Outfoxed shows Bill O’Reilly airing a critical e-mail and defending himself from it:
O’REILLY: Paula Evan, Winston-Salem North Carolina: [LETTER GRAPHIC] “Bill, if you are so concerned about public figures being bad role models for children please stop rudely interrupting your guest and telling them to shut up!”
Well the “shut up” line has happened only once in six years, Miss Evans…
Immediately following this, Outfoxed plays a montage of 7 additional clips of O’Reilly saying “shut up” in contradiction to his claim that he has only done so once.
The truth however, is that O’Reilly’s response to the e-mail scolding him to stop telling his guests “to shut up” is accurate. In the first 6 years of the O’Reilly Factor, there was only one instance where Bill O’Reilly told a guest “to shut up”. As shown below, Greenwalds montage of “shut up”s jump in time to The O’Reilly Factor’s 7th and 8th year, a clip not from The O’Reilly Factor and include moments where he is merely saying the phrase “shut up” and nottelling a guest to do so.
UNDISCLOSED TO THE VIEWER, GREENWALD TIME TRAVELS WITH EDITING TO SMEAR BILL O’REILLY
As throughout the film, director Robert Greenwald gives the audience no attribution or context to the footage being shown, allowing him to mold it to fit the various arguments he wishes to make.
The footage of O’Reilly responding to the e-mail chiding him for telling his guest to “shut up” is from The O’Reilly Factor on November 15, 2002.
Only 2 of the following clips took place before Nov. 15 2002, and only one of them show O’Reilly “interrupting [his] guest and telling them to shut up”.
QUOTE: I’m asking you to shut up about sex…
WHEN: Sept. 24, 2002
CONTEXT: O’Reilly asks homosexual guest Derek Henkle why he was so public about his sexuality.
QUOTE: Shut up. Shut up.
WHEN: Feb. 4, 2003
CONTEXT: During a discussion with anti-war protester Jeremy Glick, O’Reilly expressed his offense at some of Glicks comments, which O’Reilly perceived to be anti-American and offensive. Glick interrupted and continued to talk over the host and in response was told to shut up.
QUOTE: Why did you have to tell them you were an atheist if you didn’t have any trouble reading the oath, why didn’t you just shut up?
WHEN: Oct. 30, 2002
CONTEXT: O’Reilly asking atheist Eagle Scout, Darrel Lambert why he volunteered the declaration that he is an atheist when he was content with saying the Boy Scout oath, saying “I want to quote this—’On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and to my country and obey Scout law,’ on and on and on and on. I mean, God’s in the first 10 words. So – why did you have to tell them you were an atheist if you didn’t have any trouble reading the oath? Why didn’t you just shut up?”.
QUOTE: What Jimmy Carter should do is privately give Mr. Bush his opinion and shut up publicly. That would be best for the country.
WHEN: Feb. 18, 2003
CONTEXT: In the Talking Points Memo segment that opens each edition of The O’Reilly Factor, Bill opines that former President Carter’s public statements against the Iraq war are inappropriate and harmful to the country.
QUOTE: And it is our duty as loyal Americans to shut up once the fighting begins.
WHEN: Mar. 3, 2003
CONTEXT: Outfoxed cropped the video to delete the rest of the sentence O’Reilly actually said, thereby change the meaning. The full quote from O’Reilly was:
“And it is our duty as loyal Americans to shut up once the fighting begins, unless—unless facts prove the operation wrong, as was the case in Vietnam.“
QUOTE: Once the war against Saddam begins we expect every American to support our military and if they can’t do that – to shut up.
WHEN: Feb. 26, 2003
CONTEXT: During the shows Talking Points Memo segment, O’Reilly opined that while the country is losing blood and treasure in combat, it deserves support from the citizens, elaborating that “Americans, and indeed our allies, who actively work against our military once the war is underway will be considered enemies of the state by me.”
QUOTE: [crosstalk from Al Franken saying “No no no no no no”]: “Hey, shut up! [Franken: I don’t have to shut up] You had your 35 minutes. Shut. up.”
WHEN: June 1, 2003
CONTEXT: On the much publicized C-Span book expo, Al Franken exceeded his speaking time limit without challenge, alleging (dishonestly) that O’Reilly lied about winning a Peabody award. During O’Reilly’s allotted time to defend himself, Franken interrupted saying “no no no no no no”, and O’Reilly shot back as shown.
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