Bill O’Reilly is no longer employed with Fox News. (Photo: AP)
Fox News said goodbye to the face of its franchise this week Bill “Papa Bear” O’Reilly following immense backlash resulting from a slew of sexual harassment allegations that ultimately proved to be too much for the cable news host to overcome.
“After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Bill O’Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel,” 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, said in a statement.
The allegations of sexual harassment against O’Reilly were not new. Over the years, Fox had paid out $13 million to five different women to settle sexual harassment lawsuits against the 67-year-old.
What ultimately did O’Reilly in was money. No, not the $13 million Fox spent to pay off his accusers nor his crazy $18 million yearly salary, but the ad dollars. After a recent New York Times investigation put a spotlight on those settlements as well as new accusations from more women, sponsors started dropping him like a bad habit.
It had to be tough for Fox News because “The O’Reilly Factor” was the most-watched and top-rated program on cable news for almost two decades. It was a major cash cow. But when 50 sponsors suddenly pull ads from the show, it doesn’t really matter how many people tune in.
As someone once told me, “Success in media isn’t about the number of eyeballs, rather it’s how much money you can generate selling against those eyeballs.” Three million viewers, more or less the size of his audience, is irrelevant if you can’t sell ads against those viewers.
OReilly Accusers who’ve received settlements. (Photo: NY Times)
Sure, it didn’t help that his old chum former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes was fired last summer for similar improprieties. Following the Ailes’ sexual harassment scandal, the Murdoch family who owns 21st Century Fox had promised to clean up the culture of Fox News and restore “trust and respect.” That’s sorta hard to do when the centerpiece of your network has a documented history of hitting on the help.
But yeah, the main reason he got axed was money. Ad dollars — not because the Murdochs wanted to shut down the Boy’s club atmosphere at Fox News.
Shortly after the announcement of his departure, O’Reilly said in a statement on his website, “Over the past 20 years at Fox News, I have been extremely proud to launch and lead one of the most successful news programs in history, which has consistently informed and entertained millions of Americans and significantly contributed to building Fox into the dominant news network in television.”
“It is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims,” he continued. “But that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today. I will always look back on my time at Fox with great pride in the unprecedented success we achieved and with my deepest gratitude to all my dedicated viewers. I wish only the best for Fox News Channel.”
From the gun community’s perspective, the loss of O’Reilly on cable news is no big deal. When it came to the 2A he proved himself time and time again to be an ignoramus. Consider this 2012 video from one of his famous “Talking Points” segments:
To sum up the video O’Reilly says: We should be compelled to report the sale of a “heavy weapon or ammo” to the FBI. Nobody “reports the sale of heavy weapons, like AK-47,” to the Federal government. “Terrorists can just move in here and buy bazookas.” You can “buy a machine gun” and the feds don’t know.
Geez. See, what I mean? He really never had a clue.
In another “Talking Points” segment in 2016, O’Reilly called for “reasonable gun registration laws” as well as universal background checks.
“On the other side, the NRA and the gun owners should be reasonable,” said O’Reilly. “The FBI should background check anyone buying a firearm in America. That just makes sense. If you are paranoid and believe the government is stockpiling information so they can come to your house and take your guns — that’s your problem, your problem.”
What O’Reilly doesn’t understand is that the 2A is really about the powerless. It’s the one safeguard the little guy has to use to keep a spree killer from murdering his family or a tyrannical government from taking away his freedom. O’Reilly doesn’t understand this because he hasn’t been the little guy in decades. He’s become a major player in a powerful, self-congratulating media elite.
That’s why I’m not too surprised that the guy who backs the government over the people in the fight for 2A rights is the same guy who, allegedly, calls an African-American clerical worker “hot chocolate” and “grunts at her like a wild boar.” O’Reilly has shown that he doesn’t respect the rights of the little guy or gal in the face of the establishment. That’s because for far too long he’s been the establishment.
