Letterman to O’Reilly: What’s the Difference Between You and Brian Williams?

With the TV movie version of his Killing Jesus book set to premiere this week, Bill O’Reilly stopped by the Late Show with David Letterman Tuesday to engage in a little self-promotion. But as you can see from the preview clip below, David Letterman did not hesitate to ask him about his recent controversies.

Comparing O’Reilly’s alleged mischaracterizations of past reporting to Brian Williams‘ exaggerations about his time spent in Iraq, Letterman asked, “Is there a difference?”

“Only if I did something that wasn’t true,” O’Reilly replied, maintaining his innocence. “What I said was accurate,” he insisted, despite evidence to the contrary put forward by organizations like Mother Jones and Media Matters, among others. “It worked out OK for me,” he said, noting that he got “even more viewers” out of the whole thing, a 20% increase.

“20% up when people thought you were making stuff up?” Letterman asked, incredulously.

RELATED: Maddow: Fox Can’t Just Deflect O’Reilly Questions by Boasting About Ratings

O’Reilly told Letterman that while he may “bloviate” and “give analysis,” he has never “fibbed” on air because it’s “not worth it” for him to do that. When the late night host suggested that both O’Reilly and Williams should be held to the same standard of trust, O’Reilly said that his 15 years at number one of Fox News proves that viewers do “trust” him.

As for Brian Williams, O’Reilly offered up this semi-defense of the suspended anchor: “I think that NBC should bring him back, I think they will bring him back.”

Watch video below, via CBS:

[Photo via screengrab]

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