GLENN: Somebody that I have known for years and has -- and have really grown to really, truly respect is being raked over the coals in the press right now. People are trying to destroy him by getting his advertisers to run for the hills. Guess who is involved in this, Stu?
STU: I don't know.
GLENN: Color of Change.
STU: Oh, the same Van Jones organization.
GLENN: Yeah, how do we know about Color of Change?
STU: They were trying to lead a boycott against you.
GLENN: Yeah, and how did that boycott work?
STU: Well, they tried to intimidate -- you know, their 14 social media followers would continually tweet, call, and intimidate companies. Companies not wanting to deal with it would just make -- move their advertising from our show on to another show and still pay the same exact amount. And it wouldn't affect the business at all.
GLENN: But that really -- that really was the -- that was the worst of the worst. And there was very little of that, that actually went on.
STU: Yeah. A lot of it -- yeah, that was the most extreme part. Most of it was advertisers that never advertised on the program. They would try to make announcements that they had dropped our show, when they were never on the show.
GLENN: For instance, can you think of a cheese company?
STU: I can think of a cheese company.
GLENN: Would you like to talk about that cheese company?
STU: I can if you want me to talk about the cheese company.
GLENN: That's fine. I just know that Stu has harbored some very deep feelings about --
STU: A particular cheese company.
GLENN: -- a particular cheese company that never advertised on our show.
STU: Yeah. Because I could actually -- and these things are weird. Because companies don't want to be involved in controversies.
GLENN: Yes.
STU: Even if they don't believe the controversy is real, they just don't want to deal with it. They make cheese, for example. So I understand sometimes these companies will be like, just don't put me on that show right now. I don't want to be in the news. I get that.
To make public statements in which you are -- well, we cannot be associated with hate, or that type of stuff, which they were doing to us. Many companies are doing the same thing today. That's just infuriating, especially when they know it's not true.
You know, these --
GLENN: No, but -- you didn't know that it wasn't true. Some people still think that I am the reason for all of the hate in the country.
STU: You seem to be leading that brigade lately. But --
GLENN: No, no.
STU: Yeah, I know.
GLENN: So, anyway, what when I worked at Fox News -- when I worked at Fox News, this is what the left did to me. They tried really hard.
It actually didn't work. Unfortunately, Fox News tried to make the case after I left that it did. And that's going to come and bite them in the ass now.
But it actually didn't work. When I was there -- and I've said this many times. Bill O'Reilly was the -- it was the most honest, fair, most intelligent and intellectually curious guy in the media I have ever met.
I don't agree with everything that Bill O'Reilly says. I don't agree with some of his stances. He always seems to be behind because he's not willing to predict or project. He's willing to look at what's a fact today. That's what -- I mean, we've had this argument. I'm like, "Bill, come on, man. Look. Here's history. Here are the facts. Where do you think --
He's like, that's not my job, Glenn.
So I don't necessarily agree with him on things. And, quite honestly, I remember the first time I met him and I was on his show. I was just starting Fox. And, you know, he has quite the reputation of being a bulldog. And he is a -- I think he's 6-5 or 6-6. And he's at this little teeny desk. Those studios -- studios and television look a lot bigger. Objects in the mirror appear to be bigger than they are -- or bigger than they are. They're really small. And you're in O'Reilly's face sitting at that table.
And I remember they were counting him down, five, four -- and I reached over and I grabbed his hand and said, "Please don't kill me." Because you don't go into a room with Bill O'Reilly knowing.
And we became friends, but we became friends because we were both intellectually honest with each other. When we were flying on a plane -- and he probably -- well, no, I think he would be fine with this.
STU: These stories always work out well. I don't see why they would have any problem with this. This is a private story that was told in confidence, but let me just say it right now on the air.
GLENN: So we were on a plane, and I said, "Bill, thank you for being so kind to me. There's no reason you need to be kind to me." And he looked at me and he said, "Stop it." And I said, "What?" And he said, "Glenn, you're jet fuel. You're hot right now. That helps me. By having you on the show, it helps me, you know, continue to expand and boost my ratings and expand my audience."
STU: Right. Makes for interesting, compelling content.
GLENN: Right. And he said, "And it's compelling. It's good stuff. I'm not doing you any favor." And I thought -- because I knew that to be true, but I didn't think anyone would ever admit that.
That's the kind of guy I know in Bill O'Reilly. I know he is intellectually honest. And so buttoned up.
PAT: Tough, but fair.
GLENN: Yeah. He does not --
PAT: That's Bill.
GLENN: He gets the reputation of being tough because if you're not cutting it, he is. He's writing every word he says.
PAT: Yeah. Yeah.
GLENN: He's doing all the hard lifting on his own show.
STU: It's almost when you talk to him, you're in a zone where there's not spin occurring.
GLENN: Shut up.
So he's doing all the hard work himself that he's supposed to do. If you are not bringing your full game, he's not a fan of yours.
PAT: And we've spent a lot of time with him. We went on tour with him several times. We toured the country with him. Bill O'Reilly never gave any indication that --
GLENN: That there's any of this stuff.
PAT: This kind of behavior.
GLENN: Never. Not only did we not smell smoke, we never saw smoke. And, quite honestly, when you're out with somebody as famous as Bill O'Reilly, you watch. You want to see their character. Bill O'Reilly was always professional.
We talked about this yesterday in a meeting. With everybody -- we have a large team. We did our tours. When Bill and I went out, it was my company that produced those tours. So it was everybody, from the people that took him to the airport, to the people that took him home, to the people that tucked him into bed at night. It was all my people.
Not one person said anything about Bill O'Reilly, other than, that guy is a professional.
STU: To be clear, none of our people tucked him into bed at night.
