklands. Lets pause there. Hear what he said there. He said war zone using his time in argentina as credential. The actual battles in the falklands war, everyone agrees were more than 1,000 miles from argentina. Oreilly was in buenos aires. He conflated two places, mainland and falklandides in his book. I reported on the ground from el salvador to falklands. After mother jones pointed this out, oreilly denied saying he was on the falkland islands. A series of news outlets then friday on his own show. He focused on a coauthor of the mother jones report who was a paid contributor to fox news. Hes now a paid contributor to msnbc. That leaves some people wondering if this is all about Television News rivalries. Oreilly says hes just out to get fox news. This man, 56yearold david corn works for far left mag mother jones smeared me your humble correspondent, yesterday saying i fabricated mother jones considered bottom running of journalism. Im not sure hes talking about when he says bottom running of journalism but corn says hes trying to distract. Most has been about whether he misstated where he was in the war. Play the clip again, where oreilly talked about his photographer being injured. I was in a situation one time in a war zone in argentina in the falklands where my photographer got rundown and hit his head and was bleeding on the ear from the concrete. I had to make a decision. I dragged him off. At the same time im looking around but at the same time i knew i had to get him out of there. Hes describing a right lanely after they surrendered to british. Here is footage. It was hairy, it was scary. We can find no evidence anyone from cbs was injured. To the contrary six other people who were there working for cbs said they were unaware of any injuries. They also say they are unaware of any civilians being killed in the riot. Oreilly repeatedly claimed during the years people were killed. None of them agreed it was a combat situation or war zone. Some said events in ferguson were more serious and more severe. Jim forest who worked for oreilly as a sound engineer on the day of the riot told me quote, there were certainly no dead people. Had there been dead people they would have sent more camera crews. Unforth namie other staffers are insisting on anonymity because they work in the industry or they dont want to be criticized by bill oreilly. Eric a correspondent with cbs news 26 years, he and oreilly both there during the war, he joins me. Thank you for being here. Yes, good morning. Let me cut right to it is bill oreilly lying when he describes this combat situation . Well i think what hes doing is trying to build it up into a more frightening and deadly situation than it was. It wasnt a combat situation by any sense of the word that i know. There were no People Killed. He said he called troops fire into the crowd. I never saw that. I dont know anybody who did. I was there on the scene. Whats interesting in not only did i not hear any shots, i didnt see any ambulances i didnt see any tanks. I dont see any armored cars things you would expect to see if someone was shot. I tried on thursday to reach bill oreilly asked him for a an interview. They declined. I asked about these allegations were describing here from staffers so far they have not responded to those allegations. I also want to mention you said yesterday oreillys team reached on the to you, asked you to go on the Oreilly Factor you said no. Why is that . I dont want to turn this into an argument on his turf over what he did that night. Im simply stating the facts. The facts speak for himself. If he has a sfons what the facts are, thats fine. Let him lay it out. Im not going to argue about it. I do want to play the one thing i am going to argue about the one thing i am going to argue about, the thing that got me talking about this in one of those tapes, you havent played it. Actually i think i know what one youre referring to let me play sound bites, the ones youre referring to. This is from the hamptons in 2009. When the argentine surrendered to the british, there were riots in the streets of buenos aires, i write about this in my novel those who trespass. I was out there by myself because other cbs news correspondents were hiding in the hotel. Youve got to get out and cover the story, which i did. So eric, that was the first time i want to have you react to. He said nobody was out there but you were a cbs correspondent who was out there. What he just said was a fabrication, a lie. There were five cbs correspondents including him, assigned to the bureau. They were under the direction of larry doyle, one of our very first field producers. You marines out there will understand what i was saying he was in the marines in vietnam before he went to cbs. Hes a very skilled operator in combat and dangerous situations. He sent all five of the correspondents and all 10 or 12 of the camera crew members out bought street. Nobody stayed in their hotel room because they were afraid. We were all working and we saw what looked what was a moderate size riot. It was a couple thousand people attacking casa rose ada, waving their arms chanting and singing songs. Nobody attacked the soldiers. Nobody attacked the police. There was nobody lying on the ground when it was over that i saw. At any rate all cbs people did their jobs covered the demonstration, brought their video back to be used in a story that night. That was when oreilly bucked at the idea turning his tape shot by his camera man over to the unit that was putting together the story. When doyle said, Bob Schieffer will do the story tonight and well use the video your crew shot. He said i didnt come down here this is according to larry doyle who remembers it well. Oreilly looked at him and said i didnt come down here to shoot video so this old