Angelo Carusone Tells The Last Word: “I Don't Think This Ends With Bill O'Reilly”



Media Matters President Says Fox Must Take More Action To Prevent Advertisers From Walking Away Entirely

From the April 19 edition of MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell:

Video file

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL(HOST): Angelo, you were part of the movement to push Bill O'Reilly out. You expressed confidence about that on this show. I have to say I didn't share that confidence because I've seen this guy survive this stuff in the past. So I was sitting here in complete suspense what they were going to do. I would say until the last 48 hours and Gabe's report started coming out and you could feel the end coming; when did you first feel the end coming here? 

ANGELO CARUSONE: About a week ago. There was a shift in the advertising community. And what happened is that advertisers were actually responding not so much to the O'Reilly stories, but actually to what Gabe had just pointed out and what Lisa has so effectively laid out in first segment which is that they recognized this was a bigger cultural problem at Fox News. 

They no longer had confidence that Fox News had handled it appropriately or would continue to handle it appropriately at all. And they were actually gearing to drop all of Fox News. That was the feedback that I knew Fox executives were getting was that they were potentially dealing with selling not just the remainder of this year's inventory, but also 2018 inventory where a very large contingent of advertisers were preparing to walk away from the entire network.

And I actually think that fear is still there for precisely what Gabe has illustrated before. I don't think this ends with Bill O'Reilly. I think tomorrow's board meeting is going to take some additional actions in order to address that culture specifically because of the advertiser issue that I just identified. 

Previously:

Statement Of Angelo Carusone As Bill O'Reilly Exits Fox News​ 

As He Leaves Fox, Here Are Bill O’Reilly’s Worst Moments On The Air

Fox News Reports On O'Reilly's Departure Over His Sexual Harassment Settlements