#Bill O’Reilly, Fox News’s star rating anchor has been building and refining his cable news program for the past two decades, and has – through revenues – made millions, if not billions for Fox's parent company 21St Century Fox.
But O'Reilly has faced a slew of harassment and #Sexual Harassment cases, and the company has stood up for him, doling out large amounts of money in settlements for a varied range of women employees, from anchors, to producers to assistants.
Investigating reveals all
The New York Times recently did an investigation on the matter and published on Sunday a series of #allegations and witness accounts, that reveal how five women have received hush money payouts in exchange for agreeing not to pursue any sort of litigation or to publicly declare or speak about their former accusations aimed at the host.
With a total of #13 millions dollars paid out on such agreements, the amount of money and effort to cover up the accusations is rocking the media world. In fact, Roger Ailes, the former disgraced chairman of the network, was himself let go last year in his own sexual harassment scandal. The company claimed it would not tolerate any behavior that is demeaning to women or contributes to an uncomfortable work environment.
The #five women who dropped their allegations against Mr O’Reilly – in response for a settlement – were either colleagues of O'Reilly's, that is, they worked for him, or indeed they actually appeared on the show. Their varied complaints illustrate the depth and the severity of his alleged behavior, from #lewd comments, to unwanted advances and, just as troubling, strange telephone calls that the women claimed sounded like the news anchor could have been #masturbating.
A pattern emerges
The New York Times gained access to documents and files that cover these claims and these behaviors, and they go onto explore a pattern that had clearly emerged in such cases. An influential figure in a #media newsroom, the charismatic O'Reilly would forge a bond with females in the studio and then offer counsel and advice about their developing careers.
He would then approach and pursue them for sexual relationships, which made them fear that if they said no it would negatively impact their careers.
Only two of the five settlements were previously made public: one was for the amount of $9 million when a producer, in 2004, settled. And then in 2016 an on-air anchor was awarded another settlement.
What wasn't known is that one of the claimants was awarded damages for #verbal abuse; this was a young producer in the newsroom, and another two also involved sexual harassment.
Outside of these settlements, another two other women have detailed and alleged inappropriate behavior by #O'Reilly; their names are Wendy Walsh, who is a former guest who appeared regularly on his show; and Andrea Tantaros, who was a news host.
#21st Century Fox declined to comment on the case in any specific manner, but they wrote a statement acknowledging that they had managed and tackled the issue with O'Reilly. It's a statement that, on one hand, may acknowledge there was a problem, but does nothing to accept once and for all that O'Reilly engaged in #harassing behavior.
