Bill O’Reilly: Fox’s support of CNN lawsuit against Trump reveals that the network ‘has gone to the dogs’

Bill O’Reilly blasted Fox News over its support of CNN in its lawsuit against President Donald Trump, saying the conservative network has “gone to the dogs” and wants to be part of the liberal media “club.”

The former Fox News giant told Adriana Cohen of the Herald Radio show on Thursday that the network he helped make into the king of conservative media has changed, and not for the better.

“Fox News is not what it was three years ago,” he said. “It’s different people running the operation.”

O’Reilly: Fox has changed

O’Reilly was referring to at least one of two events this month that showed a growing distance between Fox and its conservative viewership. The most recent: Fox’s decision this week to file an amicus brief in support of CNN in its lawsuit against President Trump.

The news came one week after Trump tussled at the White House with CNN reporter Jim Acosta, who had his press pass revoked. O’Reilly took Trump’s side in the matter and rebuked his former employer for giving up on the president.

“The Acosta thing isn’t about freedom of the press, it’s about how you behave as a reporter. It was obvious to anyone that Jim Acosta was not trying to get information to the viewers of CNN he was trying to provoke confrontation,” said O’Reilly, who left Fox in the wake of a sexual harassment lawsuit.

O’Reilly called CNN’s lawsuit a “PR stunt” and said that the network had no First Amendment argument because they can still send any other reporter to the White House.

“If CNN wants [Acosta] to be a commentator give him a prime-time show. They could use the ratings help,” O’Reilly said. “But he’s a reporter and reporters are not supposed to bait the president of the United States and not supposed to insult him, which is what Acosta does.”

CNN seemed to win their suit on Friday, when a federal judge ruled that the White House must return Acosta’s “hard pass” because they failed to provide him due process. U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly said of his decision on Friday: “Indeed, whatever process occurred within the government is still so shrouded in mystery that the government could not tell me at oral argument who made the initial decision to revoke Mr. Acosta’s press pass.”

Betraying audience?

Fox may have come to the support of its rival in an attempt to save face after suffering a PR scandal of its own this month. The Acosta spat came after Fox rebuked Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro, two of the network’s major opinion hosts, for appearing with Trump at a rally one day before the midterms.

The angry reaction from Fox hints at a gulf between its flagship opinion pundits, who are supportive of Trump on their shows, and the network’s news anchors and executive leadership. The same group that rebuked Hannity and Pirro is likely behind Fox’s amicus brief, so CNN may not be the only network looking to pull a “PR stunt.”

Taken together, the two events look like a one-two punch to Trump and Fox’s loyal conservative base. Accordingly, O’Reilly said that Fox is no longer a network of “mavericks” or “outsiders,” and that they’re eager to be friends with the liberal media “club.”

“They don’t want to be attacked anymore by the New York Times, the Washington Post, or by CNN,” he said. “They want to be part of the club.”

Fox has loyal viewers for a reason: they are the only real counter-weight in cable news to the liberal media. If they become liberal themselves, they’ll lose their audience — so they may want to take O’Reilly’s words of warning to heart.