man can use it in his story. Larry doyle said what old man are you talking about . Oreilly said schieffer. Well they took wrestled the tape from him and used it in the schieffer piece. Doyle turned to oreilly and said i think you better leave. You dont belong here. Doyle took steps to send oreilly out of banefof buenos aires to send him home out of here. Oreilly said you cant send me out of here. He said yes i can. Maybe its the last time oreilly has been beaten down in a shouting contest but larry doyle did it. I should also say larry doyle was one of those people who are extremely concerned about the safety of the personnel who are going out on the street during a riot situation. He instructed all the camera crews, do not turn on your lights during the midst of this riot because lights will draw a crowd, cause people to throw rocks at you. They may get somebody hurt. Shoot only things that can be shot in the dark. Oreilly ordered the camera man he was working with to turn on his lights in violation of that instruction. When doyle found out about that he was extremely upset. I think the camera man was upset, too, that he had been exposed to danger. Now, ill be more than happy to talk about his claim that there were People Killed if you wan to hear my view my take on it. What i want to get to is the facts that night. Doyle declined to speak on the record today. One of the things amid this controversy from 2011 on stage interview with oreilly and marvin. Take a look. Got a call from bureau chief to say oreilly get down there. Great. I get down got my two crews. I look around. Where are the other cbs correspondents . I dont see anybody. Maybe they are busy maybe on the other side of casa rose ada. I dont know where they are. All hell breaks loose. People start and they shoot them down in the streets. Its not rubber bullets or gas. People are dying. I get my crew grab my crew away, down a side street. Were shooting this stuff. Its unbelievable. People falling. Bing bing bing. So this runs United States down the street im there. A photographer guess trampled. Hes on the ground. I grab him and the camera and drag him into a doorway. The so this comes up and hes standing maybe 10 feet away got the m16 pointed at my head. I thought it was over. I said [ speaking Foreign Language ] it means please dont shoot, journalist. The guy was 18 19 years old. He didnt shoot. Weve had no luck corroborating this so far. Can you help us with that . I didnt see that happen. I didnt see anything like that happen. I dont know of any American Foreign correspondent who had a weapon pointed at him. But the important thing is i didnt hear any gunfire. Not only did i not hear any gunfire, as i say, i didnt hear any sirens. I came to argentina from years of experience in washington covering antiwar demonstrations against vietnam war in washington. I saw more violence in antiwar demonstrations in d. C. Than i saw in argentina that night. It was over quickly. It was over within two hours. The people did not try to storm the casa rosada. They were they would back by troops standing there. You can see them in the video. They did not tangle with those troops. They did not try to crash into the building. It was really a fairly minor incident. It did result in the downfall of that government but it was ready to go anyway. By the way let me share with you let me share one more detail. What oreilly is citing this morning, i was emailed by fox right before i went on the air, is a New York Times story from the moment. It says one policeman pulled a pistol fire five shots over the heads of demonstrators. In that New York Times story they are describing gunfire happening. Over the head of no i didnt hear that firing but i read that story the next day. You will notice the phrase as you say state over the head. Thats not firing at people and having them fall dead to the ground. Fundamentally what youre saying about oreilly saying people dying i dont want to make this into he said he said. People say you have a vendetta against oreilly described him as a clown on facebook. Is this about personal dispute . No. He started personal dispute saying we were all hiding in our hotel rooms. That sure doesnt sound like anybody was hiding in hotel rooms that not. I have this personal dispute with him. Hes not a real reporter. He was not in a combat zone that night. This was not a combat zone. Not even close. Eric stay with me. I appreciate you being here this morning. Let me just reiterate for the audience we have repeatedly asked for interview with oreilly. I would love to talk with him about this but was turned down on friday. The question now, what does this mean . Does it matter for oreilly and fox . Well address that in a moment. Plus the question dominating tv does obama love american . Is he christian . After Rudy Giuliani reporters are asking those questions. Should they . Is it fair . Well tackle that coming up. Alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours but aleve can last 12 hours. And aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. So why am i still thinking about this . How are ya . Good. Aleve. Proven better on pain. Whether you need a warm up before the big race. Or a healthy start before the big meeting theres a choice hotel thats waiting for you. This spring, choose choice twice, get a night at no price at 1,500 hotels. Book now at choicehotels. Com. Welcome back. Lets get some more perspective on this oreilly situation. Im not sure we can call it a scandal but definitely a controversy. Lets talk about whether it is or is not related to Brian Williams and nbc. One of the best media observers around Jeff Greenfield former correspondent and analyst for abc, cbs and cnn. Jeff thanks for joining me. Nice to be here. Was mother jones fair to call this Brian