Fake news says Bill O'Reilly beaten unconscious by liberal New Yorkers

Ousted Fox News host Bill O’Reilly had already taken a drubbing over sexual harassment allegations, but fake news purveyors then started circulating a false story that he’d been beaten unconscious, too.

"Bill O’Reilly in critical condition after being attacked by ‘tolerant’ liberals," read a headline on a May 4, 2017, story at DailyUSAUpdate.com. We found the story posted on other websites, as well.

The article was flagged by Facebook users as being potentially fabricated, as part of the social media site’s efforts to winnow fake news from users’ news feeds.

The post — which again, is fake — said O’Reilly was buying bagels in New York when three men and two women began complaining about his treatment of women.

O’Reilly was forced off Fox News Channel on April 19 and lost his show, The O’Reilly Factor, after multiple reports of sexual harassment. The New York Times had reported the network paid about $13 million to settle claims.

The confrontation turned aggressive when the liberals (as identified in the story) attacked O’Reilly, dragging him into the street and kicking him until "until he was unconscious and bleeding."

The attackers ran off, the post said, leaving O’Reilly with four broken ribs and a punctured lung. He possibly suffered "a cardiac event," the story said.

Featured Fact-check

Facebook posts

stated on March 22, 2024 in Facebook posts

There was an “attempt on the life” of Dr. Oz after he shared a blood pressure treatment.

Except none of the details about an attack are true. There is no apparent way to contact DailyUSAUpdate.com administrators, who have hidden the site’s registration information.

There were no reports from legitimate media sources that this event occurred, in any case. Surely such an attack would have been widely covered.

The hoax came about a week after other reports that Ted Nugent had been killed in a hunting accident and Sarah Palin had been run off the road and was in a coma.

The fake O’Reilly story originally came from TheLastLineOfDefense.org, a parody website that has been the source of several fake news stories that we’ve previously checked.

TheLastLineOfDefense.org publishes bogus posts keyed to topics designed to inflame conservatives. The articles quite often end up being passed around on multiple websites, often without an indication that they are fake.

TheLastLineOfDefense.org doesn’t immediately indicate that any of its stories are fake, but its About Us link notes that "all articles should be considered satirical and any and all quotes attributed to actual people complete and total baloney."

And that’s what we call this fake report — baloney.

Actually, we rate it Pants On Fire!