Bill O'Reilly Still Plagued by His Homeless Vets Controversy

Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films at 12:32 PM on March 10, 2009.

Bill O'Reilly's attack on homeless veterans was arguably one of the nastiest, most noxious news stories FOX News spewed during the Presidential election cycle, which is saying a lot. In January 2008, O'Reilly went after John Edwards for calling attention to the 200,000 homeless veterans sleeping under bridges and on the streets. It was a figure substantiated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Alliance to End Homelessness, but O'Reilly didn't let a little thing like the facts prevent him from saying there weren't homeless vets out there. When O'Reilly eventually back-tracked, it was only so far as to state that if there were homeless vets, there weren't many of them. What's more, he said their homelessness was due to their own addictions and mental illnesses, not our economy.

Brave New Films and groups like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America immediately fought back. We released FOX Attacks "Non-Existent" Veterans" along with a petition demanding O'Reilly apologize to homeless vets, which over 17,000 people signed. Of course, when homeless vets attempted to deliver the petition to the FOX building in New York, they were denied entrance and ambushed by an O'Reilly camera crew--one of FOX's favorite faux journalistic practices.

Flash forward to last night, when O'Reilly continued to blame everything from homeless vets to Rush Limbaugh's incendiary comments on the "Far-Left Smear Machine," as he likes to call us. O'Reilly even used a handy little Far-Left Smear Chart to illustrate exactly how the machine works.

O'Reilly didn't mention how his fellow blowhard Limbaugh brought controversy on himself by repeatedly claiming, "I hope Obama fails." Nor did he talk about how Limbaugh's comments have hastened the self-immolation of the Republican Party, which has been echoing Limbaugh's anti-Obama sentiment in a panic because eight years of bankrupt Bush policies have left them utterly unpopular, marginalized in Congress, and devoid of a natural leader. Oddly enough, all O'Reilly could mention as his example of the Far-Left Smear Machine in action was a front-page article in Newsweek, which was written by conservative David Frum.

Of course, once O'Reilly used his specious argument about the liberal media to defend his shock jock pal, he was free to get in one more jab at John Edwards and us over last year's homeless vets controversy, which he himself started. Not only did O'Reilly lie last night, pretending Edwards said there were millions of homeless vets out there, but he then twisted this story to absolve himself of any blame whatsoever. Welcome to FOX, where Gross Distortions + Ambush Video = "Journalism." Clearly we struck a nerve with our FOX Attacks "Non-Existent" Veterans campaign. Why else would O'Reilly be so defensive a year after we released this video that called him out for his anti-vet, anti-homeless bellicosity? I bet O'Reilly still blames homelessness on the homeless, just as he continues to live in a delusional world where video proof doesn't exist.

FOX Attacks! "Non-Existent Veterans"

Tagged as: bill o'reilly, veterans, fox news, brave new films, homelessness

ZP Heller is the editorial director of Brave New Films. He has written for The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Huffington Post, covering everything from politics to pop culture.