Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has been in negotiations with Sinclair Broadcast Group, according to a Wednesday report.
NBC News reported that “two sources familiar with the talks” reported the possible deal with O’Reilly, who was the most-watched cable news host for the past 15 years until being ousted from Fox amid sexual harassment allegations in April.
According to the report, O’Reilly could join Sinclair despite news that broke over the weekend in The New York Times of O’Reilly’s $32 million settlement with then-Fox News legal analyst Lis Wiehl.
{mosads}”They took a pause [after the $32 million settlement was reported], but it didn’t really change anything for them,” one of the sources told NBC.
The right-leaning Sinclair is the country’s largest television-station owner, with 154 stations across the country.
If a pending $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Broadcasting is approved by the Federal Communications Commission, that number would exceed 220 stations, reaching 72 percent of households across the nation.
O’Reilly, 68, has maintained his innocence and called the latest Times report “lies and smears.” His spokesman, Mark Fabiani, accused the Times of publishing leaked information that was “out of context, false, defamatory, and obviously designed to embarrass Bill O’Reilly and to keep him from competing in the marketplace.”
“What you are going to see is a syndicated show, not a news channel,” one source told NBC. “I know they’ve been talking about doing something in syndication and something that could air on WGN,” Tribune’s flagship station in Chicago.
“They want to do something anti-CNN, anti-MSNBC,” the source continued.
Boris Epshteyn, a former communications aide to President Trump and a surrogate for him during the campaign, joined Sinclair as a political analyst in April.