Opinion: Bill O’Reilly should be fired from Fox News
In light of recent events happening in the media giant known as Fox News, with Roger Ailes resigning after Megyn Kelly accused him of sexually harassing her, announcing that she will be leaving Fox News soon, some are questioning whether Fox will be able to hold itself up now that it has lost one of its big three.
But their fears are about to be stoked even more now that another of their prominent figures has settled only one less sexual harassment case out of court than Roger Ailes, and that is none other than the “King of Cable News,” Bill O’Reilly himself.
The New York Times investigated further into this scandal and unearthed the fact that advertisers are pulling out of Fox News to distance themselves from O’Reilly’s actions. O’Reilly has addressed the attacks on him, saying that the women who are accusing him have picked on the wrong man.
O’Reilly has settled five cases out of court, gaining on his former boss, Roger Ailes, who settled six cases out of court, tallying over $13 million spent to settle cases made against him.
One case, where Ms. Andrea Mackris had brought charges against him, alleging he made sexually sexually explicit and offensive comments about her and called her in the middle of the night, sounding as if he was performing obscene acts. O’Reilly claims that Mackris is trying to extort $60 million from him.
Maxine Waters, Democratic representative of California, has been in a recent sniping match with O’Reilly. In one of her recent speeches, she took aim to Donald Trump’s supporters, stating that they are not true patriots. O’Reilly claimed he was not paying attention, but was fascinated by the “James Brown wig” that she was wearing. When Waters heard this statement, she launched a ruthless attack on him, claiming that he should be in jail for his alleged crimes.
She also claims there is a culture problem that one can see in Fox News, with a recent myriad of sexual harassment cases against Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes.
Bill O’Reilly is not the man to back down from a fight, especially if he believes he can win. He probably settled these court cases because he wanted them to be over, or because he thinks he can get out of having to pay more money. Given the number of women accusing him, it seems likely that Bill O’Reilly did commit at least some of these offenses that he’s being accused of.
But this reveals a culture problem about our country as a whole. Recently, anchor for The Blaze, Tomi Lahren was suspended and fired. And this was because she went on The View and pointed out that claiming to be pro-life, but having an ideology where you believe in small government is hypocritical. She was suspended and subsequently fired because she insulted pro-life conservatives. O’Reilly can have sexual harassment cases surrounding him from every angle and he doesn’t get so much as a pay cut.
This has raised many questions about Fox News. Is there a culture problem when a woman can step out of line once and get fired? But a man can sexually harass women and settle five cases and not suffer career damage? Is there still a culture of sexism against women in the USA? These questions may not be answered.
Regardless of how famous he is or what his favorability ratings are, Bill O’Reilly needs to be fired from Fox News. If he isn’t, then it goes against his entire campaign where he attacks the concept of white privilege. In all likelihood, if Bill O’Reilly was a black man, he would have been arrested, prosecuted, and jailed.
*Update after 20th April 1017
Just recently, 21st Century Fox just announced that O’Reilly will not be returning to Fox News. They have not, however, given the reason why O’Reilly will not be returning. They claim it to be because they thought it to be the best decision to make after reviewing the allegations made against O’Reilly. While this holds him accountable to his actions, there is still the question as to whether this is the real reason he has been fired. It could very well be, or there could be inner workings in Fox News that we aren’t yet aware of. If this is the reason why, then Mr. Rupert Murdoch and his sons made the right decision. If this is not the reason why, then the question as to why O’Reilly is not returning is still up in the air. Would he have still been fired if the advertisers didn’t refuse to advertise his show? Was he really fired because of the allegations? Questions that, for now, have no answer.
