Earlier this month, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly claimed that there aren’t “many” homeless veterans, challenging John Edwards for saying that there are 200,000 such vets. Subsequently, O’Reilly pledged to take any homeless vets under his wing:
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.
Yesterday, several homeless veterans rose to this challenge, protesting outside O’Reilly’s office. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann reports that O’Reilly “cold shouldered” the veterans and “did not even have the courage to meet them”:
Instead, a producer asked the woman, whose group provides transitional housing for 83 vets, whether they have an appointment. … The producer took them into the lobby so our cameras could not get a shot of him accepting their petition with 17,000 signatures. … Instead of meeting with those veterans, O’Reilly had [staff] tell the vets group, please leave a message, somebody will get back to you.
O’Reilly constantly brags about how much he supports the troops. But he has continually lied about the state of homeless veterans, blaming their situation on their “addiction and mental illness” and now refusing to meet with them.
Said one of the veterans snubbed by O’Reilly yesterday: “What did we fight for? Our country. I love my country. Don’t treat us like this.”
UPDATE: Check out Brave New Films’ interviews with the veterans.
No comments:
Post a Comment