While Fox News personality Megyn Kelly keeps dropping new bombshells about her alleged mistreatment at the hands of President-elect Donald Trump and former boss Roger Ailes, her colleague Bill O’Reilly recently entered the fray with his own counter-accusations regarding Ailes. On Tuesday, the O’Reilly Factor host feigned disinterest in anything that “makes my network look bad” on CBS This Morning, then did an about-face on his program. “You don’t like what’s happening in the workplace, go to human resources or leave,” he told his audience, adding: “Loyalty is good.”
Both of O’Reilly’s positions provided the news media with plenty to chew on Wednesday morning, especially since CBS This Morning was interviewing Kelly in the same seat her colleague sat in just 24 hours prior. Gayle King played a clip from the program’s meeting with O’Reilly, paraphrased his “human resources or leave” comments, then asked Kelly for her two cents on the matter:
“I am very proud of the fact that I discussed this with Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch before I wrote this chapter in my book. We were all on the same page, that this was an important chapter to include. I am proud of them that they feel as I do, which is sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
King followed up with Kelly, asking whether or not she thought her words and actions had made the company look bad — as O’Reilly apparently did. In response, Kelly said “Roger Ailes made the company look bad” and that her “heart is with other women out there” since “this doesn’t just happen at Fox News.”
Not to be outdone by his fellow Fox News-er, O’Reilly appeared on Don Imus’ Imus in the Morning program on 77WABC Radio. Kelly’s book and promotional tour, as well as his comments on CBS This Morning, came up in the two men’s conversation — prompting a “clarification” of sorts from O’Reilly.
According to Mediaite, Imus made critically disparaging remarks about Kelly’s book, to which O’Reilly “[made] one comment in defense” of the “very smart, talented woman”:
“She has a perfect right to write a book and say anything she wants to say. And I don’t want that to get lost… So I don’t have any beef. She runs her career, I run my career. But when a network is… going to try and bait me to say bad things about my network, I am not gonna do it.”
O’Reilly’s mea culpa-like turn on Wednesday seemingly lessened his previous comments’ emphasis on Kelly’s word and actions, and instead, faulted CBS This Morning for “baiting” him into saying negative things. Then again, his O’Reilly Factor comments on Tuesday night’s episode of his successful Fox News program weren’t baited by anyone, thereby weakening his response to Imus’ take on the matter.
No wonder Kelly’s resting “go f*ck yourself” face is so apt:
(Via CBS This Morning and Mediaite)