I’ve been inundated with fake news all my life—from the ‘victory’ of the mercenaries at Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) to the phony Gulf of Tonkin ‘incident’. All before I went to Vietnam; and I was NOT a draftee. I was one of the earlier ones (1966) and it took things like the Tet offensive and Attic rebellion to convince me that the capitalist press and politicians will.lie about anything.
Good riddance to a reactionary misogynist. Hurray for 2A!
Mr. O’reilly was axed in a remaking of the network as Murdock, aged 86, gives up control of the FOX empire to his son a weasley Leftist Elitist. Ailes was first, then Bill, next is Sean Hannity. Expect Fox news to be like CNN going forward. The Elite lost the election and they know why. Their former lockhold on the media message they used to placate the masses is slipping away. They are working on the internet. In Europe Facebook is tightly controlled and subject to fines in some countries if someone is allowed to Post off message. The Gun Digest Author Might want to look a bit deeper before putting an article out.. You might want to actually research what is going on.
No fan of O’Reilly here either, and a huge supporter of the 2A, but I think you let your exuberance get the better of you here. Spouting off things like it doesn’t matter how many eyeballs are watching his show, and it only matters that an advertiser sells their product is not only myopic…..it’s just plain erroneous. Please understand that you are sounding just like Billy O by playing loose and easy with the facts!!! Trust me, it matters a great deal to advertisers how many eyeballs are watching any given show, because without them, there is no bang for their buck.
I also think you are overlooking a larger issue here that is playing out in the workplace that needs to be addressed, and that is the one of claims of sexual harassment by these women and the millions that is being paid out to them. There is something much larger at play here that needs to be examined.
Tell the truth, it was a Marxist-Democrat Party hit job.
Never have been a fan of his pompous narcissistic arse to begin with. I heard those comments when he made them and personally couldn’t believe what was coming out of his mouth. Speaking of his mouth, don’t worry about Bill because I’m sure he’ll find another media outlet that’ll hire him and he’ll have plenty of opportunities to stick his foot in it again.
The facts remain O’Reilly was a super star amongst the majority of the Far Right. The old cliché that “A conservative is often is own worst enemy” certainly shines through with the popularity of Reilly as he was loathed and hated by the Left. It seems almost unfathomable that so many of the Far Right overlooked O’Reilly’s rabid hatred of the Second Amendment and that his popularity actually soared in his last days on Fox News. The Far Right which is supposedly for “family values” also flat out refused to believe the multitudes of women that sued him for sexual harassment as well claiming it was all a “Left Wing” Conspiracy. The more you study the far Right the less they make any sense even unto themselves.
Ultimately no one will care that he’s gone. He was an opinion maker, not a policy maker. People who wrapped themselves as fans around him will find a new standard-bearer by which to become fanboi’s and fangrlz. Besides, O’Reilly will find another venue that will pay him to peddle his opinions. Maybe the Blaze? lulz.
LOL… Say Hello to Barry and Killery !
Here’s an idea ,,, heard Michael isn’t too happy with Barry …. maybe its free while Barry is hiding out ..
Does he really say I can buy a “MACHINE GUN” and nobody will know I bought it.????
It won’t have to be reported and I won’t have to have a special permit for it??????
He says the AK-47 is a heavy weapon, He is correct because my AK is much heavier then my M4.
When they talk about “FAKE NEWS” he was the king of lies.
I sure hope they get someone with common sense and some education on what is really going on in America that knows a little about guns and the second amendment to replace this scumbag.
He completely bought into the man-made climate change hoax as well. I tuned him out some years ago when he was trying to differentiate himself from Limbaugh and other talk radio conservatives by boasting about how he was a “real journalist” because he graduated from a journalism school and those other guys are merely “entertainers”. Yeah Bill, no one can possibly have a valid opinion on current events if they didn’t go to “journalism school”. What an egocentric ass.
Buck Fill O’Reilly.
