Fox News issued a clarification on Friday on behalf of its star host Bill O’Reilly, saying that he said he’d “seen” bombings in Northern Ireland because police showed him photos of them.
The Washington Post spotted a passage in O’Reilly’s 2013 book, “Keep It Pithy,” in which he described seeing lethal bombings in Northern Ireland.
“I’ve seen soldiers gun down unarmed civilians in Latin America, Irish terrorists kill and maim their fellow citizens in Belfast with bombs,” O’Reilly wrote.
A Fox spokesperson told the Washington Post that O’Reilly did not witness any bombings or injuries in Northern Ireland but was simply shown photos by police officers.
The Northern Ireland clarification marks the second time this has happened: On Wednesday, O’Reilly told Mediaite that when he repeatedly said he had seen nuns “get shot” in El Salvador, he was referring to “images” he had seen.
As for the soldiers gunning down civilians in Latin America, O’Reilly has dismissed a report by Mother Jones and comments by former colleagues at CBS that questioned his tales of witnessing violence in Argentina.