After multiple settlements involving sexual harassment came to light, #Bill O’Reilly has been ejected from his post as a prime-time television host on Fox News, the company broadcast on Wednesday. His removal from the high rating new channel serves as an embarrassing and dramatic end to his 20-year reign as one of the most admired and television personalities.
For the last year the parent company #21St Century Fox has struggled with the slew of sexual harassment cases that they have had to manage in regards to Bill O'Reilly. There were many women who stepped forward in the past five years claiming that O'Reilly had sexually harassed them or used his position of influence to try and seduce them and then embarrass or demote them when they didn't comply with his personal expectations.
21st Century Fox speaks out
“After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Bill O’Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel,” a representative from 21st Century Fox, #Fox News’s umbrellas company, wrote in a statement today.
This news comes after a breakthrough investigation carried out by the New York Times that combed through multiple cases of sexual harassment and accessed files and records to show the pressure that both Fox and 21st Century Fox were under in serving as the employer to #Bill O'Reilly. The umbrella company 21st Century Fox had repeatedly stood by O'Reilly and had dealt with five settlements that had amounted to pay outs of around $13 million.
Since this article was published around 50 advertisers have fled from the show, and feminists and women's rights groups have petitioned for #Bill O'Reilly's ouster.
Within the umbrella company, women expressed anger as they questioned the company's prerogative to maintain a work that was fairly based on “trust and respect,” as had been promised last year when the Fox News chairman Roger Ailes had been fired for his own #sexual harassment scandal.
The pressure mounts
The pressure had since then mounted on #21st Century Fox and also the Murdoch family, the company's owners, to control and subdue the inherent tensions. With Mr Ailes recently gone, the company had initially extended O'Reilly's contract as it also dealt with two settlements that involved his sexual harassing behavior.
The fact that the company was aware of O'Reilly's behavior whilst they extended his contract has bought some harsh rhetoric from various groups and resources.
Murdoch family gets legal advice
The #Murdoch family engaged the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison last week to stage an investigation into the famous television anchor's dealings and behavior after a woman, who had described her various allegations against the news host to The Times, had in fact called the company’s harassment hotline to account and record her objections. This was a turning point in the case.
#Bill O’Reilly, who is now 67, has been employed as a popular news anchor at Fox News since he began his career at the network in 1996.
As the most highly rated host in cable news, he dished out all sorts of defiant commentary through the week at the nightly time of 8 pm, with his rebellious point of view that highlighted and celebrated patriotism and rubbished any sort of political correctness.
Bill O'Reilly's firing is a momentous blow to #Fox News’s lineup on the prime-time front, since they lost another star in January, when Megyn Kelly went to another station. As a result many are wondering how #Fox News are going to contain and sustain their prime time news ratings standards. It's a competitive time slot and one that takes many months to get right.
