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Bill O'Reilly threatens N.Y. Times reporter

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly threatened a New York Times reporter on Monday night, promising to come after the reporter "with everything I have" if he felt that any of the reporter's coverage about his Falklands war controversy was inappropriate.

"Mr. O’Reilly’s efforts to refute the claims by Mother Jones and some former CBS News colleagues occurred both on the air and off on Monday," the Times' Emily Steel and Ravi Somaiya reported. "During a phone conversation, he told a reporter for The New York Times that there would be repercussions if he felt any of the reporter’s coverage was inappropriate. 'I am coming after you with everything I have,' Mr. O’Reilly said. 'You can take it as a threat.'”

Steel confirmed on Twitter that she was the reporter in question. Reached by email late Monday night, she declined to comment further, noting that "the story speaks for itself." A Fox News spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from O'Reilly.

The Times article was published just hours after O'Reilly sought to put an end to the controversy surrounding claims he made about his experiences during the Falklands War in 1982. "I want to stop this now,” he said after a segment about the controversy. “I hope we can stop it. I really do.”

Mother Jones journalists David Corn and Daniel Schulman have alleged that O'Reilly lied about being present in a "war zone" and "combat situation" during the Falklands War, and that he even suggested he had gone to the Falkland Islands. O'Reilly was present at a violent demonstration in Buenos Aires during which police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd. He says he never claimed to have been in the Falkland Islands and has defended his characterization of the protest as a "combat zone."

Corn and Schulman also noted that O'Reilly falsely claimed that "many were killed" during the demonstration. On Monday night's broadcast, O'Reilly argued that a casualty count was impossible to determine.

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