Never one to pull any punches, Bill O’Reilly was blunt in his assessment of the TV and print’s coverage of the election. “I thought the coverage of the election was disgraceful, and it was dishonest,” O’Reilly said in an interview with Deadline Hollywood. “It was ideologically driven and I think that the news agencies that did that will never return to a level of credibility ever.”
With his Fox News contract set to expire in late 2017, O’Reilly was asked about any plans for his future (a topic that came up when we interviewed him for Adweek and TVNewser back in July), and if he believes going out on top is the way to go:
Well, I don’t look at it that way because it’s a matter of whether I think that continuing the books and the TV show is a positive for me in my life and also, for all the people who work for me. I have to think about them too, so it’s a complicated decision. Certainly, it’s not like it was 10 years ago that’s for sure. If I feel that it’s too much and I don’t want to do this kind of work, I don’t want to work this hard, then I’ll walk away…there are a lot of factors involved with it. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.
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His thoughts on Tucker Carlson as his new 7 p.m. lead-in?
You know, I’m not dependent on a lead-in, thank God. We’re appointment television at eight o’clock. Now, of course, I want a quality program in front of me and I thought Greta delivered that and I think Carlson is delivering it as well. I’ll tell you I like Carlson’s feisty style. I think he is getting through to the audience that he’s not just some kind of remote-control anchor. They see that he’s a real person, and I think because of that he’s going to be successful in that slot.
As he approaches the twilight of his career, O’Reilly was asked if he needs to change anything going forward:
My job is to watch the powerful. It’s a simple job description, watch powerful people and make sure they don’t hurt the folks. That’s it. That’s not changing. Now, will television change, will people, their tastes change? Yeah, they will, but I’m counting on the fact that we have built up over the years an incredibly large and loyal audience that will still want what we give them every night. 16 years on top, continues to roll in historic numbers of people watching it, I mean, that’s incredible. Our live shows are sold out everywhere, the books sell, and so hard work pays off.
I guess that’s my real message: I work very hard.
We’re an honest presentation, we try to give people entertainment and information at the same time, and it’s working. I don’t see any need for big drastic changes in our presentation.
O’Reilly also appeared on Rachael Ray yesterday morning, chatting with the energetic host about his plans for the Christmas holiday, the historic archival pieces he has in his home, and of course his new book Killing the Rising Sun.
“The real reason I came on the Rachael Ray show today to talk about this book is because we have Christmas coming up, and the guys are going to be hanging around the house,” said O’Reilly. “You don’t want any part of that. You give them the book, and they shut up! For those two or three days, they’re gone, and you can do whatever you want!”
