Summary: Bill O’Reilly has been accused of sexual harassment on at least twelve occasions.
Bill O’Reilly called one woman “hot chocolate.” He told a guest commenter he’d give her a permanent job but took the offer away when she turned down his advances. He tried to have phone sex with another female employee. These are just three of the shocking allegations lobbed at the conservative talking head, who was recently ousted by Fox News, his home of 21 years.
O’Reilly was the host of The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, and the show averaged 4 million viewers and generated $178 million a year in revenue. O’Reilly was clearly the network’s biggest star, but his place there came into question after The New York Times published a damning expose earlier this month, detailing how he and Fox News had paid $13 million to 5 women to silence their sexual harassment claims over the span of ten years.
If that article had never been published, O’Reilly would probably have continued to spout his bombastic family-first values on the network until the day he died; but once the allegations surfaced, the public backlash against him was swift and was followed by the loss of corporate sponsors which included BMW and Allstate Insurance.
Days after nearly 60 sponsors pulled their ads from The O’Reilly Factor, the parent company of Fox News, 21st Century Fox, and the company’s owners, The Murdoch family, announced that O’Reilly would be let go. He reportedly walked away with a $25 million severance, and he will be replaced by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson.
O’Reilly has denied all of the allegations against him, and he has said that he is an easy target to lawsuits because of his money and status. He also alluded to a far-left conspiracy to bring him down, although he has not provided evidence to support that claim.
“Over the past 20 years at Fox News, I have been extremely proud to launch and lead one of the most successful news programs in history, which has consistently informed and entertained millions of Americans and significantly contributed to building Fox into the dominant news network in television,” O’Reilly said in a statement after his firing. “It is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims. But that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today. I will always look back on my time at Fox with great pride in the unprecedented success we achieved and with my deepest gratitude to all my dedicated viewers. I wish only the best for Fox News Channel.”
The “unfounded claims” that O’Reilly is referring to includes the following 12 complaints dug up by WND:
- 2002: O’Reilly allegedly screamed at a young producer named Rachel Witleib Bernstein who left Fox News shortly after the incident with a payout.
- 2004: Associate producer, Andrea Mackris, then 33, sued O’Reilly for sexual harassment. O’Reilly allegedly tried to get her to have phone sex, and she recorded him offering to rub her with a “falafel,” which he confused for a loofah. The lawsuit was settled for $9 million that year.
- 2010: O’Reilly’s ex-wife Maureen McPhilmy filed for custody of their children. Years later, their daughter told a court-appointed forensic examiner that she had seen O’Reilly choke her mother.
- 2011: Rebecca Gomez Diamond left the network with an unknown payout and a confidentiality agreement. She submitted transcripts to The New York Times for their April O’Reilly piece but was unable to discuss details of her case.
- 2015: Former Fox News anchor Laurie Dhue claimed O’Reilly sexually harassed her, and the case was settled for $1 million.
- 2015: Repeat The O’Reilly Factor guest, Juliet Huddy, claimed O’Reilly had tried to have sex with her in 2011, and she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit which was settled for $1.6 million.
- 2016: Fox Host Andrea Tantaros said O’Reilly made sexual comments to her and the network had a “Playboy Mansion-like” atmosphere.
- 2017: The O’Reilly Factor guest Wendy Walsh hired civil rights lawyer Lisa Bloom and went public with her claims that O’Reilly had invited her to his hotel suite in 2013. She said that she had settled with the network and was bound by a confidentiality agreement so she could not discuss her case in further detail.
- 2017: African-American Fox News employee Perquita Burgess said O’Reilly leered at her and called her “hot chocolate.” She also hired attorney Bloom and reported her sexual harassment claim to the 21st Century Fox hotline.
- 2017: Fox News contributor Margaret Hoover told The Daily Beast that she refused to be alone with O’Reilly given his gross reputation.
- 2017: Fox News host, Alisyn Camerota, said that sexual harassment at Fox News was the norm.
- 2017: Former Fox News staffer, Kirsten Powers, said that she had complained about O’Reilly’s lecherous behavior but was told to “accept Bill as a relic of the old-school workplace.”
What do you think of these allegations? Let us know in the comments below.
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Source: WND