He concludes that dishonesty in the media leaves ordinary people defenceless and this is partly what is wrong with our world.

360 Series: Bill O’Reilly on Tucker – we are in the chaos now and everyone is expendable

9/28/2023

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In Tucker’s recent interview, Bill O’Reilly speaks about Trump and Biden, the Salem witch trials and the current cancel culture, the media and the fear to speak the truth, Trump & Biden’s border policy and elections 2024.

On his firing from Fox, O’Reilly says that while unexpected and out of the blue, he took it as one would take a car accident – accepted it right away and moved forward. TV news are like the NFL, he quips. A talent has to beat the show that is against him, you have to beat the other team and if you do that, you are rewarded with money, not loyalty.

He sees himself as someone who has nothing to do with the corporate side of things – and claims to have met Murdock just 7 times in 20 years. O’Reilly, nevertheless, explains his firing with TV business’ corporate side, suggesting that Newscorp’s plans to acquire Sky News may have influenced their decision to part with him.  However, since two things which were important to him happened: first, Fox fulfilled all their contractual obligations and secondly, he felt that the future of the business was in alternative independent media, he did not care that he was let go.

On cable TV, O’Reilly argues that it is here to stay and Fox will remain the leader not because their message appeals to the majority of the American public, which has traditional views (although this helps), but simply because they have the better talent. Jesse Watters is the one commentator, singled out by O’Reilly.

On today’s cancel culture, O’Reilly draws parallels to the Salem witch trials (1692-1693), which, similarly to the current movements, were driven by young people, and were often motivated by a desire to physically destroy a political opponent and take their land and wealth. Referred to as one of the most notorious cases of mass hysteria, the Salem episode is a reminder of the dangers of forsaking due process, tolerating religious extremism and allowing false accusations in the public discourse.

On JFK’s assassination O’Reilly adds that the only question still bothering him was how it is possible that a White Russian aristocrat, such as de Mohrenschildt could be friends with Lee Harvey Oswald, who, on all accounts was a basic and not very literate man. He says that while he has done everything in his power to speak to de Mohrenschildt’ daughter to clarify this point, he has not  yet been able to do so.

On Joe Biden’s administration, O’Reilly calls the incumbent “the second worst President in American history”, the first one being James Buchanan, the 15th US President, who allowed the Civil War. Drawing parallels between the two Presidents, O’Reilly argues that the US is now living in the age of disorder, mainly by reason of the rise of the progressive movement. As to the current President, he argues that Biden is in a declining state. In his assessment, the people who are controlling Biden (he says that initially this was Klain and Rice and now their assistants) can tell him anything and he will do it. The result is disastrous policy choices, such as the open borders policy, which led to hundreds of thousands of fentanyl death, destruction of some cities, such as El Paso and chaos in others, such as in NY. For Reilly, open borders were Soros’ lifetime objective and he achieved it with Biden, not with Obama, who did not go as far as the current President.

On progressives, O’Reilly thinks that the more money you take from the people, the less powerful they are. This aligns with progressives’ objective to run everything and everyone. In this endeavour, O’Reilly feels that they are closely supported by the mainstream media, which helps them suppress information.

On 2024 elections, Tucker argues that Biden’s treatment of Trump suggests that there is nothing he will not stop at to get re-elected, including getting Trump arrested and taking him off the ballot. O’Reilly disagrees, because doing so would, in his mind, be unconstitutional and in addition, none of the charges would warrant confinement. Rather, he believes that Trump, who he considers a friend, can be elected. However, what the effect of that could be is unclear to him, since he believes that going forward and similarly to the trajectory expected by cable news, the authority and power of the federal government will diminish.

On whether the US is at risk of entering an actual period of chaos, O’Reilly emphatically states: “We are in the chaos now! We are there!”

On Trump’s personality, he finds the former President hypnotizing but believes that Trump always does what is good for Trump and, crucially, everything for him is a deal. He is not an ideologue or a conservative but a populist. O’Reilly proves this with an example of Trump’s open border policy.

Reminding Tucker that Obama and Trump killed the most dangerous jihadists on the planet by designating them as terrorists, O’Reilly states that at the time he suggested to Trump to do the same with the cartels and destroy them from space. Instead, Trump gave up the designation as terrorist idea and began negotiation with a very reluctant Obrador, who eventually agreed to put the Mexican army at the US and Guatemalan border. This alone stopped 80% of the illegal immigration in Trump’s last year. In addition, Mexico gave Trump all kinds of trade preferences that helped the economy. For instance, when Trump left the office the inflation was 1.4% and this was because of the cheap imports from Mexico and China, which were driving prices down.

On Putin and Trump’s relations, O’Reilly thinks that Trumps’ ability to strike deals is exactly how he controls Putin – he is sure that the former President has something on Putin, which he trades for the Russian President’s cooperation. Answering Tucker’s question on why Washington hates Trump so much, O’Reilly muses that the reason is that he does not fear or respect them.

Asked about his future plans and how long he will continue working, O’Reilly calls himself a man on a mission, stating that unless he feels that he is not doing well what he had been put on this Earth to do, he will carry on doing it. In this connection, he tells Tucker that anyone can email him directly with their personal problems and he will try and guide them to a solution or even intervene to help them. On what he has learned from these personal emails, he says that in his mind, people’s biggest problem is that they are not taught how to negotiate life, neither in school nor by their parents. Speaking of this, O’Reilly argues that the three most important things in life are: a doctor, who wants to keep you alive; a lawyer, who will talk to you straight and a financial advisor, who can be trusted.

On being asked to name a few good guys in the media, O’Reilly says that there are good people in the business but they are all afraid to say the truth about what they are reporting on. He contrasts such acts of fear to the behaviour of media organisations, who deliberately misrepresent information by citing things out of context. He gave the example of CNN’s publishing of his “slave” comment in the wake of Murdock’s retirement. A frustrated O’Reilly argues that such false narratives, smearing people that think differently, are created every day and then taken over by the Internet.

He concludes that dishonesty in the media leaves ordinary people defenceless and this is partly what is wrong with our world.