Second, do we inform the administration that this tape exists and ask for a response? I was against that, fearful they would claim some national security bullshit and prevent us from posting it. Besides, Frankie B. pointed out, once people saw this, the government would have plenty of opportunities to respond. Frank Biondo, our often-beleaguered advertising genius, expressed concern that the sure-to-ensue controversy might drive away timid advertisers, then responded defensively to the derisive staff comments, “Hey, I’m not advocating anything. I’m just explaining the facts of life.”

The fear that the government would prevent us from going public eventually outweighed all our other concerns. At my request—okay, insistence—we cut the first portion of the video, making it more difficult to trace it back to Shaw. Howie decided to post it exclusively on our site for four hours, then repost it to YouTube with our logo embedded. I wrote the introduction: “This video was forwarded to my attention on a social media platform. It was sent anonymously. I do not know its provenance, but I believe it was sent to me because of the interview I conducted with the mother of one of the men who died in the Stratford Road attack. (Link attached) While I have no way of confirming that this is an accurate recording of the events that took place that night, technical experts have examined the video and concluded to the best of their ability that it has not been doctored or photoshopped in any way.”

Frankie slapped a title on it, “Three Minutes That Shook Our World,” and posted it. Within an hour it had gone viral. Two hours later the FBI walked into the office and asked to speak with me. They handed me expensively embossed cards—he was O’Reilly, she was Pfiser. O’Reilly was older than Pfiser. His hair was cut close but in a stylish rather than a political manner; her blond hair was pinned in a bun. Her suit was nicer than his. They were both professional and polite. Howie and I sat with them in the glass-enclosed conference room while everyone else pretended not to be watching. “We’re simply trying to learn as much as possible about this video,” Pfiser said.

“Am I under oath?”

She wiggled her hands. “Not exactly. But lying to a federal agent during an investigation, whether or not you take an oath, can be prosecuted.”

“The penalties can be pretty tough,” O’Reilly added.

I told them the same thing I had written; the video had shown up and I didn’t know its source. And technically that was absolutely true.

O’Reilly asked pleasantly, “You have any idea who might have sent it?”

Howie started to respond, but I put a restraining hand on his arm. “I have a lot of sources, and even if I did know who sent it to me, I wouldn’t tell you. That’s the way the First Amendment works.” Why couldn’t I just shut up sometimes?

Agent Pfiser smiled with closed lips. “So you’re not actually denying you might know who sent it to you?”