LAWRENCE O'DONNELL (HOST): Angelo, this latest reporting, we've had a series of reports tonight. Gabe Sherman first, and then Brian Stelter second, third and most importantly, The Wall Street Journal. This is -- this newspaper is owned by Rupert Murdoch. This newspaper -- there's not a person there who would dare type a word about Fox News without taking the utmost care in checking sources. And for them to be saying in the headline Fox is preparing to cut ties with Bill O'Reilly, it's hard to imagine the Murdochs letting their own newspaper print a headline like that if it wasn't true.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT):Indeed. And that's just not reflected on the insider side at Fox News. It's also reflected on the opposite side because they are hearing an awful lot right now from not just their advertisers -- all those that have dropped O'Reilly, all those that have refused to ever buy ads on O'Reilly going forward. But they're also hearing from the media buyers as they move into their up fronts next month, which is when they actually sell all their 2018 inventory.
And what they're hearing, it's not just about Bill O'Reilly. The advertisers are deeply concerned that this is reflective of a bigger epidemic at Fox News and rightfully so given one of the co-presidents was very much involved in the cover-ups against the people that came forward against Roger Ailes, as well as the women that have come forward against Bill O'Reilly and they re-signed a contract with Bill O'Reilly knowing full well. So the advertising community is not just saying this is about O'Reilly.
They are gearing up to drop Fox. So that's what the executives at Fox News are dealing with. They are dealing with a long-term and a short-term business crisis. And so they don't really have a choice anymore. This is not them acting responsive to something that they should have taken care of a long time ago. This is because of really hard work. Like groups like Ultraviolet that have put survivors out there to tell their stories, organizations like groups like Sleeping Giants. This had to be forced. Fox News needed to be forced to do this by their own business associates.
