This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016
O'Reilly's lies
Eddie Coffee of Kathleen took issue with my calling Bill O'Reilly a liar and challenged me to prove it. OK. I've room for about three:
1. O'Reilly claimed "... I've reported in active war zones from El Salvador to the Falklands." He claims to have been in a situation in the Falklands where his photographer was hurt and O'Reilly saved him. Robert Fox, a British reporter embedded with the British army in the Falklands says only British reporters were allowed in. Americans and other European reporters were excluded.
CBS news producer Susan Rinsk says the Argentine junta kept American reporters out of the Falklands. O'Reilly spent his time during the Falklands war in Buenos Aires, 1,400 miles from the war zone.
2. In an interview on his show with Peter Dreier, professor of politics at Occidental University, O'Reilly admonished the professor that he'd never criticized Social Security when, in fact, not long before he'd referred to Social Security as "not quite a Ponzi scheme, but it's close."
3. O'Reilly claimed the Paris Business Review reported billions of dollars lost to the French because of an American boycott. Media Matters investigated and reported there is no such publication.
I'm sure Bill O'Reilly would call me a pinhead. He calls everyone who disagrees with his lies something of that sort. And, I have watched his show and heard his lies firsthand. Go online to O'Reilly's Lies and you can find many, many, more examples.
— Terry Thompson
Bonaire
Back and forth
In a Feb. 11 Viewpoint, Pat Fair took issue with the contention by CIA contract operatives on the ground in Benghazi that they had been given a "stand down" order not to aid the beleaguered diplomatic compound.
Fair contends that the CIA station chief in Benghazi refuted the fact of a "stand down" order, in effect calling his operatives liars. In addition, Fair cites the conclusion of the House Intelligence Committee on Benghazi as further evidence that the "stand down" order was a lie.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was, of course, the star witness at the committee's hearings. Putting aside the "stand down" order issue, Clinton clearly was caught in two lies during her testimony.
The first was her oft-repeated contention that the attack was caused by a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Islam video. Evidence emanating from the committee hearing proved that she knew while the assault was still ongoing that the attack was a well-planned terrorist attack. She sent an email to that effect to her daughter and repeated that statement to two other persons, including the Turkish ambassador.
The second lie occurred when the bodies of the Benghazi victims were returned to the U.S. Clinton repeated her statement about the video to the family members of the victims and then later repeatedly denied having told them that.
What I find both ironic and outrageous is Fair's closing statement — "It's OK to be wrong. But to know the truth and still not only hold on to the lies, but to continue to spread them is unconscionable."
— Burnett Hull
Macon
Customer service
Are you having trouble with your cable TV? In the past year or so, Cox switched to something called Contour which seems to be constantly evolving. Then they added a "little black box" to each TV (at an extra charge) so we could "continue to receive their HD signal."
Does your screen just go black in the middle of a show? Then the picture comes back, but too much time has elapsed. We've learned to just back up the show to see what we have missed, but then you better fast forward (during commercials) to catch up or the end of the show will be cut off. Another new feature. What a pain. And we're paying good money for this?
Several of our neighbors are having difficulties with their Cox settings and repeated calls have been answered with the age old statement "It must be your TV's fault." With a brand new TV, we doubt that is the problem.
There is definitely something wrong with Cox's system and it would seem to us to be in their best interests to figure out what it is and fix it. We keep reading about the death of cable TV. Maybe there is something to it.
— Carolyn and John Cherry
Macon
The other mural
In your editorial Sunday on the City Auditorium you mentioned the Dubois and Kurtz mural depicting Macon's history from Ferdinand DeSoto's visit to World War I.
As you know, there is an even more current mural in the Federal Building on College Street. This mural by George Beattie was commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service and depicts events in Macon and Middle Georgia through World War II.
Beattie was stationed at Camp Wheeler during part of that time and after the war married a Macon native. It's too bad that someone at the Post Office believes the mural is politically incorrect and has shut it off from public view.
It would be marvelous to allow viewing at the time events are taking place in Washington Park across the street. Maybe your Editorial Board can encourage this.
At least, please reprint Joe Kovac's article from April 7, 2013.
— Eugene Dunwody
Macon
This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 9:58 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016 ."