O’Reilly never admits he’s wrong. Even when he’s totally wrong, he doesn’t drop the story and hope his elderly fan base forgets it — he keeps repeating his lie/error over and over again, assuming that his audience is so stupid/gullible that they won't look anything up for themselves and will simply believe anything BOR says if he repeats it enough times. It’s more important for BOR to uphold the fantasy bubble of republican/Christian/FOX/BOR infallibility than to be truthful.

So now BOR, having been caught in yet another lie, must continue to lie in order to prop up his massive ego and cult of personality. The victims this time? HOMELESS VETERANS.

On Jan. 4 after the Iowa caucus, BOR attacked John Edwards on his concession speech:

BOR: As for John Edwards, Good grief! this guy has no clue. (plays clip)

Edwards: …and tonight, 200,000 men and women who wore our uniform proudly and served this country courageously as veterans will go to sleep under bridges and on grates. We are better than this.

BOR: That was Edwards’ concession speech last night. I mean, come on. The only thing sleeping under a bridge is that guy’s brain. 10 million illegal alien workers are sending billions of dollars back home and Edwards is running around saying nobody has any money. Hard to believe.

As we showed in our video FOX ATTACKS! Edwards and Obama, BOR has a massive, irrational hate-on for Edwards and personally attacks him whenever his name is mentioned. The problem with BOR’s attack on Jan. 4 is that Edwards is completely right and BOR is totally wrong. From the National Alliance to End Homelessness:

In 2006, approximately 195,827 veterans were homeless on a given night — an increase of 0.8 percent from 194,254 in 2005. More veterans experience homeless over the course of the year. We estimate that 336,627 were homeless in 2006.

Pretty straightforward, right? Edwards was right, BOR was either lying, clueless, a shitty journalist, an idiot, or any combination of those options. And this was not some obscure report — it was featured across the traditional media (including foxnews.com) and hundreds of blogs and used data from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau.

So instead of admit that he’s wrong and that the disproportionate, unacceptably high number of homeless veterans is a big problem that must be addressed, is a shameful commentary on our nation’s priorities, and an example of republican “support the troops” hypocrisy, what does BOR do? Lie some more. From last night (1/16/08, about 3:12 into the clip):

BOR: Well, we’re still looking for all the veterans sleeping under the bridges, Ed, so if you find anybody, let us know, because that’s all the guy [Edwards] said for the last three nights… 

ES: Well they’re out there, Bill. Don’t kid yourself.

BO: They may be out there, but there’s not many of them out there. Okay? So if you know where one is, Ed…

ES: Well, actually…Now, wait a minute…one in ..

BO: Ed, Ed. If you know where’s a veteran, sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it. Is not there.

BOR can’t find any homeless veterans? That’s odd…

Veterans make up a disproportionate share of homeless people. They represent roughly 26 percent of homeless people, but only 11 percent of the civilian population 18 years and older. This is true despite the fact that veterans are better educated, more likely to be employed, and have a lower poverty rate than the general population. 

That means if BOR or his staff were to talk to four homeless people (and New York, where the O’Reilly Factor is shot, has plenty of them), there’s a good chance that at least one of them would be a veteran. Then again, BOR’s wannabe pal John Gibson claimed that “homelessness is virtually over” even as the sub-prime clusterfuck foreclose-a-thon was exploding across the US. At a real news organization, such blatant lies would be a cause for embarrassment. But not at FOX, where there is no accountability for being totally ass backward wrong and/or lying repeatedly.

So BOR lies to his audience of millions by denying that there is an unacceptably high and growing number of homeless veterans in the US, despite all evidence to the contrary. Then he repeats the lie (which he must, at this point, know is a lie) so he doesn’t look like the lying, clueless, ridiculous, vindictive imitation of a journalist that he is.

Does it benefit homeless veterans to ridicule and attack those who correctly point out their plight? Does it help homeless veterans to tell millions of Americans that homeless veterans don’t exist? Will BOR’s viewers be moved to help homeless veterans if they think it isn’t a serious problem that is, in reality, a national disgrace? Does anyone benefit from BOR’s lie except BOR?

If you live in New York, please find a homeless veteran and take him to the FOX News offices at:

1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Refuse to leave unless BOR comes down and helps them. And send me the tape or post it on YouTube so all of us can see what happens. You can also email BOR at oreilly@foxnews.com or call FOX News at 212-301-3000 to tell them about homeless veterans in need. Please be persistent. These homeless vets need help, and with the Iraq war still raging, there’s a lot more on the way. BOR seems to have volunteered the FOX offices as a shelter for homeless veterans. I say we take him up on his offer.

h/t Crooks&Liars