Last week, ThinkProgress noted that Bill O’Reilly tried to distance himself from Fox’s upcoming interview with O.J. Simpson by falsely claiming that “Fox Broadcasting has nothing to do with the Fox News Channel.” In fact, the two entites have the same chairman (Roger Ailes), the same owner (Rupert Murdoch) and Fox Broadcasting regularly airs Fox News content.
Days later, Bill O’Reilly attacked the “far left loons” who linked Fox News with the O.J. Simpson interview. According to O’Reilly, these people are “kool-aid zombies” who are “doing the bidding of far left fanatics” who want “to tie Fox News in with the O.J. Simpson situation.”
But there are close ties between Fox News and the O.J. Simpson situation. According to a database search, Fox News referenced the Simpson affair as many times in the last five days as the other three leading cable news networks combined. According to TVEyes, there have been 417 references to Simpson between Nov. 15 — Nov. 20 (3:30 PM). During the same period, there were 414 references to Simpson on CNN, MSNBC, and Headline News.
DateFox NewsCNNMSNBCHeadline News11/154346194411/167779114711/1710030121811/189024221311/19861717511/2021622Total41720283129
UPDATE: “After a firestorm of criticism, News. Corp. said Monday that it has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and TV special ‘If I Did It.’”