TV Show

Sadly it was money – not morals – that forced Fox to boot Bill O'Reilly

Is anyone looking to hire an alleged sexual harasser who is a falsehood-babbling, pathologically bloviating, sanctimonious sac of conservative bile? If so, I may know someone!

Bill O’Reilly has been fired, and not a moment too soon. O’Reilly is, of course, the host of Fox New’s The O’Reilly Factor and is one of cable TV’s most successful personalities. He is a man who must have “leftwing conspiracy” tattooed on the inside of his eyelids since he sees them so often.

O’Reilly is now infamous as the man who cost his company, Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, at least $13m in legal settlements to avoid sexual harassment claims reaching court. He may also be the most famous man yet to lose his job due to sexual harassment allegations. His firing is encouraging. The harassment charges, though, are downright disturbing.

According to reports, O’Reilly, a 67-year old man who earns approximately $18m a year from hosting his show, has engaged in a repeated pattern of vile harassment of female employees for well over a decade. (He denies the allegations.) The multiple testimonies allege that O’Reilly acts as a serial bully, a man who offers women in his workplace career advancement if they become sexually involved with him and, when rebuffed, turns malicious and seeks to punish the same women by damaging their professional progress.

Such behavior is revolting and even more sickening than you may think. One woman, Andrea Mackris, alleges that O’Reilly instructed her to purchase a vibrator and, when he called her, would sound like he was masturbating over the phone, according to her lawsuit. (She apparently recorded some conversations.) She also stated that O’Reilly threatened her by saying he would make any woman protesting his actions “pay so dearly that she’ll wish she’d never been born”.