Publisher stands by a doubted O’Reilly

NEW YORK — Book publishers for Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly say they stand behind his work despite questions that have been raised about his reporting.

O’Reilly’s series of books about the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ have sold millions of copies and been turned into successful movies for the National Geographic channel.

The liberal group Media Matters for America this week reported on a 2013 online post that questioned O’Reilly’s claim that in 1977 he was outside the Florida home of George de Mohrenschildt, a friend of Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, when de Mohrenschildt killed himself with a shotgun.

O’Reilly’s claim that he was there was in his book Killing Kennedy. Media Matters quoted police reports, media accounts, former colleagues and other sources that dispute O’Reilly’s claim that he was there. At the time, O’Reilly was a reporter for a Dallas television station.

Henry Holt and Co. “fully stand behind Bill O’Reilly and his best-seller ‘Killing Kennedy,’ and we’re very proud to count him as one of our most important authors,” spokesman Pat Eisemann said.

Fox News issued a statement reiterating its “staunch support” for O’Reilly and said it would not respond to the individual accusations.

Also this week, the publisher of O’Reilly’s best-selling The O’Reilly Factor defended the book, which refers to his disputed coverage of the Falklands War. The magazine Mother Jones said O’Reilly claimed to be in a “war zone” in Argentina when instead he was at a demonstration far from the front.

David Drake, senior vice president and deputy publisher for the Crown Publishing Group, said that Crown would “continue to publish our author’s book just as he wrote it.”

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