Sean Hannity is under fire for urging Bill O’Reilly to return to Fox News.
Mediaite reports that Hannity teased the former Fox star about reclaiming his former “No. 1 spot” in an interview on Hannity’s radio show, which is not connected to Fox. The audio was first flagged by progressive smear factory Media Matters, according to Mediaite.
Women who worked at Fox have since blasted Hannity for supporting O’Reilly, who left Fox in 2017 amid sexual harassment lawsuits.
A return to Fox?
The one-time king of Fox News (arguably all of cable news), O’Reilly has since pursued a successful career as a radio host. Despite his fall from grace two years ago, O’Reilly interviewed President Donald Trump himself on Tuesday about impeachment.
O’Reilly chatted with Hannity that same day about his interview with Trump and the relentless “punishment” that Trump takes from the media, more than any president since Abraham Lincoln has suffered, O’Reilly said. The two men agreed that they both knew what it was like to face that kind of hostility before Hannity glibly suggested O’Reilly come back to Fox.
“Yeah and why do I want to do that?” O’Reilly said. “So I can have security guards go with me everywhere, like I used to?”
“No, so that you take the No. 1 slot,” Hannity responded. “I can tell you it’s easier being No. 2 because we’ll end the — we’ll end the year again No. 1 in all of cable, and with that comes all the crap associated with it.”
Hannity is consistently rated No. 1 in cable and at Fox News overall. The Fox host for which the top show is named has joked before about letting O’Reilly come back so Hannity can take a slot with less exposure and stress.
Hannity takes the heat
But it looks like O’Reilly has no desire to come back to Fox — not that his return would be welcome. Hannity’s comments immediately set off controversy, as some said that he was defending a disgraced news anchor whose time at the top was over.
Three women who used to work at Fox and settled sexual harassment and discrimination suits there — Gretchen Carlson, Julie Roginsky, and Diana Falzone — all condemned Hannity’s comments. In a statement, the three women said that Hannity’s offer “demonstrates how far we have yet to go in ensuring that survivors of sexual assault and harassment are treated with even the modicum of respect that Hannity has shown an alleged serial predator,” The Hill reported Wednesday.
The women, who signed nondisclosure agreements with Fox, also said it was “ironic” that O’Reilly’s “many victims and other survivors of sexual harassment at the same network continue to be bound by onerous confidentiality provisions that prevent them from disclosing what those harassers said or did to them.”
Once the most iconic journalist in conservative media, O’Reilly is now a news anchor in exile, so to speak. But while Hannity may talk it up, a return to TV for O’Reilly seems unlikely.
No comments: