Bill O'Reilly's Lincoln Book Being Made Into Documentary By National Geographic

The National Geographic Channel is getting a dose of Bill O'Reilly. The cable network is turning O'Reilly's biography of Abraham Lincoln into a two-hour documentary, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The film will adapt "Killing Lincoln," a histoy that recounts the night of Lincoln's assassination, for screens. It is slated to debut early next year, with O'Reilly as executive producer.

The Fox News host praised the partnership in a statement, saying, "National Geographic has a great legacy of telling some of history’s most riveting stories. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln is no exception, as it continues to be one of the most significant, life-changing events in America’s young history." The network is owned by National Geographic and Fox Entertainment.

The choice to make the documentary could raise some eyebrows. The book caused no small dose of controversy when it was released, as some historians said it was riddled with inaccuracies. O'Reilly forcefully defended it against these claims.

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Comments

[robert horwitz]

10:49 AM on 01/15/2012

National Geographic huh. At first I thought hey maybe there is something to this book. Reading on I found out that the Network its being produced on is owned not only by National Geographic but Fox Entertainment. I wonder if its being narrated by Geraldo Rivera? Who can forget all those exciting moments Geraldo gave us in the Great Pyramid or opening Al Capone's Safe. Maybe we will all learn that Lincoln really wasn't assassinated? It was all a left wing conspiracy. He is still alive and well and running the Republican Party today.

[j hawkins]

10:12 AM on 01/15/2012

Billo wrote a book ?

[UptheStairs]

01:35 AM on 01/17/2012

Bill has his name attached to several books. Bill's a rich guy.

[mamacat]

02:23 AM on 01/15/2012

"The network is owned by National Geographic and Fox Entertainment." -- If they will lower their standards enough to accommodate the likes of Sarah Palin, should it surprise anyone that they would present a show based on something Bill O'Reilly wrote?

[JenW1973]

10:43 AM on 01/15/2012

Couldn't agree more but FYI the Palin fiasco was on TLC

[andyou]

11:46 PM on 01/14/2012

National Geographic? Does that mean Lincoln gets eaten by a bear?

[panichead]

12:45 PM on 01/17/2012

.....then shat out.

[silvercreeklady]

11:41 PM on 01/14/2012

"riddled with inaccuracies"????? Speaking on “The O’Reilly Factor,” he acknowledged that “Killing Lincoln” contained “four minor misstatements, all of which have been corrected.” He added that “there are also two typeset errors.”

[Andy49]

10:00 PM on 01/14/2012

I dropped any connection with National Geographic when they went commercial and started selling at the news stand and created a cable outlet. It stop being about science and became about money. The very fact that they have lowered themselves to air something written by this clown shows how greedy and anti science they have become. I have a son with a Phd that grew up reading their magazine and children's publications. I would not allow them in my house anymore as they are full of really nice pictures and crap science.

[KickstandCat]

05:10 PM on 01/14/2012

I didn't know Billo wrote "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter".

National Geographic? REALLY??????

[jimdu]

04:13 PM on 01/14/2012

Doris Kearns Goodwin he is not.

[Eagleman]

10:02 AM on 01/17/2012

Bill O'reilly she is not !

[pragmaticalpaula]

03:44 AM on 01/18/2012

THANK GOD

[pragmaticalpaula]

03:43 AM on 01/18/2012

No, but he thinks he is. Now if Goodwin wrote it, it would be as accurate as possible, and fascinating as well. I wouldn't waste my time with Bill's.

[RLaitres]

02:40 PM on 01/14/2012

That a reputable organization such as National Geographic would ever seriously consider a book by O'Reilly as worthy of a movie or television special, shows how far the intellectual level in his nation has fallen and what people will do for money. Some of us have studied Lincoln for many years and have found that, despite the voluminous works on him, we find that he was neither perfect nor did he pretend to be so. What is unfortunate is that most of the hype about him is wrong, nor would he have approved of it. Bill O'Reilly, and National Geographic are simply using his memory to "make a buck", as most do with the memory of past individuals. There is apparently no intellectual level to which many will "sink" in order to "make a buck".

[52tucker]

01:46 PM on 01/14/2012

Martin Dugard's book, which BillO skimmed before approving, the headline should read.

[mapmaker515]

01:45 PM on 01/14/2012

Nat Geo outbid SYFY.

[52tucker]

01:44 PM on 01/14/2012

Let's pretend that Bill actually wrote this. Sorry, just can't buy it. Paying a ghostwriter doesn't count.

[RLaitres]

03:10 PM on 01/14/2012

For those who have ever listened to O'Reilly know full well that the individual has knowledge of history whatsoever. He has neither the academic nor the intellectual background necessary to do so. So, he does what any such shallow minded individual does, pick and choose events or personalities and exagerrates them, holding them up as either examples of either "good" or "evil". He is a mere dilletante in the subject, something which is true of most, even some with advanced degrees in the subject, all of them characterized by one thing, a lack of perspective.

[Blarg]

01:21 PM on 01/14/2012

Sarah Palin gets a show on Discovery Channel.

O'Reilly gets one on National Geographic.

What next, Rush Limbaugh on The Food Network? Michelle Bachman on the History Channel?

[Donald Kraig]

12:29 PM on 01/14/2012

Considering that Ford's Theatre refuses to sell Bill O'Reilly's book, 'Killing Lincoln,' because, as one historian charges, it has 'mistakes in names, places, and events,' the appropriate place for this to be shown would be Comedy Central, following a showing of 'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure,' another fictional film about the past that at least acknowledges it's a comedy.

[RLaitres]

03:16 PM on 01/14/2012

This is not the worst thing. Most who write history books for students in K-12 do not know their subject either. Most are written in some cubicle in some back room at publishing houses, most of the time by someone who has only a Bacherlor's degree in the subject. A Bachelor's degree in that subject, as it is in most subjects, consists merely of introduction to the subject, and in no way is there any expertise either in the subject, or any other subject. One can say that such a level of education consists of little else than having read the title of books on the subject, never mind actually having opened any of them or beginning to understand what the subject is really about.

[silvercreeklady]

11:45 PM on 01/14/2012

"Speaking on “The O’Reilly Factor,” he acknowledged that “Killing Lincoln” contained “four minor misstatements, all of which have been corrected.” He added that “there are also two typeset errors.”"

"After the review conducted by Rae Emerson, the deputy superintendent of Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site, the National Park Service recommended that the book not be sold in the Ford’s Theatre basement museum bookstore.

However, Ford’s Theatre Society, which operates Ford’s Theatre in partnership with the park service, has the book for sale in its gift shop in the ground-floor lobby. Paul R. Tetreault, director of Ford’s Theatre Society, said, “While we understand the National Park Service’s concerns about the book, we decided to let our visitors judge the book themselves.”

Henry Holt, the publisher of “Killing Lincoln,” said Monday that it has corrected mistakes in the book, which O’Reilly wrote with Martin Dugard.

“Once we were made aware of the errors in the book, corrections were made in subsequent printings of ‘Killing Lincoln,’ ” Pat Eisemann, Henry Holt’s director of publicity, said in an e-mail. “We continue to fully support the work of the authors.”

[DevonTexas]

10:57 AM on 01/14/2012

""National Geographic has a great legacy of telling some of history’s most riveting stories."

Exactly the reason they shouldn't have touched this trashy novel with a 10 foot pole!