Bill O’Reilly is back. No, not on the Fox News Channel. No, not settling more sexual harassment lawsuits. (Well, maybe soon settling more sexual harassment lawsuits.) But O’Reilly returned to his website for his No Spin News podcast on Monday, less than a week after being dismissed from the Fox News Channel. There had been intense speculation about what exactly O’Reilly would say, and whether he would discuss the abrupt end to his career as the top-rated host on cable news. He did briefly address the allegations against him, and lay out a little bit of what his future holds. But more than anything else, what he showed—and not for the first time—is that he and Donald Trump are working from the same playbook.
O’Reilly opened by announcing that the podcast, which he has hosted since 2009, would now turn into “a genuine news program.” It’s not clear precisely what that means, but Monday’s episode proved again that O’Reilly can talk ad nauseam in his compellingly demagogic manner. The beginning of the show was largely about his recent troubles—or rather the “trouble” he has placed himself in by allegedly terrorizing his former co-workers. O’Reilly stated that he couldn’t “say a lot” and that he was “sad” about the situation. But he was at his Trumpiest, too, saying, “I’m very confident the truth will come out, and when it does, I don’t know if you’re going to be surprised—but I think you’re going to be shaken, as I am. There’s a lot of stuff involved here. Now, I can’t say any more, because I just don’t want to influence the flow of the information. I don’t want the media to take what I say and misconstrue it.” There you have it: a little conspiracy-mongering, vague hints of menace, cursory media-bashing, and the prediction that people will be shocked when the supposedly real information comes out. (Perhaps Barack Obama’s nefarious wiretapping scheme will be uncovered on the same day.)
The rest of the program was classic O’Reilly. He briefly touched on a number of issues, from France (largely just noting the threat it faces from French Muslims), to Ann Coulter’s troubles speaking at the University of California–Berkeley, which allowed him to take some shots at PC culture and squeeze in a subtle plug for his new book. (Ever the expert at using even bad publicity to his advantage, O’Reilly is offering this week’s episodes of his podcast free; in the future it will be for “premium members” of his website.) When he talked about Trump, he said precisely the same thing that the president did, via Twitter over the weekend, about Trump’s approval ratings. (Both quasi-acknowledged the historically low approval ratings; both said it didn’t really count, because the media was so biased.)
The only really awkward part of the podcast—O’Reilly remains an immensely skilled broadcaster—came near the end, when he was answering viewer questions. One was about O’Reilly and Fox News, and whether he still had positive feelings toward the network. “We made history,” O’Reilly began. “That vehicle was fabulous for me.” He wasn’t speaking particularly smoothly, and he seemed unsure—either because he was attempting to control his volcanic rage, or because he was dancing around a nondisclosure agreement—what to say. Eventually, he asked rhetorically, “Why wouldn’t I wish them the best?” He sounded like he wanted to add more, but didn’t. Fortunately there was another viewer email to turn his attention to, and within seconds he was ranting about the evils of socialism. Trump may be unpopular with the general public, but he still has support from his base; something tells me that O’Reilly, too, will have no trouble keeping his.
