A brand has a right to protect itself and separate itself from controversy. In this case, FoxNews decided that the cost of losing Bill was lower than the cost of keeping him. There's nothing more than that going on, and there shouldn't be anymore. It was a business decision by Fox, not a moral one - and says nothing about his guilt or innocence. I don't feel sorry for Bill any more than I feel sorry for the other Bill. I think it takes a lot of courage for women to speak out against powerful people who have mistreated them. While everyone deserves their chance to clear their name, it does not sound like these accusations are frivolous or connected to ulterior motives. Regardless, I don't think this will be the of Bill O'Reilly - someone will take a chance on him down the road when the dust settles. His fox days are over, but his career is definitely not.
This is a genuinely fascinating development. I guess if he wants any chance of staying on or returning to television he has to fight these harassment allegations tooth and nail via defamation suits. Separately this probably realigns the cable news network ratings to a certain extent. I always thought there was an honest-to-goodness statute of limitations on sexual harassment claims as their would be with racial discrimination claims, at least to the extent that EEOC filings and findings are part of the process. But I guess if a lawyer sees a provable claim and a large enough salary to garner a large settlement, they'll take the retainer. They probably should have tried to groom Miller for this eventuality, I don't know if Tucker Carlson will ever catch the eye of a majority of those viewers.
As a white guy with lots of white conservative friends and family members I will attest that nearly all of them swear by FoxNews still. The O'Reilly factor was a nightly watch for the more racist right wingers in my family in particular. My grandpa watched it every single night and DVR'ed episodes he missed. Also ratings have been through the roof since Trump has come along. He's been really really good for CNN, MSNBC in particular with FN still maintaining the #1 spot. It might just be a temporary boost for cable news but I wouldn't call it dying, and I still wouldn't discount the affect FoxNews has at sharpening the worldview and talking points of Republicans. I wouldn't even call Fox News a conservative platform. Its a straight up Republican party mouthpiece. Its baffling many of the things that the Republican party pushes that aren't really conservative ideals FoxNews still champions.
Trump's entire world view is based on obsessively watching Fox. Some of his most embarrassing moments have beet tweeting what he saw on Fox as actual "news". Most of the righties in the 50 year range that run the country and vote for bozos like him were raised on Fox and Rush.
My in-laws are conservatives and were early Trump supporters. They were and still are Fox news watchers, but it seemed that when Trump started to run and was largely ignored or ridiculed my in-laws started watching One America News channel. Made me laugh... a channel even further to the extreme. Though once the Fox news talking heads swung over to Trump my in-laws abandoned OAN. When my in-laws visit my FIL brings his laptop so he can stream Rush. He will sit in the guest room or even on the couch with an earphone on, listening away. My wife would clobber me if I streamed sports talk or Howard Stern while visiting them.
I wonder what he's going to do next. I don't think anyone will give him a job on tv. The liability is just too high given his track record of lawsuits. Oh god...congressman O'riley?
Its funny... The Right Wing In-Laws and their FoxNews 24/7 is a crazy addiction. I don't go to my In-Laws house and turn on Rachel Maddow. I'm not even allowed to watch the Rockets because they complain about basketball players and their tattoos (probably code for saying too many black people on their TV). I have a two year old who cries when you turn off her kid shows like Nella the Princess Knight or Bubble Guppies but when my father in law comes over he comes in and dominates my TV with FoxNews nonsense, and makes my kid upset.... You give me a fussy two year old and we have a problem. I got a Roku now for the guest room so hopefully FoxNews streams on Roku so I can get him off the living room TV. Freakin In-Laws.
I disagree. The far right & right wing talk radio will fawn over him to get him on their airways. Rush Limbaugh has a disgusting past too (google Rush Viagra Dominican Republic) but he's had a long successful career giving right wing talking points. I'm certain that this isn't the last we have heard from O'Reilly if he's interested in doing anything. The far right could care less about PR scandals. They know that his followers don't give a crap, and will listen or watch just as close as they did before.
That's not true of either the punishment or the perceived crime. Cosby is somewhere between Michael Jackson, Sam Cooke and Ted Bundy.
