CONCESSION

Bill O’Reilly Admits Fox News Messed Up Sweden Segment

“The criticism is valid. It’s valid.”

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly issued a correction to a previous segment of his that had come under fire for falsely labeling a guest as a Swedish official. The segment, which aired last Thursday, featured a man named Nils Bildt, whom Fox credited as a “Swedish Defense and National Security Advisor.” As it turned out, Bildt has no connection to the Swedish government, and in a statement he defended himself claiming “Fox News is solely responsible” for the inaccurate title. O’Reilly addressed the controversy on Monday evening, telling viewers that after “some left wing people objected” to the Bildt chyron, “we looked into the situation and the criticism is valid. It’s valid.” O’Reilly added: “Mr. Bildt does consulting work on terrorism, that’s true—but we should have clarified that he had no direct role with the Swedish government. To be fair, the information we gave you in the segment was accurate but in hindsight a more relevant guest should have been used on the anti-immigrant side. You should also know that before the segment was booked we asked the Swedish Ambassador to appear, he declined. That invitation stands.”