Former Fox News personality, Bill O'Reilly, announced on Saturday — June 17th — that he is going to launch a new video streaming program on his website, BillOReilly.com. The news dropped during the first stop on his "The Spin Stops Here" tour in Westbury, New York. The controversial, yet highly rated anchor revealed that the 30-minute video series will resemble his Fox News show, "The O'Reilly Factor," where he gave his opinions about current events and world politics.
Why O'Reilly is no longer on the Fox News team
In April of this year, the anchor came under fire after a large sexual assault scandal surfaced.
According to the New York Times, O'Reilly reportedly paid five women a total of $13 million in various settlements originating from claims that the television host assaulted them. The incident caused a lot of backlash and led multiple companies to pull their ads from the segment, including, top sponsor, Mercedes-Benz.
A future for the former host
On the tour stop, O'Reilly stated that, at this point, the series would simply be an experiment to see how many fans would want to hear him speak on current events, and that a more polished version would launch before September. He also announced that another network might be merging with his new operation; a network that would be in direct competition with his former employer.
Regarding Fox News, O'Reilly made a series of general remarks about the network, claiming that competition directed towards the long-running, Conservative network is at an all-time high, due to the fact that many people feel as though the network is on a decline among traditional GOP viewers.
Even though he made it clear that his goal wasn't to defame the network, he went on to speak about the many reasons why he was fired, including, but not limited to, a shift in management and a scheme to destroy him.
As far as big changes are concerned, Fox News has indeed undergone multiple shifts in the past year. For one, Roger Ailes, founder of Fox News, resigned after several sexual harassment allegations surfaced. Ailes then died in May at the age of 77. Also, co-president and producer Bill Shine left the network not long after O’Reilly.
Another shift he could be referring to is the shift in ideological tone displayed by some of the anchors on the network. Fox News is, at its core, a network targeted to right-wing viewers; however, as the Trump administration continues to find itself in scandals, conservative anchors are finding the President's actions harder to defend.
This has rubbed some viewers the wrong way, as they feel as though the network has betrayed its Conservative roots, in favor of a more down-the-middle, or liberal approach to political issues.
