| | | | | SPECIAL REPORT: FOX OUSTS O'REILLY | | Yes, that really happened. The Murdochs really severed ties with Bill O'Reilly and cancelled "The O'Reilly Factor" on Wednesday. Tucker Carlson is taking over the 8pm time slot. This is a profound change in the cable news world... with ramifications for Fox, its rivals, corporate America, and even President Trump. But you already know that. This special edition of the newsletter focuses on what's next... | | -- For Fox, is this the beginning, the middle or the end of a crisis?
-- How much $$$ is Fox paying O'Reilly to go away?
-- Does O'Reilly have a "noncompete?" What are the terms?
-- How will O'Reilly's fans react to the decision?
-- What will the company's directors say at Thursday's 21st Century Fox board meeting?
-- Is new 8pm host Tucker Carlson getting a raise?
-- What's the status of the ongoing federal investigation? | | From an emailer: "Have you ever stopped to consider how the world would have been different if Roger Ailes had just given Gretchen Carlson the new contract she wanted? All of this over a deal for his 2pm anchor..."
Instead... Ailes dropped Carlson, she sued, and she used damning audiotapes to back up her allegations, causing a chain reaction. The NYT started investigating O'Reilly shortly after Ailes resigned... | | When Ailes was sued, Fox asked the law firm Paul, Weiss to conduct an internal investigation. Precisely two weeks later, Ailes resigned. This month, the timeline repeated itself. When O'Reilly accuser Wendy Walsh and her attorney Lisa Bloom called Fox's hotline on April 5, the Murdochs put Paul, Weiss on the case. The results of the internal probe were not shared publicly on Wednesday, but it apparently influenced the Murdochs' decision. Exactly two weeks later, O'Reilly was gone. The intended message: James and Lachlan are serious about reforming this channel's culture... | | On the newly renamed "Factor," Dana Perino acknowledged O'Reilly's absence at the beginning of the show and praised him at the end... | | Perino will also fill in on Thursday... Greg Gutfeld will fill in on Friday... then Carlson takes over on Monday... | | Emotions inside Fox run the gamut right now... with some staffers feeling relieved to have O'Reilly gone... but others feeling disappointed both by the decision and by how the decision went down. O'Reilly was a larger than life character inside Fox... an embodiment of its "winning" identity... and one of Fox's chief defenders. And he's not getting a chance to say goodbye on the air. | | -- Former Fox contributor Kirsten Powers on "AC360:" "It's stunning because Bill O'Reilly WAS Fox News... It was sort of unthinkable that he would ever leave there, except on his own terms." | | Fox staffers are also facing practical Q's like: "How are we going to launch this new primetime lineup on Monday?" The changes will occur in TWO WAVES:
Monday, April 24: Tucker to 8, "The Five" to 9, and an extra hour of "Special Report" at 5.
Monday, May 1: Eric Bolling takes over at 5 (his show still needs a name) and Martha MacCallum becomes permanent at 7 (her show becomes "The Story"). | | | How Fox is covering its own news | | Tom Kludt writes: The news was discussed by Howard Kurtz, Fox's media analyst, during a segment on "Special Report" at 6pm. He largely paraphrased a story he had written about the news earlier in the afternoon for Fox's website. The O'Reilly controversy was scarcely mentioned on Fox this month... Read more here... | | -- Jim Rutenberg in Thursday's NYT: "His exit from the Fox prime-time lineup creates the biggest jump ball in cable news in more than 16 years"
-- Vox: "#Brands have become the common denominator in the culture wars"
-- Joan Walsh: "On and off screen, O'Reilly helped create the sexist, racist, right-wing culture that was the Fox News brand."
-- Steve Deace tweets: "The two tent poles of Fox News -- Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly -- both undone in last year because of sexual immorality."
-- Breitbart's headline: "ACTIVIST LEFT GETS MONSTER SCALP." | | | What James Murdoch is saying | | Via the NYT's Page One story: "During an appearance at an event in New York on Wednesday evening, James Murdoch stopped to answer a question about the decision, saying: 'We did a thorough investigation, a thorough review, and we reached a conclusion. Everything that we said in our statement is all you need to know.'" | | O'Reilly's camp calls this "taking the high road." In a Wednesday evening statement, he wished Fox well and refrained from any overt criticism. He reaffirmed his innocence, saying "it is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims. But that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today..." | | | What Lisa Bloom is saying | | "When women speak our truth the old order shatters. We slayed the dragon. Never forget this is what we're capable of." | | -- On "AC360," I had a package about the old friendship between O'Reilly and Trump. Will POTUS weigh in on Wednesday's decision?
-- If O'Reilly had scrapped his vacation and stayed in NYC, would this have played out differently? Perhaps he could've said goodbye on the air?
-- Last week Michael Wolff quoted a source saying that James Murdoch speaks of "re-imagining Fox." What does that mean? Drudge is promoting Wolff's column right now...
