Former Fox Host: O’Reilly Is Head of a Right-Wing ‘Cult,’ Not Held to Same Standards
Mar. 8, 2015
STELTER: “Does this make sense to you that he’s been puffing up his credentials?”
BURNS: “Well, not only puffing up his credentials, Brian, but he’s been — and this has amazed many people. He’s also been puffing up his ratings. Since — as you know, since this latest O’Reilly scandals –“
STELTER: “Yeah, we can show one of the headlines. He’s been getting good press for the fact — I wrote a story about it — that his numbers are up since this controversy started.”
BURNS: “His numbers are up. And I think the way to understand this is to make a distinction between the words ‘culture’ and ‘cult.’”
STELTER: “Are you saying Fox is a cult?”
BURNS: “I’m saying that the people who watch Fox News are cultish. Because, for many years, conservatives have been extremely upset in this country because the only newscasts they had to watch were liberal, you people at CNN and how liberal you are, and NBC and ABC and CBS. And they — they never had — the extreme right — they never had their own television station. When they got one, their appreciation, their audience loyalty — and I know what the audience loyalty was like when I was there — their audience loyalty soared. And so O’Reilly, as the head of the cult, is not held to the same standards as Brian Williams, who was part of the media culture, the larger culture. Every time, it seems, Brian, that O’Reilly lies — and he’s lied so many times. You know, Keith Olbermann used to be on opposite him with his show ‘Countdown.’ He later wrote a book, all the segments in his show called ‘The Worst Person in the World.’”
STELTER: “Oh, right, right. And O’Reilly was the worst person dozens of times.”
BURNS: “Yes.”
Mar. 8, 2015
STELTER: “Does this make sense to you that he’s been puffing up his credentials?”
BURNS: “Well, not only puffing up his credentials, Brian, but he’s been — and this has amazed many people. He’s also been puffing up his ratings. Since — as you know, since this latest O’Reilly scandals –“
STELTER: “Yeah, we can show one of the headlines. He’s been getting good press for the fact — I wrote a story about it — that his numbers are up since this controversy started.”
BURNS: “His numbers are up. And I think the way to understand this is to make a distinction between the words ‘culture’ and ‘cult.’”
STELTER: “Are you saying Fox is a cult?”
BURNS: “I’m saying that the people who watch Fox News are cultish. Because, for many years, conservatives have been extremely upset in this country because the only newscasts they had to watch were liberal, you people at CNN and how liberal you are, and NBC and ABC and CBS. And they — they never had — the extreme right — they never had their own television station. When they got one, their appreciation, their audience loyalty — and I know what the audience loyalty was like when I was there — their audience loyalty soared. And so O’Reilly, as the head of the cult, is not held to the same standards as Brian Williams, who was part of the media culture, the larger culture. Every time, it seems, Brian, that O’Reilly lies — and he’s lied so many times. You know, Keith Olbermann used to be on opposite him with his show ‘Countdown.’ He later wrote a book, all the segments in his show called ‘The Worst Person in the World.’”
STELTER: “Oh, right, right. And O’Reilly was the worst person dozens of times.”
BURNS: “Yes.”
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