Bill O’Reilly Steals From Real Journalists

February 24, 2009 in General by Christopher Howell

On Friday, I posted a story in which Helen Thomas responded to Bill O’Reilly’s cowardly attack on her, including some video that I shot at the White House. Several conservative blogs, like Redstate and Hot Air, picked up the story. While I wasn’t ecstatic about their take on Helen’s response, they made fair use of the material, featuring the clip in its entirety and crediting the source.

Last night, though, Bill O’Reilly proved he was no journalistic match for the blogosphere, let alone Helen Thomas. On The O’Reilly Factor, he played a butchered version of the clip, and deliberately omitted the source. (Click here to see what I really think)

Here’s my clip, clearly labeled as to its source and exclusivity, sent to O’Reilly’s producer via an email containing all of the relevant details.

This isn’t the first timethis has happened to me, nor the first time O’Reilly has done this. The fact that big media outlets rely on online journalists for their reporting is something we can all be proud of, but their refusal to use the material ethically is shameful.

Bill O’Reilly has previously stolen video, without crediting the source, twice. Not twice in history, but twice from someone I know personally. God only knows how often he steals from the 99.99999% of journalists I don’t know.

Caleb Howe shot some great video of Griff Jenkins being attacked in Denver, and another huge clip of Don Fowler being a douche on a plane, and O’Reilly played them both without crediting him. Glenn Beck, it should be noted, did credit Caleb when he used the clip of Fowler on his show.
I had my own reporting stolen by no less a media giant than the Associated Press. They reported a denial by the Italian jeweler in the Michelle Obama ring hoax story as their own, even though the jeweler released a statement only to me. They didn’t attribute the denial to any source, and refused to correct the error when it was pointed out to them.

It is a shame, because even a kid at a school newspaper knows you have to give others credit for their work. It is as basic as it gets.