Bill O'Reilly, fired from Fox News after it emerged that several women accused him of sexual harassment and he paid out millions in settlements, might be getting a second chance.
O'Reilly is in negotiations with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which earned some notice for telling local news channel managers they have to run segments featuring conservative commentary, two people familiar with the talks told NBC News. The recent revelation that O'Reilly paid $32 million to settle sexual harassment claims by former Fox News legal analyst Lis Wiehl didn't appear to scare off Sinclair. "They took a pause but it didn't really change anything for them," one person told NBC News.
Sinclair denies being in negotiations with O'Reilly, but a person close to him says they are "about midway" through talks. Sinclair owns or operates 173 television stations in the United States, and if a deal to purchase Tribune Media is approved by regulators, that number would rise to 220. As for O'Reilly, one person told NBC News that Sinclair is thinking about giving him a two-hour syndicated show, maybe starting at 6 or 7 p.m: "They want to do something anti-CNN, anti-MSNBC."
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