-- Joe Flint asks on Twitter: "Fox News has been the Patriots of cable news, losing key players without missing a beat. Will that continue with their Tom Brady gone?" | | | Will O'Reilly jump to a rival network? | | While CNN and MSNBC would not be interested in hiring O'Reilly, conservative upstarts like Newsmax or One America News (OANN) could be. "I'd love to talk to him," Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy told me. OANN owner Charles Herring declined to comment...
A source close to O'Reilly says the broadcaster has not given much thought to his Fox-less future yet. His book publisher is standing by him... | | Brian Lowry emails: As O'Reilly's statement indicates, being forced to leave in this fashion will surely stick in his craw. At some point in the not-too-distant future, with Ailes gone, I think he might have made good on his threat to retire. Now, it would surprise me if he doesn't try to forge a last act — somewhere where he can not only seek to redeem himself, but also have a platform to settle scores... | | | Vanity Fair has a source saying "there's more to come..." | | Sarah Ellison says there's an "unsettling feeling among some at Fox News" -- that "Wednesday's events are only the beginning." Ellison quotes a "Fox News insider" saying "there's more to come," which she says suggests "there are more women with stories of harassment who have not come forward publicly. This estimation was affirmed by two people who heard such stories directly..." | | -- From ABC PR: On Thursday, "one of Bill O'Reilly's latest sexual harassment accusers, joined by civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom, speaks out for the first time on ABC's The View." | | On Wednesday afternoon, the NYT revealed that Fox contributor Jehmu Greene gave an interview to the paper last fall and alleged improper behavior by O'Reilly. But she was not willing to go on the record until Wednesday, when Greene called Paul, Weiss and gave the NYT permission to print her account...
-- Greene tweeted: "Let's celebrate O'Reilly's ouster then focus on recruiting & training progressives (preferably women) to communicate as effectively as he did" | | | Bill Shine in the spotlight? | | Dylan Byers emails: Are Fox's problems over? Not necessarily. With Ailes and O'Reilly out, attention is likely to turn to Bill Shine, the Fox News co-president and longtime right-hand man to Ailes.
Shine, a key figure at Fox, has been accused by at least two of Ailes' accusers of being intimately involved with efforts to protect the former Fox News chief. Moreover, as co-president, he had a direct role in re-upping O'Reilly's contract earlier this year despite the company's knowledge of the previous accusations... | | One common reaction in liberal circles: "What took so long?" Commenters have been saying that O'Reilly should have lost his job a long time ago.
Brian Lowry emails: Worth reading, if you don't remember it: Amanda Terkel's account of how O'Reilly had Jesse Watters confront her — while she was on vacation — because he was unhappy with a piece she had written about his comments regarding a young woman who was raped and murdered...
-- Speaking of Watters, a snarky emailer writes: "With Tucker Carlson and Jesse Watters taking over at 8 and 9, it's less like O'Reilly is gone and more like he was a single-cell organism that's split into two younger more awful O'Reillys." Andrew Kirell wrote something similar at The Daily Beast... | | | What O'Reilly told Emily Steel two years ago | | Tom Kludt emails: It feels like ages ago since Emily Steel and Michael Schmidt broke the news about the O'Reilly settlements on April 1. You have to reach back even further in the memory banks to recall a separate – and less serious – O'Reilly scandal. Two years ago, on the heels of the Brian Williams fiasco, O'Reilly found himself ensnared in his own controversy over purported embellishments made throughout his career. At the time, O'Reilly fired a warning shot to Steel, who was reporting on the matter. "I am coming after you with everything I have," O'Reilly told her. "You can take it as a threat." Today, more than a few folks on Twitter commented on the old quote and the results of Steel's investigation... | | Brian Lowry emails: The fact that Fox behaved like any other big, monolithic corporation is a pretty good sign that Rupert Murdoch's buccaneering reign at the company he built has come to a symbolic end. Read Lowry's full column here... | | | When will Fox remove this poster? | | | It says "NOBODY MOVES THIS MAN..." | | | Tomorrow's Daily News cover | | "Here's the thing, I owe a lot to Bill O'Reilly," Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's "Late Show." (True) Then Colbert revived his "Stephen Colbert" character... "Stay strong, Papa Bear..." | | Megan Thomas emails: Online voting opened on Wednesday night for Writers Guild of America members determining whether to approve a strike. Negotiations between the union and studios resume next week, with the Guild looking to have strike approval as leverage going into the talks... | | -- Lisa France emails: If you thought Serena Williams was the GOAT before, wrap your brain around this: She was pregnant when she won the Australian Open in January. The tennis phenom revealed on Wednesday that she and fiancé Alexis Ohanian are expecting their first child in the fall...
-- Chloe Melas emails: With this year's Tribeca Film Festival now underway, co-founder Robert De Niro sat down with me to discuss the impact "The Godfather: Part II" had on his career and how he prepped for the role in what is now Trump Tower...
-- Megan Thomas emails: "13 Reasons Why" writer Nic Sheff has penned this op-ed for Vanity Fair defending the show's depiction of lead character's suicide...
-- From Brian Lowry: "Girls" has ended, but "Girlboss" — a loosely fact-based Netflix series, featuring star-in-the-making Britt Robertson — isn't the show to replace it... | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email. | |  | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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