Bill O’Reilly’s new book, “Killing Lincoln” has recently fallen under a barrage of criticism when it was discovered that the text was full of historical inaccuracies.
Although the book has risen to number two on The New York Times bestseller list, it was banned from the Ford’s Theatre bookstore and has received harsh feedback from many critics. Christian Science Monitor’s Jackie Hogan called the book “sensationalized, suggestive and overly simplistic.”
In his defense, O’Reilly told “Fox and Friends” that he didn’t want to write “another boring history book.” And he certainly accomplished that. Unfortunately, he did not seem to manage to write a history book at all, but rather a fictionalized account of a famous presidency for his own sensationalist purposes.
Perhaps potential readers should consider the danger of reading a book written by a political commentator. Although O’Reilly has a journalism background, he still remains an editorialist, a fact that his supporters and television viewers often seem to forget.
O’Reilly’s sway among the conservative crowd is undoubtedly potent, and as such it seems incredibly irresponsible of him to fail to check his facts before publishing a historical account of one of America’s most beloved presidential figures. One part of the book discusses Lincoln in the Oval Office, which is historically impossible, as the Office did not exist until William Taft’s administration in 1909.
While this error may seem negligible when looking at the larger historical picture, the fact remains that O’Reilly was careless in his research before publishing a text that would inevitably reach millions of people and be construed as fact. It seems bad enough that people take opinions expressed on his show as hard news, but now O’Reilly is reaching a whole new demographic with a book abundant with inaccuracies.
Bill O’Reilly’s tagline is “fair and balanced,” a disconcerting message in light of his new misadventures in publishing. So far he has failed to comment on the mishap, but, with any luck, the book will be amended and brought to some semblance of historical accuracy and logic.
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