Bill O’Reilly Defends Lincoln Book: Only Four Errors and Two Typos

After reports last week that the National Park Service criticized Bill O’Reilly’s book “Killing Lincoln” for historical inaccuracies and typos, O’Reilly shot back in defense.

According to the Huffington Post, last week the National Park Service shed light on some minor though embarrassing inaccuracies in Bill O’Reilly’s latest literary venture, a book about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

Among other problems, “the book claims Ford’s Theatre was burned down in 1863 when it was actually destroyed in the end of 1862,” wrote HuffPo. “The book contains multiple references to Lincoln in the Oval Office, which wasn’t built until decades after his death. It also includes the line ‘He furls his brow’; furl is a nautical term, the correct word is furrows.” The Washington Post also noted that the book was banned from the National Ford’s Theater bookstore.

Yesterday O’Reilly, not known for his apologetic manner, snapped back, reading a note from the Director of Ford’s Theater calling the rumor about the bookstore “mis-information” and clarifying that “the book is available for sale at the theater’s shop.”

According to HuffPo, the book had actually been turned away by the “official store in the basement of the theater. However, it is still being sold at the theater’s lobby gift shop, which, unlike the basement store, is run by the Ford’s Theatre Society,” from whom O’Reilly’s quote was from, not the National Park Service.

But the best part of O’Reilly’s defense had to be the acknowledgement of mistakes, sans any type of apology or admission of guilt: “In 325 pages there are four minor misstatements, all of which have been corrected. There are also two typeset errors, one involving a D. Now that’s a pretty good record, even for nitpickers,” he said in a glib “take that” tone.

Watch the clip below.