Here’s what you don’t see everyday: Bill O’Reilly has been forced to eat humble pie. The Fox News commentator wrapped up Thursday night’s The O’Reilly Factor by apologizing for falsely claiming to Democratic strategist James Carville that organizers of Thursday’s 50th anniversary celebration of the March on Washington did not invite a single Republican. The mea culpa came during the show’s “Tip of the Day” segment which saw O’Reilly essentially heed his own advice after he learned that Republican presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were asked to speak at the commemoration as was Senator John McCain and Republican House Leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor. “I said there were no Republican speakers invited. Wrong. It was wrong,” said the right-leaning pundit. “Some Republicans were asked to speak. They declined and that was a mistake. They should have spoken.” He continued: “Now, the mistake? Entirely on me. I simply assumed that since all the speakers were liberal Democrats Republicans were excluded.” And for the kicker, which no doubt brought satisfaction to his liberal critics, among them Media Matters which caught the error, O’Reilly suggested viewers “always check out the facts before you make a definitive statement.”