In his book, “Killing Kennedy”, he casually mentions that Texas does not have “strict” gun laws or “gun registration”. It’s almost as if he was implying that Oswald wouldn’t have been able to assassinate Kennedy if Texas had stronger gun laws. How sad to go through life thinking you can stop evil with a law.
I don’t watch Fake News so I never saw this idiot in action so I never knew he was anti gun. That makes him utterly worthless since there’s only a couple of good things about conservatives – gun rights, immigration and taxes. Good riddance!!!
You left out another good thing about them……they aren’t liberals.
If you don’t watch the FNC ‘fake news,’ just what TV news channel DO you watch? I don’t know of any other channel that is less fake than FNC.
This is a win for Soros, Clinton, B>O> their camp followers’ and the AH’s of the media.
How can this be good for me a plain old country boy who was brought up to think that the truth matters?
For every departure from FOX my initial thought was how will FOX ever fill the shoes? Same with Bill but his shoes will be filled and more. The enemies of FOX will not prevail against truth.
Sorry to tell you partner but any truthful news reporting in the U.S. will very soon be a thing of the past. Once the new regime is in place at 20th Century Fox it won’t make one twit of difference which news channel you tune into-they’ll all be spewing the same lying libtard crap dis-ingeniousness garbage. O’reilly wasn’t perfect by any stretch but we WILL long for the return of the days when he was at least commenting, somewhat truthfully, unlike CNN-(crappy news network), ABC-(awful broadcasting company) or NBC-(nasty broadcasting corporation) consistently lying to the masses.
BECK was the only real man on the fox network but he made to much since and told the truth to many times.
And they winner of the biggest oxymoron in history challenge goes to Larry Toomey!!…BECK and REAL MAN….LMFAO!!!!
Too funny
He must have been too busy harassing his female colleagues to have time studying firearms laws. An over paid mainstream media creep. Good riddance.
Maybe he’ll be replaced by left-wing Republican Geraldo Rivera? Would that make you happy? O’Reilly may have missed it on 2A, but he was the best on cable news at being able to logically argue against some of the leftist BS. And he had an audience of 4 million who would see it. Most, like Hannity, can only regurgitate poorly-written republican talking points.
EVERY win by the left is a win against the Constitution and 2A, even if it’s against someone who’s not against a staunch supporter of the 2A.
Plz disregard that last “against.”
I just skimmed the article and some of the comments. And while I didn’t know he had made ignorant comments about firearms etc. and while I don’t watch him or really any “mainstream” media, the few times I did listen to him, he seems to be pretty level headed and he often hit the “progressives” pretty hard, which is a good thing.
When I read this, all I could “see” is several women, who are probably getting money from the Soros machine, and who are getting more money from settlements. And while I hardly ever watch Fox, they seemed to be the only ‘news” outlet that pushed back against all of the left media outlets and criminals like Soros, the Clintons, Obama, etc. And as you read this, this really isn’t about O’reilly or any one person but about Fox News “Good ole boy” culture. Which again, I see this as part of the left’s agenda of attacking anything and anyone that opposes their insanity. So while Bill may have said some dumb stuff about the 2nd Amendment, this is part of the left’s attack on anyone who opposes them and if any of you think the left is done now that Trump is elected, you are sadly mistaken. This was just a temporary setback to the left and the globalist agenda. They will take down anyone and for that matter, any country that gets in the way. And Fox has kind of been in the way, so they have been going after them for a while now. This is just another “big” fish that can ad to their trophy wall. Don’t believe it? Just stick around and keep watching. It’s only a matter of time and the 1st and 2nd amendment are history. I know, the U.S. is different. It will never happen to us. I just wonder how many nations have said that before?
“they can add”-:) typo’s and probably more but you should be able to get what I’m saying here, I hope!
He was pro gun control because he was worried that a target of his sexual harassment would be armed.