GLENN: That was probably a poor choice of words there. But we were with him. Somebody from my staff was with him the entire time.
STU: Well --
GLENN: And no one said anything, but, "Wow, he's buttoned up."
STU: And we've seen -- you hang out with -- we're doing business with a lot of different people. I mean, think of one recent example that we all dredged through of one particular person on a bus with Billy Bush. And that sort of commentary, that --
PAT: That kidding around kind of -- blue humor.
STU: Yeah, we never saw anything like that. Not even jokes. Not even passing comments.
PAT: No.
STU: Nothing like that at all.
PAT: Uh-uh.
GLENN: You notice that I never said anything in defense of Roger Ailes. I never made the statement about Roger Ailes.
STU: Roger Ailes, yeah.
GLENN: Because, A, I never saw it, but it did not surprise me. Let's just put it that way. Because there was enough joking and conversations that I thought, eh, that one kind of made me a little uncomfortable. It did not surprise me.
Bill O'Reilly, I will be shocked, of course, disappointed, but shocked if he was engaged in any of the kind of monstrous stuff that he is being accused of.
PAT: Uh-huh.
GLENN: I know what it's like to be attacked. And I am not doing this as a favor to him. I'm not doing this because I'm a friend of his. I believe he's a good man who is being attacked.
I could be wrong. But never an indication from us. Settling a lawsuit is not an admission of guilt. Let's make that one really clear.
Because you settle a lawsuit -- for instance, I can tell you I was in a lawsuit recently. How hard did I fight not to settle that, Stu?
STU: Very hard.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: Knowing everyone around you.
GLENN: And who was I fighting against?
STU: Your own companies and people that were associated with you. Because they all wanted to --
GLENN: Right. I have several contracts with several big companies, and they were like, just settle the damn thing. Make it go away. The main argument came from the insurance company.
JEFFY: Yeah.
GLENN: Just settle it. Just settle it. We can settle it for a fraction of the cost.
But it's wrong. Just settle it.
So because you settle does not make -- is not an admission of guilt. It's usually a way to just spend less time and money.
Just move on with your -- with your life.
Now, as a guy who drives about $100 million in revenue every year, that makes you a target. I know it. Because people do not understand that -- when they come to work for us at TheBlaze. They'll be like, oh, no. It's easy. You just do this. No, no. We call it jokingly the Glenn Beck tax. No, you don't understand. You're working with Glenn Beck. There's no -- there's no, like, oh, no, we can do this. No, no. Because we're a massive target.
And people don't understand that until they work here for a while. As a guy who has been number one for 20 years on cable news, do you think some people are going to try to take him down? Especially on the Fox News network. Especially that he is viewed as if he leaves, Fox is destroyed? Without Roger Ailes, who was the bulldog at the door -- like him, hate him, whatever. He was effective. And he kept the vampires at the door, sucking the blood out of -- the lifeblood out of Fox News. How it survives without Roger Ailes is beyond me. How it survives without Bill O'Reilly -- and you don't think the left understands this? The media is never going to give Bill O'Reilly or anyone with his effectiveness and his point of view a fair shake.
I would like one from time to time. I am being accused now that I am stomping on people's freedom of speech. That is so far out of every reality, and my -- and some, very few, claim -- listeners, people that claim to be my listeners believe that. Well, you were never my listener if you believe that. Because you cannot doubt -- you knew nothing about me.
PAT: Why don't you ask Amy Holmes about that?
GLENN: Yeah. But that's the way the world works. That's the way this press works. That's the way the left works. And, quite frankly, that's the way the right works when they want to destroy somebody, but the left is very, very good at it.
STU: And you're not -- this is not you taking -- you know, going after people who are making accusations.
GLENN: No.
STU: This is -- this is just you talking about someone you know. You don't know everything about every person and every interaction obviously. And it's not to -- it's not to go out --
GLENN: Bill O'Reilly deserves the benefit of the doubt.
STU: He gets it from me, surely.
PAT: Yeah, innocent until proven guilty.
GLENN: Yes. Until it has been proven guilty.
PAT: That's certainly not the assumption here by many.
GLENN: No.
STU: Well, and to be fair, it's because --
PAT: Maxine Waters said last night he should go to jail.
GLENN: To go to jail.
PAT: Are you kidding me?
GLENN: To go to jail.
STU: And a lot of this has to do with the stuff that happened with Roger. Because people now see Fox as anything you say about them and that atmosphere will be believed. And that's not fair. You have to look at it honestly.
GLENN: There are things that I saw and I witnessed. And things that happened at Fox that truly turned my stomach. Truly almost destroyed my hope in people. But I will tell you, if it wasn't for Bill O'Reilly, I think it would have been destroyed.
I walked in hearing all these stories about Bill O'Reilly. Bill O'Reilly is none of those things. Bill O'Reilly was buttoned up and professional every step of the way. He is uber, uber smart. Now, maybe again -- I don't know. I'm not with him every second of the day. I have no idea. But, boy, the Bill O'Reilly that I know and that I saw working, side by side for a long time, there is no doubt in my mind that he's just smarter than that.
And I would hope that even though I disagree with Bill O'Reilly, particularly on Donald Trump -- and he has said things about, you know, Never Trumpers, or whatever the category he might put me in, and he has not even had me on his show since the Trump thing began. I don't care. I don't care. I know who he is.
He did not ask me. I did not engage with him. So, Bill -- it doesn't matter.
We have to stand up for what we believe is right, and we have to stand up for people who are coming under fire, until they prove otherwise.
By the way, for the record, there are far more facts and witnesses and issues about Bill Clinton, who seems to get the benefit of the doubt all the time.
STU: Hmm.
GLENN: Good luck, Bill. Stay strong.
