(OPINION) ETH – Former Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly is predicting that major cable news networks are going to “collapse” after President Donald Trump leaves office as president. According to a report from NewsMax, O’Reilly made the prediction in a recent interview with Sinclair Broadcasting’s “America This Week” where he stated “something’s going on” already at Fox News.
“NBC News, CNN, and the other networks are going to collapse almost entirely,” O’Reilly said after Trump leaves office and a Joe Biden administration begins. “They don’t have any credibility,” he said, adding “everybody knew… they were trying to destroy Trump.” “Now you’re going, to tell the truth,” he scoffed. “It’s over.”
Trump has recently claimed that the recent downfall of Fox News was from how they covered the election process. Earlier this week, Trump tweeted that Fox News “daytime ratings have completely collapsed.” O’Reilly is warning viewers that liberal media outlets that harshly challenged Trump won’t hold Biden to the same standards.
“Whatever Biden does will be the greatest thing,” O’Reilly said. “He’s not going to hold many press conferences, he’s not going to be around.” O’Reilly goes on to say that it won’t be Biden who wields the most power. “Biden’s not the most powerful man in the country. [Senate Majority Leader and Kentucky GOP Sen.] Mitch McConnell is,” he asserted, predicting that McConnell in a GOP controlled upper chamber will block “all the nutty” progressive proposals initiated by a Biden administration. There are also rumors of investors wanting to raise money to create a new conservative news channel.
This comes as President Trump has reportedly been exploring ways to build up a formidable competitor to Fox News for years now and the opportunity may now be ripe for this endeavor. One target they recently zeroed in on is the fledgling pro-Trump cable channel Newsmax TV. According to the Wall Street Journal, Hicks Equity Partners, a private-equity firm with ties to a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, has held talks in recent months about acquiring and investing in Newsmax, according to people familiar with the matter, part of a larger effort that could also include a streaming-video service.
