Fox News' Swedish 'National Security Advisor' is about as reliable as Donald Trump on Sweden

On Thursday, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly interviewed a special guest on his show, about Sweden’s crime rates.

The guest in question was Nils Bildt, who was referred to as the ‘Swedish Defence and National Security Adviser’.

Except, according to Dagens Nyheter (DN) neither the Swedish Foreign Ministry, nor the Ministry of Defence have heard of him.

Here we go again.

Bildt is also a US immigrant, and was arrested in June 2014 for assault and battery against a law enforcement office, obstruction of justice and public inebriation after threatening an official.

He denies knowledge of the convictions.

On the subject of his credentials and indeed his identity, a spokesperson for Foreign Office told DN:

We do not know who he is.

UM.

It was a little embarrassing...

And the internet came down hard on his 'expertise':

Ahh the smell of fake news...

Bildt clapped back, and in a letter to DN and Metro, said that the job title had not been chosen by him, and referred to himself as an “independent analyst based in the US”.

This isn’t the first time an expert’s credentials have been the topic of controversy on Fox News.

In 2015 Wayne Shelby Simmons, a regular guest on Fox News, who claimed to have 27 years of experience in the CIA pleaded guilty to fraud against the government.

This came after it came to light that there were no records or evidence of his ever having been employed by the CIA.

Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor confirmed that Bildt has “no direct role” in the Swedish government, and told indy100:

Last week we did a segment on Sweden and its Muslim immigrant situation. Both sides were presented as always. After the segment some left wing people objected to one guest, Nils Bildt who was introduced by me as a ‘Swedish Defence and National Security Advisor.’ The Swedish government also weighed in saying they’ve had no contact with Mr. Bildt. Now, we looked into the situation and the criticism is valid. It’s valid. Mr. Bildt does consulting work on terrorism, that’s true - but we should have clarified that he had no direct role with the Swedish government. To be fair, the information we gave you in the segment was accurate but in hindsight a more relevant guest should have been used on the anti-immigrant side. You should also know that before the segment was booked we asked the Swedish Ambassador to appear, he declined. That invitation stands.

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