- Bill O'Reilly Poster - Fox News
Bill O’Reilly claims he and his book are “under some fire from the forces of darkness” and that it is “a concerted effort by people who don’t like me to diminish the book”.
Speaking on his Fox News show “The O’Reilly Factor”, O’Reilly acknowledged that the tome had “four minor misstatements and “two typeset errors”, which have all been corrected by his publisher Henry Holt. “You ignore most of it, but we were getting a little bit tired”.
Henry Holt director of publicity, Pat Eisenmann, said: “Once we were made aware of the errors in the book, corrections were made in subsequent printings of Killing Lincoln…We continue to fully support the work of the authors”.
O’Reilly stated he’s invited his latest critic, Rae Emerson of the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site, onto his show after she banned the book from being sold on site for its errors and omissions. “I would love to talk with her”.
The script had O’Reilly sum up as follows:: “By the way, there are now more than 1 million copies of Killing Lincoln in print, and the book continues to sell briskly…That’s a pretty good record even for nitpickers who want to hurt the book...We well understand our enemies are full of rage at our success”.
Excuse me and beg your pardon, Bill, it's not a half dozen minor mistakes and typos, we're talking about here. How about journalism 101: fact checking? The "fear factor" of Killing Lincoln for serious students, and yes, scholars too, is that the actual factual basis of the book doesn't check out. For example, it's one thing to say that somebody, in this case, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin McMasters "Mars" Stanton, is guilty, but it's quite another thing to prove that someone is.
Further, the proof of the pudding for this reader, researcher and reviewer pertaining to the problems with Killing Lincoln is in proclaiming that it took a total of six months to put it together for publication, which in this crime historian's and/or historical detective' learned opinion is just too little time to take the tome to the next level in order to be thought of in terms of the scholarship Bill O'Reilly sought. I have one question for both O’Reilly and Eisenmann at Henry Holt: where the heck is Martin Dugard, and what he has to say for himself?
Fear Factor O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln Again
No Factor Ford's Theatre Bans O'Reilly Book
Rick Stelnick - Rick Stelnick is a superannuated political scientist, crime historian and historical detective.
