Fair, Balanced, Full Of It

David Weigel | April 24, 2006

Bolstering one of their countless attacks on Bill O'Reilly, the folks at Media Matters have compiled a list of wrong-headed predictions by Fox News military analysts. It makes for some seriously tragicomic reading.

[Col. David Hunt], whom O'Reilly has described as "the feistiest guy we have" [The O'Reilly Factor, 3/27/03], repeatedly attempted to link Saddam to terrorism, predicted that the U.N.'s refusal to support U.S. military action in Iraq signaled "the end of the United Nations" [The O'Reilly Factor, 3/7/03], and suggested that Saddam would "torch[] his country in facing the United Nations inspectors" [The Big Story with John Gibson 12/19/02]. ... Further, Hunt mocked retired Gen. Wesley Clark's apparent suggestion on CNN that the troops lacked sufficient armored vehicles, a claim that was later proved to be accurate, stating: "Excuse me. There aren't enough armored vehicles? Wah, wah, wah."

The Oliver North entry is pretty good, too.