Fox News’ harshest critics are motivated not by a desire to hold the cable network accountable, but by a desire to wreak havoc on the right-of-center group’s impressive ratings, host Bill O’Reilly claimed in a lengthy speech Monday evening.
In a segment titled “Hating Fox News,” O’Reilly said that longstanding criticisms for the network, as well as recent allegations that he has spent several years embellishing news-related anecdotes, are really part of a larger campaign by liberals and left-of-center news organizations to undermine Fox News’ standing with its many viewers.
“There is no question that powerful people in Washington are using websites to smear political opponents,” O’Reilly said, adding that these unflattering stories move from “cyberspace” to larger, mainstream news organizations, which “gleefully promotes the defamation for political reasons.”
“MSNBC and CNN are getting hammered economically by Fox News,” he said, falling back on what his critics say is his go-to response for criticism aimed at him and his network. “The failure of those operations to compete effectively against us has cost them hundreds of millions of dollars. Some who work for those channels are desperate, their own jobs now in jeopardy.”
Along with its impressive ratings, which easily eclipse its competition, American voters also say Fox News is the most trustworthy news network when compared to other U.S. media groups, including NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, MSNBC and CNN, according to a new Quinnipiac survey.
MSNBC, on the other hand, is considered by respondents in the Quinnipiac poll to be the “least trustworthy” news group in the U.S.
“So hating Fox News about competition, power, and money at the highest levels,” O’Reilly said. “If [Fox News] did not exist, America would be a far different place and the far left ideology would have a far easier time. But we do exist and now dominate the primetime news cycle. Not good news for progressive politicians, the liberal media, and crazed zealots on both sides.”
“Therefore, meetings are held, strategies devised, political assassins hired. Is there any doubt for whom they are gunning?” he asked.
