Bill O'Reilly is now threatening reporters who question his war stories

Bill O&#039;Reilly is facing questions about his war stories — (Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Fox News star Bill O'Reilly may or may not have a "Brian Williams problem," as Mother Jones asserts in an article questioning O'Reilly's heroic tales while covering the Falkland Islands war for CBS News. But he certainly isn't handling the accusations like Williams did.

Whereas Williams apologized for, he says, remembering his Iraq War helicopter ride incorrectly, O'Reilly told a New York Times reporter on Monday that if he deemed any of the reporter's coverage of his Falkland War stories unfair, "I am coming after you with everything I have," write Emily Steel and Ravi Somaiya in The Times. "You can take it as a threat," O'Reilly added.

The dispute now centers around whether Buenos Aires — 1,200 miles from the Falklands — was an active war zone, as O'Reilly has contended through the years in books and interviews. (Mother Jones also posted video where O'Reilly seems to suggest he was on the Falkland Islands.) O'Reilly's former CBS News colleagues and other news organizations' reporters in Argentina at the time say that no, there were protests in Buenos Aires but they weren't very violent. And there is no record of any civilians killed by government forces, as O'Reilly says he witnessed.

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Fox News is standing solidly behind O'Reilly. And seeing as how Williams' apology ended — six month suspension without pay, at the least — maybe O'Reilly's counteroffensive will be more effective. Still, threatening reporters only adds fuel to a simmering fire.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.