That’s a pretty BIG oops! But just look at the way O’Reilly handled it.
Last week, an ‘Expert’, Nils Bildt, appeared on the O’Reilly Factor to discuss the rise in crime in Sweden and the influx of refugee. He was billed as a Swedish National Security Advisor.
The problem?
Neither the Swedish Defense Ministry nor the Foreign Office had any idea who he was.
It turns out that Bildt is an ‘independent analyst’ who moved to the US in 1994, and is in no way affiliated with the Swedish government.
Bildt is an analyst on security issues, just not for the Swedish government.
Watch the segment:
‘Last week we did a segment on Sweden and its Muslim immigrant situation,’ O’Reilly said on Monday’s show. ‘Both sides were presented, as always.
‘After the segment, some left wing people objected to one guest, Nils Bildt who was introduced by me as a
“Swedish Defense and National Security Advisor.” The Swedish government also weighed in saying they’ve had no contact with Mr. Bildt.‘Now, we looked into the situation and the criticism is valid. It’s valid. Mr. Bildt does consulting work on terrorism, that’s true – but we should have clarified that he had no direct role with the Swedish government.
‘To be fair, the information we gave you in the segment was accurate but, in hindsight, a more relevant guest should have been used on the anti-immigrant side.
‘You should also know that, before the segment was booked, we asked the Swedish Ambassador to appear; he declined. That invitation stands.’
Read more: Daily Mail
Look at that!
Bill O’Reilly owned up to the error and apologized.
He confirmed that the criticism was indeed valid, and yet didn’t diminish the truth spoken by his guest.
Would CNN ever do that?
Probably not.
After all, they’re still allowing Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo on-air with no disclaimer.
