O'Reilly Staffer Catches Bill Moyers Trying to Lie About His Attacks on Fox News 'Venom'

April 25th, 2007 5:43 PM

On Tuesday night's O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly revealed that Bill Moyers seems to have a faulty memory about some harsh anti-FNC comments I noted here from a Rolling Stone interview. He sent out Jesse Watters to conduct an ambush interview like the one with that left-wing troop-hating Washington Post blogger Bill Arkin. Is Bill Moyers lying on purpose to mislead us into the quagmire of watching his programs? Or is he merely incompetent at remembering his own statements? You be the judge.

O'REILLY: Moyers, who is not only a commentator but an active financial supporter of far left causes, is using me and some other people he doesn't like to promote his program. He has repeatedly bashed me and refuses to come on "The Factor" to talk with me face-to-face. So our policy now is to confront these kinds of attacks, which we did last weekend when "Factor" producer Jesse Watters caught up with Moyers in New York City.

WATTERS: Why are you attacking Bill?

MOYERS: I'm not attacking Bill.

WATTERS: Well, didn't you give an interview where you said he was part of a slime machine and trying to discredit other journalists?

MOYERS: I didn't say that.

WATTERS: Yes, you did. You said that's a rolling stone.

MOYERS: No, I didn't say that.

O'REILLY: Echo Jesse, yes, you did, Bill. Roll the tape.

MOYERS: The Fox News, the talk radio, The Weekly Standard have not only lingered for war along with the administration, not only embraced the administration's policies because they were "conservative", including going to war, but also mounted a slime machine to discredit any journalist who dared to stand against the official view of reality.

O'REILLY: And Jesse then continued to interrogate Bill Moyers.

WATTERS: You said that Bill spews venom.

MOYERS: No, I didn't.

WATTERS: You did not say that?

MOYERS: I did not say that.

O'REILLY: Well, once again, let's go to the tape.

MOYERS: If a journalist tried to tell the truth about the intelligence of the Hannitys and the O'Reillys and the Limbaughs and the Mike Savages would come down on them and you know slander them, discredit them. So that good reporting lost its power to break through because of this, this avalanche of opposition and venom directed at them.

O'REILLY: I believe I heard the word "venom." Finally, Moyers got a bit frustrated with Jesse, saying this.

MOYERS: Bill O'Reilly does not have the courage to come on my show and answer the questions I wanted to ask him.

O'REILLY: Not true, Bill. And you know it. We consented to the interview with Moyers provided to be taped on "The Factor" set, so we'd have a copy of the conversation. Not that we don't trust you, of course. Also we asked you, Bill Moyers, to come on "The Factor" the day after the documentary aired. It was you who said no to those terms. And we have the correspondence to prove it.