Is Bill O'Reilly done at Fox News? Drudge may have answer
With a single vaguely worded tweet, right-leaning news aggregator Matt Drudge on Tuesday unleashed a frenzy of media speculation suggesting that the embattled Fox News host Bill O’Reilly may be done at the network.
“O’Reilly has had tremendous run, Very few in the business get to decide when and how things end. Media is most brutal of all industries,” Drudge tweeted Tuesday afternoon.
Drudge’s tweet refers to mounting speculation over whether O’Reilly’s more than 20 years reign at the network may soon come to an end after he faced bruising sexual harassment allegations made against him in a New York Times article earlier this month.
Calls for his firing came as dozens of brands pulled their advertising from O’Reilly’s top-rated show The O’Reilly Factor, further pressuring network executives to address the issue. A Tuesday story about a pending behind-the-door decision on whether to fire O’Reilly added fuel to the speculation.
If it’s exactly as the tweet suggests, Drudge may have one of the biggest scoops to one of the biggest stories in media today. Even Margaret Sullivan, the former New York Times public editor, re-shared that tweet with the words “Bye, Bill.” And she was not the only to re-share the tweet.