( CNN ) Fox News host Bill O'Reilly , grappling with accusations that he embellished and/or fabricated reports placing him at the center of dramatic news events , tipped his hand more than he realized by threatening one of the many journalists asking questions about the accuracy of his accounts . `` I am coming after you with everything I have , '' O'Reilly told New York Times reporter Emily Steel . `` You can take it as a threat . '' Bad move , Bill . In the real world of tough guys ( as opposed to celebrity blowhards ) , that kind of empty threat only comes from a sore loser -- somebody unable to control or hide his anger , fright and impotence over the fact he has been cornered and beaten . There is nothing O'Reilly can do to harm The New York Times , its reporters or any other journalist doing their job , and he surely knows that . So why the tantrum ? Part of it is O'Reilly 's style . He is a fabulously wealthy , best-selling author and the host of a show that has dominated prime-time cable news for many years . One way he got to the top of the heap was by styling himself as a plain-spoken , working-class battler , willing to mix it up verbally with those who disagree with him . As ex-Rep. Barney Frank -- a gay , outspokenly liberal Democrat who sparred with O'Reilly -- explained to The Daily Beast : `` When you go on his show , you have two choices : either be reasonable and let him dominate with his ranting , or yell back at him . You either look timid or as boorish as he is . '' The verbal fireworks make for a certain kind of TV that can be fun to watch and has proved enormously popular , but it does n't give O'Reilly a pass to make things up and not get called on it . His dramatic claims to have reported from a war zone during the Falklands conflict -- an account complete with troops firing into crowds , a gun pointed at his head and O'Reilly saving a gravely wounded colleague -- has been disputed by seven of his colleagues who were on assignment in Argentina with him . More recently , reporters have questioned O'Reilly 's claim -- printed in his book , `` Killing Kennedy '' -- to have heard the gunshot that killed George de Mohrenschildt , a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald , the man who killed President John Kennedy . Mohrenschildt 's death was dramatic , important news : He killed himself in Florida shortly after being contacted by congressional investigators probing the assassination . It 's hard to believe that O'Reilly , then working on stories about the assassination for Dallas television station WFAA , would have sat on the news that he was present and heard the shotgun blast that killed Mohrenschildt . Once again , a little probing by journalists turns up evidence from reliable sources that O'Reilly 's account is probably false . Jefferson Morley , a former Washington Post editor , has posted audio tapes of O'Reilly talking with a congressional investigator around the time of the incident in conversations that leave little doubt that O'Reilly was in Dallas at the time Mohrenschildt died . `` He was in Dallas '' says Tracy Rowlett , who worked at WFAA at the time , according to the Huffington Post . `` Bill O'Reilly 's a phony -- there 's no other way to put it . '' Sally Quinn , former columnist and veteran Washington insider who is a friend of O'Reilly 's , defended him in a way that is less than helpful . `` O'Reilly is an entertainer and everything he does is totally subjective , including his memories , '' she told The Daily Beast . `` To attack him is simply to increase his ratings and the sales of his phenomenally popular books . Lighten up , everybody . '' That 's easier said than done , especially after O'Reilly chose to start threatening reporters . His best move now would be to do the difficult , responsible thing , the thing truly great journalists have been doing for decades : admit he screwed up , apologize and try to move on . That might damage his brand as the swaggering no-spin guy , and it might even lose him some viewers . But it would begin to restore his reputation in a profession that is n't perfect and does n't expect its practitioners to be -- but also does n't expect valid questions to be answered with the snarling , empty threats of a coward .
Errol Louis : Bill O'Reilly , accused of fabricating reports , threatened NYT reporter , saying : `` I 'm coming after you ... '' Louis : He placed himself in stories he was not in , former colleagues say . O'Reilly should come clean , apologize .