On last night’s O’Reilly Factor (6/5/13), the Fox News host asserted that there’s still a lot the White House isn’t telling us about the IRS/Tea Party scandal. But in the process he also, in his own special way, issued a correction–of sorts:
The president will also not explain the IRS situation. His defenders denying that former IRS Chief Douglas Shulman visited the White House 157 times. But he was cleared into the People’s House 157 times. That is a fact. Those who diminish the Shulman factor are lying directly to you.
Now this is confusing. O’Reilly has been telling his viewers over and over again that Shulman visited the White House 157 times. Now he’s waffling; Obama “defenders” deny it, but the records show he was “cleared” into the White House. Huh?
The whole point of this story is to connect the White House to the IRS scandal over targeting conservative groups for additional scrutiny of their tax-exempt applications.
The problem is that the story O’Reilly has been telling his viewers is not true. He picked it up from the right-wing website Daily Caller (5/29/13), which claims Shulman visited the White House far more often than any of Obama’s cabinet officials.
If that sounds a little hard to believe, that’s because it is. As Garance Franke-Ruta explained at the Atlantic (5/31/13), those records do not show actual visits; the 157 number refers to instances where Shulman was approved to attend a meeting, mostly about the new healthcare law. (Slightly more than half of them, 80, were a regularly scheduled biweekly gathering of deputies working on the healthcare reform project; another 40 were with the director of the Office of Health Reform.) A large majority of the meetings Shulman was cleared to attend, 115 in all, were in the Old (Eisenhower) Executive Office Building, not in the White House itself.
According to the same record-keeping, Shulman is known to have actually attended only 11 meetings in the White House complex between 2009 and 2012. And as far as the comparison with Cabinet members goes, the Daily Caller acknowledged in its original story that “it is probable that the vast majority of visits by major Cabinet members do not end up in the public record.”
So what’s O’Reilly been telling his Fox audience? On May 30:
Did the campaign of intimidation come from the White House? Well, today, there is disturbing information. This man former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House–ready–157 times. Incredible.
By comparison, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to the White House 43 times, then-CIA Director Leon Panetta 20 times. So what the heck was Mr. Shulman doing at the White House with that kind of frequency?
The Old Executive Office Building, where most of the “White House” meetings former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman was cleared to attend took place. (cc photo: Alfredo Penalosa)
On the same show, O’Reilly played a clip of Shulman suggesting that attending the “Easter egg roll with my kids” might be one reason to show up at the White House. To which O’Reilly responded:
Well, Mr. Shulman, you know what you can do with your Easter egg. You must explain under oath what you were doing at the White House on 157 separate occasions.
And then on June 3:
So far, we have been dead on. Last week we told you that former IRS Chief Douglas Shulman visited the White House 157 times, far more than any other department head. And it wasn’t even close. Logically, we asked the White House to explain those meetings: With whom did Mr. Shulman chat, and what was the subject on all 157 occasions?
O’Reilly also told viewers that “if the IRS boss visits the White House 157 times, that’s a big story,” and asked, “What was Shulman doing at the White House 157 times?”
And on June 4, he asked: “How about the Shulman guy with 157 visits?”
On June 5, one guest–Fox‘s Kirsten Powers–dared to suggest that maybe O’Reilly was the one getting the story wrong. That didn’t go well:
POWERS: The number of times he actually showed up is something like 11, I think.
O’REILLY: Oh that’s–that’s false. We don’t know that. He was cleared in 157 times.
Actually, we do know–if those White House visitor records are accurate–that Shulman signed in to attend 11 of those meetings.
O’Reilly’s commentary on this subject has attracted some ridicule from the likes of Comedy Central host Jon Stewart. On June 4, O’Reilly explained that, unlike Stewart, he’s “a fact guy.”
Now that is a good one!
No surprise here, but this whole kerfuffle is a tempest in a Tea Party pot, isn’t it?
It’s ludicrous to think that this has anything to do with ideological persecution, as O’Reilly and his baying hounds would have us believe.
