Bill O’Reilly got fired from Fox News today. Even as he headed out the door, he couldn’t help drop lie after lie. Here is his statement.
“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. 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.”
It was five sentences long. It contained six lies.
Here they are.
- “…one of the most successful news programs in history.”
It’s arguably the most successful cable news program of the past 20 years, but history? Today’s network news programs easily double O’Reilly’s audience on any given day of mundane news. The Sunday news programs outperform him. The morning news shows outperform him. The weekly news magazine shows outperform him, and we’re talking about the age of cable, in which 4 million viewers is considered successful. We aren’t even diving back into the days when the big three networks were our only options, and regularly enjoyed tens of millions of viewers daily. - “…consistently informed…”
A 2012 study by Fairleigh Dickinson University found that people who watch Fox News are less informed than people who don’t watch the news at all. This means that people who don’t pay attention to the news at all are more informed than a typical Fox News viewer. That’s science. - “…Fox […] the dominant news network in television.”
Again, the big three outperform Fox News on a regular basis. If Fox’s broadcast network had an evening news program, it would probably beat out Bill O’Reilly as well. This is why Fox network has no evening news program. - “…completely unfounded claims…”
Fox News itself claimed in its statement releasing O’Reilly that a careful review of the allegations led them to believe that O’Reilly had to go. Fox News regularly paid hush money to people and stood behind Bill O’Reilly after court documents showed that he assaulted his own wife, but this time, their review revealed there was nothing they could do to protect him this time. If Fox News itself believed the allegations were unfounded, he’d still have a job. - “…many of us in the public eye must live with…”
O’Reilly wants you to believe that he was targeted simply because he is in the public eye, but this doesn’t pan out and one has to look no further than his own time-slot follower to suss that out. Many others have already noted that Sean Hannity has never been accused of sexually harassing any of his coworkers or guests, and Sean Hannity is a gigantic asshole with a gigantic ego, and if he were inclined to sexually harass women, he most likely would have numerous times by now. So, Hannity alone helps put to rest the lie that being in the public eye makes one a target for “false” accusations. - “…unprecedented success we achieved…”
Here is a list of real and successful journalists who succeeded before Bill O’Reilly had his first meltdown on Inside Edition:
Barbara Walters, Dan Rather, Ted Koppel, Walter Cronkite, Edward Murrow, Peter Jennings, David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw, Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Connie Chung, Jane Pauley, Deborah Norville, Oprah Winfrey (yes, she started as a TV reporter), Belva Davis, Chet Huntley, Diane Sawyer, Bernard Shaw, Howard Smith, Bob Schieffer, John McLaughlin, John Chancellor, Roger Mudd, Harry Reasoner….
There are probably others, and every one of those listed above had double, triple, quadruple the ratings that Bill O’Reilly ever had on his best night.
So long, Bill O’Reilly. Go fuck yourself.
Here’s your trump picture: