Bill O’Reilly made some surprising offhand comments to Bret Baier about how he should learn from O’Reilly’s handling of a technical difficulty.
During a post-debate O’Reilly Factor last night, a feed with guest Brit Hume suddenly went down mid-segment. O’Reilly offered some thoughts of his own on the debate then, after a break, hosted Fox’s “chief political anchor,” Bret Baier.
During their discussion, O’Reilly said, “The big story for me” about the debate was how poorly Jeb Bush did. O’Reilly began to reference some comments made by Hume, then joked with Baier about the mishap. But during the banter, O’Reilly said that Baier would one day be in his position.
O’REILLY: Can you do something about us paying the bills for the electricity? …I’m out here, I’m live here, OK? In front of millions of people all over the world and then all of a sudden my guest disappears and I’m forced to bloviate for four minutes.
Now, I did it flawlessly. I hope you saw it, OK? ‘Cause some day you’re gonna have to do that so you’ve gotta learn.
BAIER: I was taking notes.
It’s possible O’Reilly was just speaking generally to someone he thinks of as an up and comer who could use the benefit of his wisdom. But Baier, who currently anchors FNC’s flagship newscast, who has hosted presidential debates and election coverage, is no newbie. He’s been at Fox since 1998. Surely, Baier has had his share of dealing with technical or other difficulties on the air.
On the other hand, O’Reilly has an outsized personality whereas Baier… doesn’t.
What do you think? Watch the brief clip below, from the October 28 The O’Reilly Factor and share your thoughts in our comments section.
Well……….I don’t know about that. If old Billy-Boy did retire, then he’d be out of the spotlight. He’d actually have to ask to appear on shows to hawk his books, and that would be a serious blow to his ego. His recent books haven’t really been the type that would get him invited to shows—none of the acceptable “red meat” for the “red state” FoxNoise viewers. And, ironically, he’s been trying, with his recent efforts, to gain “critical” acclaim for his “serious” works, rather than his earlier bloviating “blame the liberals for all the world’s woes” stuff.
As for the kids, that’s taking a big leap that THEY want him to “hang with” them. And without all that filthy FoxNoise lucre coming in, he won’t be able to bribe them to spend time with him.
And, as we’ve seen before, FoxNoise isn’t one to take many risks with their “popular” hosts unless the host does something that really ticks off Murdoch and/or Ailes. (Even if Rupert isn’t that involved with FoxNoise, he’d still be likely to have some input in who appears on “his” network.)
Billy is 66 years old. He’s at retirement age, and we don’t see him signing on for another five-year contract with the Workplace Bullies. Billy would retire, hang with his kids, and continue to write his books in his Long Island mansion.
Baer is likely a candidate for his replacement.