Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly is criticizing his former employer following revelations made in newly filed court documents stemming from a defamation lawsuit the conservative media giant is fighting.
“I’ll tell you this, I would never have done what CNN and MSNBC did with Russian collusion or what Fox did with voter fraud,” O’Reilly. said monday night during an appearance on Chris Cuomo’s NewsNation show. “I would prefer to be fired, I would leave the job. … I’m not going to sell myself because of the ratings, ever. And I never have.”
Fox is facing a $1.6 billion lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which alleges the cable news giant knowingly made false claims about the company made by former President Trump and his associates.
Among the allegations made in the Dominion filing, which cites internal communications from Fox employees, is that the network’s top hosts expressed concern about the claims made by Trump and his aides, while also worrying how the network would react. audience of the channel before the facts. verification of these assertions.
Fox has defended himself on First Amendment grounds, and last week in a filing of his own questioned Dominion’s motives and financial valuation.
“There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and its opportunistic private equity owners, but at the heart of this case remains freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights granted by the Constitution and protected by New York. times v. Sullivan. Dominion has misrepresented the record, selected quotes stripped of key context, and spilled a considerable amount of ink on facts that are irrelevant under the black-letter principles of defamation law,” the network said.
O’Reilly, one of the network’s top primetime anchors, was forced to leave Fox in 2017 amid sexual harassment allegations.
Since then, he has launched a speaking tour with Trump and has appeared on NewsNation on several occasions.
NewsNation, which hired Cuomo after he was fired from CNN for misleading its executives, is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which bought The Hill in 2021.