Bill O’Reilly did not make a mistake last night on his streaming show on First TV—he lied. No one can lie unless he knows the truth. O’Reilly knew the truth yet he lied about the Catholic League.
Yesterday, I issued a statement saying, “Bill O’Reilly Makes a False Claim.” I did not say he lied, because I had no evidence that he knew the truth. What I said was that his comment on his June 7 show claiming the Catholic League would not share with him our KABC radio ad against the Dodgers for honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was false: We did, in fact, send it to his “No Spin News” producer, Samantha Marciano.
Yesterday, we received an apology, in writing, from Marciano acknowledging that we sent the radio ad. The problem was a technical one on their end. No problem—these things happen.
After we sent my statement yesterday to the media and our email subscribers, we received a phone call from Nicole Casey, the executive producer of O’Reilly’s show.
She told our director of communications, Michael McDonald, that their tech staff had determined that the audio file was indeed sent, but that there was a problem on their end with their server. She said O’Reilly would play the ad on his show, admitting that the tech glitch was on their end, and that it was not because the Catholic League would not share the video file.
The conversation was amicable, so we thought this matter was behind us. But then O’Reilly went on the air last night and said the following:
“So I told you yesterday that the Catholic League would not send us the ad, the radio ad they made objecting to the Los Angeles Dodgers honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. We asked nicely. I mean my staff is so nice they are not like me. These are nice people. And the Catholic League would not send it over. So I said if you’re not going to help send it over then we are not going to help you. So anyway, they called, ‘Oh no, no, no, it was a technical glitch, we meant to send it.’ Because in the Catholic religion, if you lie, it’s a sin so there are Catholics and—technical glitches happen all the time. We didn’t get it, they tried to send it, but now we have it.”
O’Reilly lied. No one from the Catholic League ever called his office saying we screwed up. McDonald left a message on the phone of Marciano wanting to speak to her about what O’Reilly said the night before. When she called back, that is when she said the problem was on their end. This was confirmed by Casey.
O’Reilly is right about one thing: It is a sin for Catholics to lie.
