Bill O'Reilly says 'forces of evil' were behind his Fox News firing


Bill O'Reilly is blaming his ouster from Fox News not on the multiple allegations of sexual harassment made against him, but rather "forces of evil and darkness."
That's apparently code for liberal activists, and in an interview with Breitbart News, the former O'Reilly Factor host said he thinks "people have to realize, No. 1, how severe the problem has become, and No. 2, that it's going to take courage to fight it. I'm the poster boy for that. I've been under attack for 16 years, and finally, these forces of evil and darkness got me." If that sounds murky, don't worry — O'Reilly said that "someday, all of it will be exposed."
He made similar comments to The Hollywood Reporter, saying he was the victim of "vicious" and "disgusting" attacks on social media. The industry "got really nasty," especially "once we passed Larry King" at CNN in the ratings, and then the hits came "every single day." O'Reilly was fired from Fox News this spring after The New York Times reported about sexual harassment allegations and settlements O'Reilly reached with several women; he refused to discuss this with The Hollywood Reporter, referring questions to his lawyers, except to say "no one was mistreated on my watch."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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