Were that the case, Karl and the Kochs would be at the top of the list, don’t you think?
At worst, this was precipitated by some localized party partisanship, but more likely it had to do with being overwhelmed by all these “social welfare” groups applying for 501(c)(4) status, and poor judgment under pressure.
So why has the administration responded as it has, and not dismissed this as the farce it is?
That’s not the Democrats’ function in this duopoly, is it?
The reactionaries are the attack dogs
And they are the red meat.
This is why, even with majority popular support on many issues, they pretend to be constantly fighting a rear guard action, and asking us to accept the crumbs that result.
That is, when they’re not working hand in glove with their “rivals”.
The Dems’ posture is “Whip me, beat me, make me write bad checks.”
And O’Reilly and his ilk wear the leather and wield the riding crops.
It is just Idol Worship on Becks part. He so loves Joseph Goebbels as his hero, he is merely keeping the memory alive.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
I think yes these numbers are inflated.And in the end unimportant.What matters is what was ever said to the white house.For instance when a bunch of the top people in the IRS met with the president the day before the imposition of IRS powers began against conservative groups.
That’s a big difference between 11 and 157! What makes me furious is that I know people that I love that listen to that pompous a**, and believe him. If 157 was the truth, then I would be okay with it and decide my feelings about it all, but for his viewers to be misinformed is criminal in my opinion. Whuff, I’m disgusted over and over again by O’Reilly.
Caroline…..Im not saying the number is wrong.Lets get one thing straight.So far FOX has been right to question all of these “goings ons”.And the sheep dog press wrong to try to bury it(as they did for some time)It is obvious that the IRS is stonewalling.Even taking the 5th.Soon we will see what it is they are hiding.Don’t be so fast to discount over semantics Bills sifting through the emerging facts.We/you are not there yet.There is a ton of smoke in all these scandals.And the white house has sent out their first team to tramp out these fires before they touch the president.Mostly they are putting up an opposing smoke screen.If after all this you trust this president., and this administration, may I say with all due respect….that you are nuts!Bill is reporting emerging facts and trying to make heads or tails while trying to peer through the white house and IRS stone wall.If it satisfies you to smugly announce that some of the facts may(may i say)have a different interpretation than good for you.If I were you i would worry more about asking yourself a simple question.WHY is the most transparent government ever on the run?”Culture of corruption….every day a new eruption”.Your fighting on the wrong side in this one
Boner! What are you doing here, you goddamn liar and miscreant! Are you really that stupid? The President proposes and you dispose. In other words, dummy, it’s you who shuts down the government, not the hated Mr. Obama. So glad you both are on the same page about the destruction of the 4th amendment, though. Now get out of here, and I mean it, you fraud.
Sure, Caroline, the numbers, the lying, the stupidity of O’Reilly (and Boner) doesn’t matter, you see. Oh, and m.e.? You are saying what you are saying–that “facts” here are simply being interpreted by mean old Caroline in an unfair way. O’Reilly’s an idiot–that’s a fact. I commend the IRS for putting these lying Tea Bagger groups through the wringer, because these mooches are just looking for a govmint handout in the form of lower or no taxes. They’re unpatriotic cheaters, and crybabies to boot. Good luck with your IRS scandal-mongering, chumps.
Tim usually you make some sense even if you are just as often completely wrong.Today you sound like you had to much to drink.You even condoned the IRS attacking, on behalf of the reigning president-his political opposition.As for the presidents proposes( insanity)….is it really the job of the congress to allow that to go in as law?lets hope not.You spend time calling Orielly a moron because you THINK his facts are wrong.Though so far we have no proof of that.Yet Obama who promised his heath care at a certain cost has in fact lied about damn near everything.The hated Glen beck did two solid hours of Obama lies(he had 5 hours in the can)last week.It was hysterical.One tape would be Obama promising something then….a tape of the real result.I call him wrong way Feldon.Yesterday Bush topped obama in a poll.Hysterical.What a putz