Ousted Fox News Channel star Bill O’Reilly made a return visit to the cable news network, stopping by Sean Hannity’s show, ostensibly to plug his latest “Killing” book, “Killing England.” But the two titans of right wing TV news inevitably turned to the “liberal fascists” they say are making their lives hell.
There are “no rules any more” in journalism, said O’Reilly, who exited FNC in the wake of an April 1 New York Times report that he and FNC paid nearly $13M to settle cases with five women going back 15 years, after which a couple more women had claimed publicly that O’Reilly harassed them too, years ago.
Major “urban” newspapers, polluted by “leftwing” journalists, “coordinate” among themselved, O’Reilly said on Hannity’s show Tuesday night. TV is no better, with all the non-FNC cable news networks being “leftwing top to bottom,” O’Reilly added.
“These totalitarians want to wipe out any speech with which they disagree,” O’Reilly added.
Hannity said he calls them “liberal fascists.” Conversely, Hanity added, conservatives are very tolerant. “We defend Bill Maher – hate Bill Maher!” Hannity said, adding, accurately, “I never said that Kathy Griffin should be fired.”
Right-win can get “hateful,” O’Reilly felt compelled to respond, but does not organize boycotts.
Seguing to boycotts, the men discussed the role Media Matters paid in their recent dealing with their employer. Meida Matters, Hannity said, pays reporters to record the public comments of “every prominent conservative voice” which can then be used against them.
“Hannity and I have discussed it off camera,” O’Reilly revealed. “We will fight back. You fought back when they came after you last spring. I didn’t, and I should have,” he said of Fox News’ parent company’s stunning decision in April to remove the host of Fox New Channel’s flagship program The O’Reilly Factor.
Weeks later, hours after Fox News Channel finally retracted a May 16 conspiracy theory story about the fatal shooting of DNC staffer Seth Rich in Washington D.C. last summer, Hannity announced on his show, “Out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing this matter at this time.”
The Rich family had demanded that Fox and Hannity knock off with the conspiracy theory.
Fox News’ online report about the 2016 killing of Rich had been based on information from private investigator/Fox News contributor Rod Wheeler, who had said Rich was in email contact with WikiLeaks before his murder. FNC pulled the report after Wheeler told CNN he had no evidence of such contact, which he heard about from a Fox News reporter.
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