This reporting appears as one of several scoops featured in this week’s edition of Confider, the newsletter pulling back the curtain on the media. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
NewsNation is apparently not done stacking its roster with media men accused of misconduct.
Bill O’Reilly is in talks to join the fledgling cable channel five years after he was fired by Fox News following an avalanche of sexual-harassment allegations, Confider has learned.
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NewsNation bosses are negotiating with the disgraced broadcaster to join as a contributor, two people familiar with the situation said. O’Reilly has already appeared several times as a guest on Dan Abrams’ nightly NewsNation show, including one hit in which he boasted about the “millions and millions of viewers and billions of dollars” he brought in for Fox News during his two-decade run as the king of the network’s primetime lineup.
O’Reilly’s TV comeback means NewsNation would have three high-profile men accused of sexual harassment on its payroll. Chris Cuomo, who announced his NewsNation hiring last week, was accused of sexual harassment amid his CNN downfall last fall, and former Good Morning America exec producer Michael Corn, now president of NewsNation, was accused of sexually assaulting two junior ABC News staffers.
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Speaking of Cuomo, last week The Daily Beast broke the news that the disgraced CNN anchor will join NewsNation as a primetime host. Confider has learned more details about that arrangement: Cuomo will host the nightly 8 p.m. hour starting Oct. 3, and he has taken a significant pay cut to join the startup cable channel.
Cuomo has signed on for a $700,000 salary—a far cry from the eye-popping $6 million annual salary he raked in when he was still the darling of CNN‘s primetime lineup.
Sources also told us that Cuomo will have near non-existent clothing and travel budgets, and he will tape the show from his home in the Hamptons.
The downgrade may be unsurprising given NewsNation’s status as a fledgling outlet, but it’s shocking nonetheless, especially when compared with the substantially more lavish post he held at CNN just a few months ago.
Despite claiming it’s “time to move on” from his old network, Cuomo is still in the midst of a scathing $125 million lawsuit against CNN, claiming they assassinated his character and ruined his career.
Reps for both Cuomo and NewsNation declined to comment, while a rep for O’Reilly did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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