Former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly, who left the network amid accusations of sexual harassment against him, on Tuesday returned as a “special guest” on Sean Hannity’s show, where he railed against the liberal media and pledged to “come back.”
“I’m here,” O’Reilly said at the beginning of the interview. “I’m alive.”
O’Reilly promoted his new book, “Killing England,” and said he “should have” fought back against a boycott by dozens of companies who pulled ad buys on his eponymous show amid the allegations before O’Reilly’s departure.
“You fought back when they came after you last spring,” O’Reilly said to Hannity, possibly referring to the Fox host’s unrelenting promotion of his baseless conspiracy theory about the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. “I didn’t.”
O’Reilly railed against “urban” newspapers that he claimed “coordinate” among themselves and employ “leftwing” journalists.
“These totalitarians want to wipe out any speech with which they disagree,” O’Reilly claimed.
O’Reilly specifically singled out liberal media watchdog group Media Matters, which championed advertiser boycotts of both Hannity’s and O’Reilly’s shows.
“Do you know they threatened you and me if we did this segment tonight? Media Matters threatened us,” O’Reilly said.
In a statement on O’Reilly’s appearance on Hannity’s show, Media Matters president Angelo Carusone called for advertisers to “to act again” and “cease sponsoring Hannity immediately.”
“If they don’t, then they are aligning their brands with and supporting sexual harassment,” Carusone said in a statement. “And I actually think some responsible companies will remove ads from Fox News as a whole over this.”
At the end of the interview, Hannity asked O’Reilly to return to his show.
“Come back. Will you come back?” Hannity said.
“Maybe. We’ve got to go fishing first,” O’Reilly joked, then added, “Yeah. I’ll come back. I’ve got to hawk this book, man.”
Fox News did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.
