NEW YORK (AP) – During an interview Friday with Glenn Beck, another former Fox News Channel personality who was the subject of an advertiser boycott, Bill O’Reilly complained of a liberal “hit job” that did him in.
“In the weeks to come we’re going to be able to explain all of it,” O’Reilly said in his first interview since he was fired on April 19. “It has to do with destroying voices that the far left and the organized left-wing cabal doesn’t like.”
While Fox’s critics don’t see it that way, indeed, a powerful mix of lawyers and liberal groups savvy about the media and often working together, have sought to amplify allegations of sexual and racial harassment at the network in a series of scandals that have also cost the jobs of founding CEO Roger Ailes and co-president and veteran executive Bill Shine.
They’re not backing off, as they seek more firings and try to influence a British regulator’s ruling on Fox News parent company 21st Century Fox’s bid to acquire the Sky satellite network.
The drama has upended the most powerful conservative brand in media, one that has long rallied its viewers with talk of liberal conspiracies. O’Reilly’s voice, for two decades the one most followed in cable news, has been silenced – for now.