Williams problem for bill oreilly. If Brian Williams has been piping these stories embellishing increasing his heroism or danger than it is similar. Whats different so far is a, Brian Williams never threw up a defense, nor did nbc. It was striking how quickly it all unraveled. What i think makes it different this is inherently political in one sense. Everything with fox is political. In terms of foxs view everybody else on the elite liberal media side and were telling you the truth. To detractors its a conservative outlet in the guise of a news organization. As long as fox and oreilly can make this here are cbs people greed eating lefties attacking us red meat conservatives. The danger for him, when kids are playing baseball and they get into a fight and one guy says yeah we were out, if all these people photographers and sound people not correspondents say this guy is making this stuff up he has a credibility problem. Does he really have a Brian Williams problem that his job is threatened given the nature of fox and its combative nature im dubious about that. Speaking on news hour people like me splitting hairs. People trying to split hairs and take him down the way Brian Williams was taken down. Is there any legitimacy to that argument . If all they were arguing about was that he said i covered falklands, in buenos aires, if it expands whether people were killed. And particularly was everybody else in hiding but him . That makes him sound like the one hero among cowards. The reason Bob Schieffer wont return my emails about this right . If he was, in effect exaggerating i saved the life of this cameraman by dragging hem out of the line of fire thats more like Brian Williams than hair splitting, falklands, buenos aires. Thats where the rule comes in if guys working with him are all saying this didnt happen then he falls on the position but youre all a bunch of mainstream liberal lefty types. As well as david corn and mother jones and msnbc, he could make that argument much more effectively than his former operatives at cbs. A Washington Examiner pointed on twitter oreilly bring out a great gift. Hes the underdog against the establishment. In some ways thats been his brand two decades on fox news. He has done it brilliantly. In some ways he can dismiss whatever the truth is and simply say this is all political. On friday he called me a far left zealot. Not the first time probably wont be the last time. He called me that. For him its all political. For me its journalistic. For him its political. Its hard for him to believe me because its all political. One of the way the right in america and academic left they think truth is a social construct. Power relationships and moss i was. Im so old school. I actually believe the issue was where was he . Did he save the cameramans life . Was there gunfire . Was he in danger or not . Youre making me feel old school too. This is like the king say, please go back. Everything constructed and fox news is at the center of because of its unique nature and highly successful nature it becomes a political argument. Im sorry, its not a political argument. What i would say, lets apply same Critical Thinking skills we apply to Everything Else in media and we applied to Brian Williams and apply it to bill oreilly as well. No different. Its in variable on both sides as soon as somebody mass credible accusation against a figure on one side people say, what about the other guy. What about what happened here . Thats the most boring game in politics but it happens ought time. Thats why im headed for shady acres. I think the question is was he exaggerating his heroism . Was he making stuff up . Was he inflating his role . Unfairly denigrate correspondents or not . Thats the issue. It will never be in this context. We have sound bite from oreilly from a few minutes ago. Are you still with us in sarasota . Sure ready to go. I want to give you a chance to respond because he has been personally attacking you. Let me play the sound bite from bill oreilly here. Now you have said in describing this episode in buenos aires your photographer was rundown, hit in the head. He was bleeding the army was chasing you guys. He said i never heard of any injury to the photographer . I dont think he was there. I dont think he knows what happened. Ill tell you why. I left the hotel, engberg was still in the hotel. I came back with video for the rather broadcast for that night. He was in the hotel. If he was in the Plaza Dell Mayo where was the video. Why did i have to run it up and send it to the feed point in new york. I dont know if he was there. Id like everybody to ask him, were you there . Because his reputation his nickname was room service eric. That is the most absurd thing were you there . That is the most absurd thing ive ever heard. You can ask anybody at cbs. Not only those there in buenos aires but those who worked with me over the years. I never ordered room service during a riot in my life. Now, i didnt have much to do with him while i was in buenos aires because he was the rookie. He had just arrived. But yes, i was on the street. Yes, i was filming with a camera crew. There were five camera crews out there. For him to say na why wasnt i out there in the street i was with a camera crew that probably had gotten its job done before he did because he was busy shooting standups of himself standing in front of the crowd so you couldnt see the riot. I screened that tape. It was ridiculous how he was shooting a standup of himself marking himself as i told the people around me as a real local news guy. We havent seen the tapes but i appreciate you sharing your response. Ive got to tell you this eric i spoke to jim forrest, a sound engineer that day. He said when he heard that 2011 tape from oreilly was describing people dying i