Source: Ford’s Theatre, citing errors, refuses to carry Bill O’Reilly’s ‘Killing Lincoln’ – CSMonitor.com.
Just because you write a book doesn’t mean you are an expert in something. Fox New’s Bill O’Reilly I’m sure has a large following on his news show. I know he rants and raves just like most do on that network. He often mentions that he is a self-proclaimed expert on Lincoln who was the founder of the Republican party. However, it seems that his book on the subject of Lincoln’s assassination will not be sold in Ford’s Theatre where the killing took place. The historians there say there is just too many errors in the Reilly account to be sold there. They don’t want the historic site to lose credence.
It sounds like Reilly was no more true to facts about Lincoln than the current day Republicans are to the party that he founded. Lincoln was if nothing else a president for the people. His words and actions backed up that world view. Today’s Republicans have given up that mantle to the Democratic party. I don’t know exactly when that happened but it is fully obvious today. The Republican party’s mantra now seems to be “I got mine so screw you”. They are now the party of big money, ultra-conservative fundamentalists, and not much else.
But we can’t really put any of the errors in the book on Bill O’Reilly himself as he “co-authored” the book with someone else. Who is to know what percentage of contributions he actually made? I always wonder about that whenever I see two names on a book. Is one there for name recognition only in order to sell more books? I’m sure this is not the first time that errors appear in supposedly historical works. I recently read the book by Herndon, who was Lincoln’s business partner in Springfield. When it came out it was scorned by many of the current historians as it had places where Lincoln was not shown in the best light. In fact Mrs. Lincoln was depicted at a downright “loony”. It has only been in the last forty years or so that the book has gained respect.
Maybe someday the book by whichever person on the cover actually wrote it will get respect. The current denouncement of it by some noted scholars just gives Fox News something else to yell about with the “liberal” press. As if they don’t have enough ;)
But what do I know….
RJ's Corner - Having My Say 
Whenever a “celebrity” of any stripe is flogging a book I assume two things: the book is written by someone else, and it is designed to promote that person, not add knowledge or a fresh perspective to a given subject. There are exceptions but Mr. O’Reilly is not one of them. George W. Bush could barely manage a coherent sentence while president. Are we to assume he suddenly was able to write a book?
One exception: I just finished Richard Branson’s “Business Stripped Bare.” It is clear he wrote it because of his use of British-only slang, the frequent use of sentence fragments, and an over-abundance of personal pronouns. He was certainly promoting himself and his businesses. But, he shared some excellent insight and business ideas. It was worth the read.
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Hi Bob: Yeah, I am always suspicious that Mr. Bush’s book was ghost written. I also have an exception to my general rules here and that is Steve Jobs. He was pretty full of himself but he was also one of the great innovators of our times. I like one of his quotes that goes something like this “people don’t know what they want, you have to show them”. Most people just don’t have the imagination for innovative thinking. He certainly did!
I assume your name is the only one on your book? ;)
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