MSM Lie # 50 - MSNBC misrepresents Bill O'Reilly

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Check out NewsBusters for lie # 50.

MSNBC posted the following paragraph as part of an article about Bill O'Reilly:

San Franciscans have been in an uproar this week over apparent comments by the host of Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" that it was A-OK for terrorists to wipe the city off the map.

Even MSNBC's subheadline used the slur:
"Fox host reportedly said it was OK for terrorists to target the city"

The only problem is, O'Reilly said no such thing. As NewsBusters explains:

That's not what he said at all. I was listening when he said it. The article reads:

At issue are comments from O'Reilly's Election Day broadcast radio show about a San Francisco ballot measure opposing the presence of military recruiters in city schools. "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead," O'Reilly said, according to a transcript and audio posted by liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America, and by the San Francisco Chronicle. "And if al-Qaida comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it..."

What they left out was the paragraph before that where O'Reilly suggested that because San Francisco routinely rejects the military, if the measure passed, Federal officials may want to consider pulling military protection from the city. He didn't at all say it was "A-OK for terrorists to wipe the city off the map," only that if they do attack San Francisco the rest of us shouldn't have to come bail them out, and everyone should know that from go.

MSNBC does not exonerate itself merely because it prefaced the slur with words like "apparent" or "reportedly." It comes as no surprise that MSNBC's article contained no byline.