Bill O’Reilly is undeniably a cable news legend. During his time at Fox News hosting The O’Reilly Factor, millions tuned into his 8 PM ET program which was later held by hosts like Tucker Carlson and protege Jesse Watters after his high-profile exit from the company in 2017.
All of that means that Bill O’Reilly knows a thing or two about cable news. And when he looks at the landscape today, he doesn’t have a glowing endorsement.
“There was a huge change in cable news. And unfortunately, it’s not for the better,” posited O’Reilly. “The reason that it rose to prominence was that it gave the American viewers something that network news would not. And that is strong opinion in prime time. Well, you still have that opinion, but you don’t have debate. So on all of these outlets, what they do is bring in people who agree with them. And it’s boring. That’s why the numbers are going down, and they’re going down fast.
“Then you have a huge political component in some of the operations, where the management basically tells the talent — like MSNBC — ‘You’re going to be left-wing and that’s it. That’s what you’re gonna be because that’s our audience, that’s how we make money, and you better do it or we’ll look somebody else. Once you get into that realm, you’re not a news operation anymore. And to portray yourself as one is fraud.”
O’Reilly pointed to his weekly appearances on NewsNation with Chris Cuomo as what other cable news outlets should be mimicking.
“It’s a shootout. You don’t see that anymore … If you don’t have robust debate, then what do you have? Propaganda. That’s where the trend has been in cable news. Now, the reason that Fox News maintains the number one position is its talent is so much better than the others. I mean, it’s not even in the same ballpark. A lot of those people were trained by me. They are very good at what they do, presenting whatever they want to present over there. But Fox News is not what it used to be. And everybody knows that. There’s nobody that. It’s totally different.”
When asked if he thought there was a way to return to more debates on cable news outlets, O’Reilly said it’s simply not an option in today’s day and age.
“It’s never gonna happen,” he said, bluntly. “It’s far too difficult to prepare for a debate and management does not respect that. And the talent knows they can get in trouble if they say certain things. As long as you have management — they just want to make money. That’s it. So the less trouble, the better for them. And that’s where we are across the board. Not only in cable but in network news as well. I mean, you saw what happened to George Stephanopoulos. I mean, they hung him at ABC. He has a right to his opinion. Somebody asked him his opinion and he gave it and you get punished for that? That’s ridiculous.”
The development of risk-averse managers isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon in news media. However, those unwilling to take risks or allow Bill O’Reilly the freedom to say and do as he pleases on the air are why his future includes working for himself instead of a corporate entity.
“I’m not gonna work for a corporation anymore. They would have to hire my corporation. I run three corporations and that’s how we do it. So if somebody wants my presence, whether it be radio or television, they have to hire my corporation and pay me through that so that they don’t have sway over me,” O’Reilly said. He added that Tucker Carlson — who has shared similar sentiments since leaving Fox News, made a wise choice in structuring his company similarly. “Carlson was very smart in what he did. Because a guy like that, his success is based on being a contrarian. And corporate America, that’s as far away from corporate philosophy as you can get. He was lucky to get a guy like Elon Musk, who’s a contrarian himself. So that relationship seems to be, on paper, simpatico … Carlson is a contrarian and corporations don’t want that. So he’s smart to develop his own operation.”
Late last month, O’Reilly labeled conservative firebrand Dan Bongino a “fanatic” for his approach to former President Donald Trump and the intense nature in which he hosts his show. In response, Bongino lobbed various insults at the former Fox News host, many of which we are unable to publish at Barrett News Media. While criticizing Bill O’Reilly, Bongino shared that he’s “not here to make friends.” O’Reilly had similar response when asked about the situation.
“We call it as we see it. If I’m going to do a story about people devoted to a certain point of view, I’m going to do liberals, independents, libertarians, and conservatives. And if people take offense to that, they take offense to it,” he shared. “I don’t care.”
That calling-balls-and-strikes-attitude has worked for O’Reilly since founding his own digital media company after leaving Fox News in 2017 amid sexual harassment allegations. In the latest data from Chartable.com, O’Reilly’s No Spin News program ranks as one of the top news podcasts in not only the United States but also in Canada and the United Kingdom. His YouTube channel, which features more than 615,000 subscribers, routinely sees hundreds of thousands of views on his daily content. O’Reilly also has a nationally syndicated radio show through Key Networks that originates from 77 WABC in New York.
And despite the changing platforms during the late stages of his career, Bill O’Reilly shares that his mindset and approach to covering the news has never changed.
“My priority is looking out for you,” said O’Reilly. “I wrote a book on it. That’s one of my slogans: ‘We’re looking out for you.’ So it basically populist news. We don’t do the pinhead stuff. We’re not gonna do macroeconomics, we’re not going to do what happens in Latvia. We’re not going to do any of that. What we do is take the emotion of the day, the story of the day that has an effect on the working-class American, and we’re going to present it in an honest way. And we’re going to tell people what we think about it. But we are going to bring in voices that disagree, which we do all the time. We are going to basically say, ‘Look, this is how we see it. And if you disagree, fine, write me a letter. I’ll read it on air.’ It’s a populist presentation of news that directly affects Americans.”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
