Bill O’rielly’s latest book “Killing Lincoln” co-authored by Martin Dugard, has been banned by one of Ford’s Theaters.
The book not to be sold at the historic site, came after a review by the official National Park Service bookstore at Ford’s Theater where “lack of documentation, factual errors and not up to quality standards” were the defining factors.
In the book O’Rielly writes of generals Ulysses S Grant and Robert E Lee:
“The two warrioes will never meet again”.
When in fact, according to the Emerson review, Grant and Lee met once again in 1865 to discuss prisoners of war.
Noted historian, Eric Foner told Washington Post “I would not be surprised if there were historical errors as O’Rielly is better known as a TV polemicist than a scholar”. Ouch, that hurts!
With style and image taking precedence over evidence and substance, it is little wonder O’Rielly’s book is being hammared by Amazon book store customers too.
Justin Elliot of Salon also reported factual inaccuracies in the book. According to Elliot, Ford’s Theater was not burned down in 1863 as written by O’Rielly but instead was destroyed in 1862.
The kicker came with O’Rielly’s reference to Lincoln in the Oval Office. What, really O’Rielly? You’ve got to be kiddin! Just to keep things on focus Sir, the Oval was built decades after Lincoln’s death.
And, just to be fair to O’Rielly, he did tell Fox & Friends that he didn’t want to write just another “boring, historical book.” That being the case, lets just call it another novel.
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