Bill O'Reilly has a pretty nuanced view of the Brian Williams scandal
Fox News star Bill O'Reilly seems pretty agnostic on whether Brian Williams will keep his job as NBC Nightly News anchor. If Williams' Iraq helicopter story is a one-off exaggeration, he'll keep his position, O'Reilly predicted on Monday night's Jimmy Kimmel Live, but if he has a "character flaw" and embellished other reports, he'll probably be out of work. People gleeful about Williams' downfall, on the other hand, "it disturbs me," O'Reilly said, adding that the internet is a "sewer" full of people who "delight in seeing famous people being taken apart."
Kimmel, for his part, seemed surprised that O'Reilly was so empathetic. So O'Reilly shared his own Iraq helicopter story, a short trip from the Baghdad airport during a rally-the-troops tour of U.S. bases. When you're riding in a helicopter gunship, "its unbelievably exhilarating," O'Reilly said. "Your adrenalin is running.... it's intense. Nobody shot at us or anything like that, but I could see that if you come on a show like Kimmel, or any of the late night shows, you don't want to be a dweeb — you want to have something interesting to say." Watch O'Reilly say some interesting things below. —Peter Weber
The Week
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