Following Fox News’ highly publicized $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, many have voiced criticism for the network, including Stephen King. But now, even the channel’s former employee Bill O’Reilly has expressed his critical views and called out the network for being dishonest.
Fox News had heavily criticized the election of Joe Biden and often made claims that the election was rigged, to Donald Trump’s applause, which prompted the defamation lawsuit from Dominion, something the channel had originally responded to by claiming such a lawsuit was meritless. Settling for such a high sum now suggests that Fox thinks otherwise and that they were therefore likely unwilling to allow their pundits to testify at trial.
Today, Bill O’Reilly stated, “This is what happens when money becomes more important than honest information.”
O’Reilly, who now posts on his website and runs a popular podcast called No Spin News, as well as a popular YouTube channel, was the host of the network’s most successful show, The O’Reilly Factor, which lasted for two decades and was the highest-rated news show on cable for 16 years. He writes a message on his site every day and dedicated today’s message to the recent happenings at Fox News and stated that the network should have listened to facts more than its opinion.
“Once the facts begin to overwhelm any point of view, a news agency has an obligation to say that.”
O’Reilly mentioned his own experience of running a news-oriented platform and discussed how he handled the news of the lawsuit against Fox News, explaining, “I examined all the fraud charges and concluded that no federal court would accept the cheating allegations. Therefore, the election was not going to be refuted by our legal system. When I stated that opinion to my audience, I lost more than one thousand premium members.”
Pointing out how even he loses subscribers for swaying from the common view of his politically-motivated listeners means that Fox News risked losing a large part of its audience if it spoke the truth. In fact, as O’Reilly adds, “Fox News saw it differently and now payment is rendered. But the nightmare will continue for them.”
The television host knows a thing or two about settlements. He was ultimately let go by Fox News in 2017 after they helped the host settle two of five different sexual misconduct claims against him. Nonetheless, he continues on as a popular conservative news reporter.
In regards to the settlement, however, O’Reilly noted that it isn’t the last lawsuit that the company will face as Fox News is battling a similar lawsuit from the Smartmatic Company as well as “and perhaps “thousands of lawsuits from Fox shareholders.”
