Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly sparred with PBS News host Margaret Hoover in a Friday segment of their interview as she confronted him on the sexual harassment allegations against him.
Hoover pressed O’Reilly on the $32 million settlements with women who accused him of sexual harassment, which eventually forced him out at Fox News in April 2017. O’Reilly accused the “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover” host of being a “virtue signaler” over a 2017 piece she wrote for The New York Times where she celebrated the Fox News host’s firing.
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“You don’t know anything about it,” O’Reilly told Hoover. “So you can write whatever you want. It’s kind of like the people who you refer to in the past … You were on my program for four years, you had no problem. And that’s what you know about me. You don’t know anything else about me. So you write whatever you want.”
Hoover cited her 2017 op-ed titled, “Bill O’Reilly’s Sexual Harassment Was ‘Unconservative,’” which accused O’Reilly of “embracing the victimization he so ridiculed of the American left” following his firing and of blaming others for his departure. Hoover appeared as a regular guest on “The O’Reilly Factor” from 2007 to 2011.
“We saw no acknowledgment of mistakes publicly or privately from Mr. O’Reilly nor from Roger Ailes, the former Fox News chairman. Instead Mr. O’Reilly blamed others, embracing the victimization he so ridiculed of the American left. He claimed his departure was no fault of his own, but the cost of doing business as a high profile media personality,” the op-ed said.
WATCH:
O’Reilly accused Hoover of being opposed to “due process” in connection to his firing, as he has denied all of the sexual assault allegations made against him.
“Wait, no, no, no, hold on. You came here on this program and I’m asking you questions and you’re answering them,” Hoover pushed back. “This is due process.”
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“No, no. You read a diatribe that you wrote,” O’Reilly said. “You wrote it knowing nothing about it. You know nothing about it. Nothing. And yet you wrote this and you present it to me. I knew you were going to do this, alright? And I’m not afraid. But I will tell you this, due process is very important in this country. So next time, don’t write some inflammatory essay trying to be a virtue signaler unless you know what the hell you’re talking about. You don’t know anything about me other than the 4 years you were on my program, which went swimmingly for you.”
According to Mediaite, the former Fox News host reportedly ended the interview abruptly after Hoover questioned him on the matter. Hoover told the outlet that O’Reilly became increasingly irritated as she questioned him.
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The New York Times reported that O’Reilly settled on five settlements regarding the allegations, leading advertisers to boycott his program and calls for him to be fired. The Murdochs fired him after reviewing a damning investigation where multiple women accused him of inappropriate behavior.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.