Bill O'Reilly - Late Show With David Letterman 2014 - Getty-H 2017© Provided by The Hollywood Reporter Bill O'Reilly - Late Show With David Letterman 2014 - Getty-H 2017
Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, who was let go by the news network on Wednesday following controversy surrounding sexual harassment claims against him made by several women, sent emails the day before his ouster to his legal team that highlight a last-minute effort to save his position, according to reports by Politico.
The April 18 email exchange reveals that O'Reilly, in an attempt to secure his job at the network, tried to convince Fox News executives that he was not a liability, and a coordinated attack was being unfairly directed at him.
Before his ouster on Wednesday, he wrote in an email about correspondence with Mary Pat Bonner, who was working with Media Matters on a campaign to get advertisers to drop his show following the April 1 New York Times exposé about past sexual harassment claims against him. They succeeded, as dozens of companies pulled their ads from O'Reilly's nightly program leading up to his departure on Wednesday.
O'Reilly and his team considered the email from Bonner to be evidence that he was being victimized in a coordinated attack, which could possibly convince the executives at his network that he was innocent, yet the host decided against forwarding it to upper network management.
"If we show to Fox tomorrow, word will get out and the Thursday call may be cancelled," he wrote in the email, referencing a conference between O'Reilly, his reps and Fox News execs that was scheduled to take place Thursday but was later canceled following the news of O'Reilly's exit.
The email was sent to Politico on Wednesday by a member of O'Reilly's legal team, though a rep for the former Fox News host later said the email had been sent accidentally.
"So no formal sending to Rupert [Murdoch] until after the call," O'Reilly wrote in the email, adding, "You all should know that I will not put up with much more from FNC."