Last week Bill O’Reilly made news by an apparent support of the public option. Well it didn’t take long for him to try and paint that support as some big conspiracy theory:

Via Think Progress:

GOLDBERG: Bill, Bill, don’t shoot the messenger. Right? I’m your friend. I’m telling you this as a friend. You also said, “If the government can cobble together a cheaper insurance policy that gives the same benefits, I see that as a plus for the folks.” Now, I know what you meant by that.

O’REILLY: But I clarified it: private hands.

GOLDBERG: You did. You absolute — you absolutely did. But you’re a big prize for the left. But they can get… What I’m saying is when — when you say — when you say if the government can cobble…

O’REILLY: I clarified. I know what you’re saying, but it’s just drives me crazy that you can’t have be an honest dialogue in this country anymore.

So we all got it wrong on what O’Reilly said? Let’s review:

’REILLY: The public option now is done. We discussed this, it’s not going to happen. But you say that this little marketplace that they’re going to set up, whereby the federal government would subsidize insurance for some Americans, that is, in your opinion, a public option?

   OWCHARENKO: Well, it has massive new federal regulation. So you don’t necessarily need a public option if the federal government is going to control and regulate the type of health insurance that Americans can buy.

   O’REILLY: But you know, I want that, Ms. Owcharenko. I want that. I want, not for personally for me, but for working Americans, to have a option, that if they don’t like their health insurance, if it’s too expensive, they can’t afford it, if the government can cobble together a cheaper insurance policy that gives the same benefits, I see that as a plus for the folks.

O’Reilly specifically said that “if the government”, which is a far cry from “private hands”. It looks like the only not being honest about this is Bill O. and apparently he is still at to much of a loss to realize that people can record what he says and play it back at a later date – a technology that has been in existence since the 70s and is even used by his own show.