Bill O’Reilly To Address Controversial NBC Drone Strikes Comment Tonight

By Alex Weprin 

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly will address a comment he made about NBC News coverage of drone strikes on tonight’s “O’Reilly Factor,” TVNewser has learned.

If you aren’t caught up on the matter: during a segment on “The O’Reilly Factor” last night, O’Reilly decided to criticize NBC News for its lack of reporting on President Obama’s drone strike program. He asked Bob Beckel whether he had seen any reports on NBC about the program. When Beckel said that he had not, O’Reilly said he hadn’t either “and neither has my staff.”

Why would they go crazy over waterboarding, but ignore the drone strikes?” O’Reilly said. Adding that he thought the network was “protecting the president.”

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WATCH:

The problem was that NBC news was the outlet that brought drones back to the news cycle earlier this week, when Michael Isikoff revealed the Justice Department memo outlining why and when it was legal to kill American citizens using drones. Isikoff appeared on a number of NBC and MSNBC programs to talk about his scoop, and it was referenced many more times in other segments.

In other words, it sounds as though O’Reilly was incorrect in his assertion. We will see what he says on the matter tonight.

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