Wednesday morning began with a bombshell announcement from NBC as they revealed that Matt Lauer was fired amid sexual misconduct allegations. In September, Lauer scored a coveted interview with Bill O’Reilly just after the Fox News star’s fall from fame amid similar allegations.
In the interview, Lauer took a tough line of questioning with O’Reilly, repeatedly asking about the sexual harassment accusations against him. At one point, he asked O’Reilly point blank, “Did you ever send a lewd text or email to another employee at Fox News?” Moments later, he followed up by asking O’Reilly about Fox making financial settlements with women accusing the host of sexual harassment.
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The interview continued in a tense vein; when Lauer asked O’Reilly if he had done any “soul searching,” the former Fox News icon replied, “My conscience is clear.” O’Reilly insisted that the decision to let him go from the network was purely a business move and blamed left-wing groups like Media Matters for his downfall. He went on to say, “This was a hit job, a political and financial hit job.”
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At the time, the "Today" host was praised for not giving O’Reilly any easy questions, but the Washington Post, Mashable and other news outlets pointed out Wednesday that the interview looks a lot different now given the allegations against Lauer.
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