It was ALL over for him when he said Obamas Birth Certificate was ” Legal ” . I’ve commented 3 times in 5 minutes ..woooo , hated that guys views
O’Reilly: Good riddance to bad rubbish!
Very brilliantly written and pointed narrative; GOOD JOB BRANNELBERRY !!!
I’ve always felt O’Reilly was at best a left-leaning centrist on 2nd. Amendment issues and any time this becomes absent from the media scene the better off we all are.
Closely related to megalomania (Hitler, Idi Amin, Kim Jong Un) is “mediomania” which affects news media big shots, causing them to think they know everything about everything even when they are profoundly ignorant on a subject. Another symptom, similar to megalomania, is the belief that a different set of rules applies to them. They think they can get away with things that would get ordinary people promptly marched out the door, rightly or wrongly. Bill was clearly in the financially terminal stage of mediomania and should have retired. Now the predattorney feeding frenzy is going to strip him of his millions.
He really fell down on the firearms issue. He claimed to expend every effort to get the story right, but apparently didn’t go to such extremes when it came to the subject of firearms.
Knowing that, he hardly qualified as “conservative”, although many seemed to think he was.
That many women that accused him can’t be WRONG, I think Bill has a problem or is Mentally Sick. Fox should have FIRED his ASS the first time this issue came to light. That is what would happen at anyother work place in AMERICA.
I don’t know if the allegations against him were true or false but it’s wrong to say, “That many women that accused him can’t be WRONG”.
There are a lot of people who say AIDS is a manmade disease manufactured to kill blacks, 9/11 was actually a CIA operation, there are corpses of intergalactic aliens hidden at Area 51, and a prehistoric creature lives on the bottom of Loch Ness in Scotland.
To redirect a quote from the movie “King Kong” when promoter Carl Denning looked down on the great ape after it tumbled from the Empire State Building “It was ego that killed the beast.”
Who was behind, and the tactics behind this take down is an ongoing concern that can only be addressed by destroying the Soros organization,….that said I’m pleased to see this phony sock-sniffer O’Jackass gone…unfortunately they have at least temporarily replaced him with that disgusting #1 Bush Fan-girl….at least the time slot will be filled by T.Carlson…a vast improvement and an entertaining dissection of libtards on a nightly basis
Aloof , arrogant and creepy…………………………..not going to miss him.
Truth is money leads to false sense of power! Ones it time and time again! You may start out with good intentions but, as time flows bye you lose that touch with reality . When the big money kicks in we lose that caring and compassion for those less fortunate . We act different are friends are different we live differently. You lose touch with those and our common sense! Sorry to see him go but it is what it is! Money the root of all evil.
I quit watching O’Reilly after he defended Obama’s fake forged identity.
Is Blannelberry really your name? Sheesh. Well, the same forces who took down O’Reilly- Media Matters, the Bannon Group- the rabble rousers who instigated the exodus of advertisers- they have stated that Sean Hannity is next. These people are dangerous and they are on a mission. They went after Glenn Beck too, though I don’t think that his departure was related. He left for his own reasons. But it is not important that O’Reilly was clueless on the gun issues. So are many who consider themselves “conservatives,” which O’Reilly did not claim to be. What is important is that he was taken down, not by the accusations of boorish behavior, but by a left wing campaign to make his presence untenable. They will find some way to go after every conservative at Fox News until there are none left. And the Murdoch sons will be all too glad to see it happen, as they do not have the stomach for conservative politics. This is just one more blow in what may well prove to be the end of the only TV network that gave conservative views a fair hearing. Be careful what you wish for, and don’t gloat so much. The dominos may continue to fall.
Amen brother!
The video is the reason I quit watching bill I knew the. He had no idea what he was talking about . And if he was wrong on guns he was probly wrong on a lot of other things. I won’t miss him. Buck 🇺🇸⚔🇺🇸 100% disabled Vietnam veteran Christian Right wing republican lifetime member NRA and friend to Israel