Brendan McDermid/Reuters
The New York Times reporters who effectively ended Bill O’Reilly’s career with a series of reports on his many settlements of sexual-harassment allegations had a chance to sit down with the ex-Fox News host over the weekend. Emily Steel and Michael E. Schmidt explained on Monday’s The Daily podcast that it was quite clear from the outset O’Reilly wasn’t interested in discussing as much as bullying. “Leaks are not facts. Leaks are designed to hurt people,” he told the reporters before trying to depict himself as a victim. “It’s been a horrendous experience,” O’Reilly said. “I’ve never had one complaint filed against me by a co-worker in any human-resources department in 43 years. That encompasses 12 different companies. So all of the sudden this stuff happens and the pain it brings to my children is indescribable.” As soon as the reporters shut off their official microphones following the interview (while their phones continued to record), O’Reilly lit up even more: “It’s horrible what I went through, horrible what my family went through,” he shouted. “This is crap. It’s politically and financially motivated. We can prove it with shocking information.” Without going into specifics, he declared, “We have physical proof that this is bullshit.” Steel and Schmidt reported on Saturday that Fox had extended O’Reilly’s contract even after he shelled out $32 million to former on-air contributor Lis Wiehl over allegations that included him sending pornographic material to her.