In face of the recent news that Bill O’Reilly, of the
top-rated cable news show, “The O’Reilly Factor” being forced out at Fox News –
with a substantial payoff – I came across a few articles delving deeper in what
exactly led to this decision.
For me, I have never watched any of O’Reilly’s show until last
fall, when O’Reilly made news for his highly criticized “Chinatown” segment.
Here, O’Reilly mocks elder Chinese who don’t speak English, laughs at his own
jokes about karate, etc. He does this under the guise of a “man on the street”
surveying residents of Chinatown about the (then) upcoming election. It was
really jarring for me to watch this segment, but after reading Amy Davidson's New Yorker article, "FOX LOST BILL O’REILLY, BUT IT STILL HAS DONALD TRUMP" regarding his comparisons to Donald Trump, it’s my opinion that a lot
of his allegations fit well to his persona.
Here’s what I’ve found to be the most striking points of the
article:
- - Over the years, the Fox network has paid over $13 million on behalf of suits considering O’Reilly’s behavior.
- - O’Reilly’s “behavior” comprises over five cases for sexual assault
- - One of his daughters told a court examiner that she had seen him choking her mother and dragging her down a flight of stairs.
- - Like O’Reilly, as we know, Trump has a name colored by misogyny, further evidenced with his own set of sexual assault lawsuits.
- - Donald Trump has publically bashed Megan Kelly, boycotting the debates mediated by her, and at times considering boycotting Fox News entirely
- - However, Trump was willing to go on the O’Reilly show, in which he glowed in compliments from the host.
- - Evidently, after the Times ran a story about O’Reilly’s sexual assault settlements, O’Reilly responded:
- o “I know Bill. Bill’s a good person. I don’t think Bill would do anything wrong.”
So, we can see a connect between O’Reilly and Trump. My
question is – although O’Reilly is “forced out” of his position and Trump isn’t,
will O’Reilly actually endure any tangible consequences? For the damages he has
inflicted on women and his co-workers? For parading misogyny and racism on air
as… humor? O’Reilly gets a payoff with his contract, and according to his ownstatement released regarding his departure, he is very clear that he’s
definitely not sorry.
I think this case speaks a lot about towards who has control over their limits and who doesn't in the media/Hollywood. It seems for decades white males are the ones who get caught with the most egregious crimes/discrepancies/etc. and there is always very little repercussions for them. This reminds me a lot of Charlie Sheen, as well as Woody Allen. It seems despite numerous testimonies from people calling them out on their transgressions, no one believes them which is absurd! Furthermore it always takes FOREVER for any type of reconciliation to be met. The "three strikes and you're out" actually seems to be more like 10 strikes, and makes you wonder if he wasn't a white male would he have been kicked off sooner than this.
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