Conservative U.S. anchor now skeptical about Bush signonsandiego.com
[ this particular story has to be cross -referenced with this one:
News Guarantees nytimes.com
Suppose you're a television pundit and you believe something in particular is going to happen. No, you really believe that thing is going to happen. There's only one attention-grabbing method left to convey your conviction: promise that, if wrong, you'll do something utterly ... In March, Bill O'Reilly, shouting head for Fox News, demonstrated his absolute certainty that Americans would find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq by declaring on “Good Morning America,” If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it’s clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again” (Nine months later, with no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, the nation is still waiting for O’Reilly’s apology )
It is left as an exercise for the reader to judge if "being much more skeptical" qualifies as "never trusting again". O'Reilly seems to be dutifully toeing the current WH "blame it on the CIA" line, anyway. ]
5:50 a.m. February 10, 2004
WASHINGTON – Conservative television news anchor Bill O'Reilly said Tuesday he was now skeptical about the Bush administration and apologized to viewers for supporting prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
The anchor of his own show on Fox News said he was sorry he gave the U.S. government the benefit of the doubt that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's weapons program poised an imminent threat, the main reason cited for going to war.
"I was wrong. I am not pleased about it at all and I think all Americans should be concerned about this," O'Reilly said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."
"What do you want me to do, go over and kiss the camera?" asked O'Reilly, who had promised rival ABC last year he would publicly apologize if weapons were not found.
O'Reilly said he was "much more skeptical about the Bush administration now" since former weapons inspector David Kay said he did not think Saddam had any weapons of mass destruction.
While critical of President Bush, O'Reilly said he did not think the president intentionally lied. Rather, O'Reilly blamed CIA Director George Tenet, who was appointed by former President Clinton.
"I don't know why Tenet still has his job."
He added: "I think every American should be very concerned for themselves that our intelligence is not as good as it should be."
O'Reilly anticipated the presidential election would be a close race, adding he thought Democratic front-runner Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts would be a formidable opponent against Bush.
"It will be a very close race. The nation is divided," he said |
