In his first interview since being fired by Fox News, Bill O’Reilly spoke with Glenn Beck on Friday about a number of issues, including the “hit” against him orchestrated by “left-wing” groups, the media’s abandonment of real journalism, and the fake news firestorm over Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey.
O’Reilly would not give Beck many specifics about his ouster, but made clear that he has been “target number one” of a coordinated, left-wing campaign against conservative “voices.”
“This was a hit,” O’Reilly told Beck. “In the weeks to come, we’re going to be able to explain some of it. And it has to do with destroying voices that the far-left and the organized left-wing cabal doesn’t like.
“So that’s the general tone,” he continued. “Now, I can’t get specific because there’s a lot of legality here.”
When Beck asked if he was going to be revealing the information himself or if it was going to be unveiled through other venues, O’Reilly said both.
“There’s going to be an exposition soon, but I can’t tell you when — about what exactly this crew that goes in and terrorizes sponsors, that threatens people behind the scenes, that pays people to say things,” said O’Reilly. “We’re going to name them and it’s going to be a big, big story.”
O’Reilly predicted that the story “will be downplayed by the mainstream media,” but said he trusted that alternative media, like The Blaze, would cover it fairly.
O’Reilly described himself as “target number one” of a larger campaign against conservatives, and condemned the attacks on him as “sad” and “grossly dishonest,” but vowed to “take action” going forward.
“I did what I thought I had to do to protect my family, but those days are over,” he said. “From now on when I’m attacked, I’m going to take action — mostly legal action.”
For a recent example of the coordinated campaign at work, O’Reilly pointed Beck to an article about nine big corporations being targeted by Soros-funded left-wing groups for allegedly profiting from Trump’s immigration stance.
O’Reilly has consistently maintained his innocence in the sexual harassment allegations and said on his podcast a few weeks ago that his fans would be “shaken” by the truth when it eventually comes out. O’Reilly’s attorney has openly accused “far-left” groups of having coordinated a “smear campaign” against him, for which Beck has offered some evidence connected to Media Matters and Bonner Group.
Though O’Reilly was reluctant to open up on the air about all the intrigue behind the scenes, he was more than willing to speak at length about the establishment media’s rejection of honest reporting, particularly when it comes to Trump. The press, he said, is no longer trying to uncover and report the truth, but looking to perpetuate predetermined “narratives.”
A current example is the narrative on Trump’s firing of Comey. O’Reilly told Beck he knows “for a fact” why Trump really booted him: Trump doesn’t trust Comey. It’s that simple, he suggested, yet look at all the fake news stories that the once-respected media has pushed out, including, Comey supposedly asking for new funding for the Russia investigation and the new deputy attorney general supposedly threatening to resign, both of which turned out to be false.
Beck added that the audience of Stephen Colbert was so confused by the Democrats’ self-contradictory narrative on Comey — whom Democrats spent months vilifying as the man responsible for Hillary Clinton’s humiliating defeat but now are trying to portray as a victim of Trump’s Nixonian attempt to cover up his alleged “collusion” with Russia — that Colbert had to correct his audience for applauding the director’s firing.