Somebody's Lying...

To watch "The Talking Points Memo" in the Screening Room click here.

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly.  Thank you for watching us tonight.

Somebody's lying in a big way.  That is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

As we've been reporting, The Los Angeles Times has staked out a very controversial place for itself by employing radical columnist, Robert Scheer, who many perceive to be a hater of [the] USA.  Now that allegation may be proven once and for all.

Scheer despises President Bush and today wrote this, "Though the Bush administration shamelessly trumped claims about Iraq's alleged ties to Al Qaeda and 9-11 and its weapons of mass destruction take the cake for deceitful propaganda, grand strategic lies that allow the United States the seizure of Iraq's oil to appear to be an act of liberation, the sad case of Jessica Lynch's exploitation at the hands of military spinners illustrates that the truth, once again, was a casualty of war."

Scheer is referring to reports by the BBC that the U. S. military faked the rescue of Private Lynch.  The story said that she was in an unguarded Iraqi hospital, and no military action was necessary.  The Pentagon flat out denies the allegation and provided this statement to The Factor, "Any suggestion that the events were staged or that we have been less than forthcoming about them is ludicrous."

So somebody's lying and predictably, Robert Scheer is siding with the BBC, which, you remember, was stridently against the war in Iraq and chastised by one of its own correspondents for slanting its reports.

Talking Points does not know the truth in this matter.  We don't know, but we have no reason to doubt the mission's original report.  However, if it turns out that the U.S. military is lying, it will be a terrible scandal.

But what if Scheer is wrong, and the BBC's report is fallacious?  What happens then?  What will The Los Angeles Times do?

Now, The New York Times, as you may know, is in the middle of a huge scandal because of this Jason Blair guy.  He was allowed to fabricate stories because the editors were blinded by his skin color and refused to supervise him.

Now The L.A.Times could lose credibility as well if they're lead columnist turns out to be a provable propagandist.  Nowhere in his column does Scheer do any original reporting.  He just assumes the USA is lying, and the BBC is telling the truth.  That's a dangerous game to play, and The Los Angeles Times should at least run a counter-column on the issue, but they never do that.  The L.A. Times is extremely left wing in its editorial presentation.

Once again, we don't know the truth of the matter, but it is unfair to call the Bush administration liars unless you have proof.  The L.A.Times op-ed page believes that a BBC report is all it needs to call the Private Lynch rescue bogus.  We were skeptical of the source and of Scheer's anti-American motives, but we do hope the unassailable truth will emerge soon.

And that's The Memo.

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day"...

If you watched The Factor yesterday, you saw this picture of our pal Puff Daddy, and we jazzed him a bit over the daintiness of it all.  See, he's the guy in the white pants, and that's his butler.  Even though the photo ran yesterday in The New York Daily News, it was taken more than two years ago, and we were unaware of that.

So we are guilty of being ridiculous for not providing perspective here, although all is not lost.  I am now demanding my own umbrella guy.  I won't wear the white pants, though.