Was visiting the Pope in Rome the day his firing by FOX News was announced.
Photo from the below quoted April 19, 2017 New York Times article
excerpt
ROME — Bill O’Reilly, the powerful Fox News host forced out of his prime-time position on Wednesday amid a barrage of sexual harassment allegations, spent the morning of his firing briefly meeting Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square during the pontiff’s weekly general audience, shaking hands with a religious leader he once lectured over immigration.Mr. O’Reilly, on vacation in Italy for the past week, sat in a V.I.P. section and shook hands with Francis.
The encounter came hours before 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, announced that Mr. O’Reilly had been forced out of his position after dozens of advertisers abandoned his highly rated program and the Murdoch family, which owns 21st Century Fox, began to show signs of eroding support. The family had supported Mr. O’Reilly in the past, but a New York Times article this month detailing harassment allegations against him put his standing atop cable television news in jeopardy....
The article goes on to state that the visit was planned months earlier, before the New York Times article of April 1, 2017 stating that O Reilly was the target of 5 separate claims of sexual misconduct that were settled by FOX for a total of about $13 million.
excerpt
The women who made allegations against Mr. O’Reilly either worked for him or appeared on his show. They have complained about a wide range of behavior, including verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances and phone calls in which it sounded as if Mr. O’Reilly was masturbating, according to documents and interviews.The reporting suggests a pattern: As an influential figure in the newsroom, Mr. O’Reilly would create a bond with some women by offering advice and promising to help them professionally. He then would pursue sexual relationships with them, causing some to fear that if they rebuffed him, their careers would stall.
Of the five settlements, two were previously known — one for about $9 million in 2004 with a producer, and another struck last year with a former on-air personality, which The Times reported on in January.
The Times has learned new details related to those cases.
The three other settlements were uncovered by The Times. Two involved sexual harassment claims against Mr. O’Reilly, and the other was for verbal abuse related to an episode in which he berated a young producer in front of newsroom colleagues.Besides the women who reached settlements, two other women have spoken of inappropriate behavior by the host. A former regular guest on his show, Wendy Walsh, told The Times that after she rebuffed an advance from him he didn’t follow through on a verbal offer to secure her a lucrative position at the network. And a former Fox News host named Andrea Tantaros said Mr. O’Reilly sexually harassed her in a lawsuit she filed last summer against the network and Mr. Ailes.
Representatives for 21st Century Fox would not discuss specific accusations against Mr. O’Reilly, but in a written statement to The Times the company acknowledged it had addressed the issue with him.
“21st Century Fox takes matters of workplace behavior very seriously,” the statement said. “Notwithstanding the fact that no current or former Fox News employee ever took advantage of the 21st Century Fox hotline to raise a concern about Bill O’Reilly, even anonymously, we have looked into these matters over the last few months and discussed them with Mr. O’Reilly. While he denies the merits of these claims, Mr. O’Reilly has resolved those he regarded as his personal responsibility. Mr. O’Reilly is fully committed to supporting our efforts to improve the environment for all our employees at Fox News.”
According to legal experts, companies occasionally settle disputes that they believe have little merit because it is less risky than taking the matters to trial, which can be costly and create a string of embarrassing headlines.
Of course, since the sex allegations date back years, it is plausible that O'Reilly had some inkling that they were going to be again be highlighted, and hence the trip to the Vatican might have been planned in anticipation.The revelations about Mr. O’Reilly, 67, come after sexual harassment accusations against Mr. Ailes led to an internal investigation that found women at Fox News faced harassment. Current and former Fox News employees told The Times that they feared making complaints to network executives or the human resources department.Mr. Ailes, who has denied the allegations against him, received $40 million as part of his exit package. The company has reached settlements with at least six women who accused Mr. Ailes of sexual harassment, according to a person briefed on the agreements.
Whether or not so, FOX has long given this blogger the impression of a workplace where women's looks and sex appeal were hardly minor factors, just going by the way their female talking heads are presented, in their manner of dress, as well as show of legs.
From the wikipedia artcile about Bill O Reilly:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_O'Reilly_%28political_commentator%29I long found FOX at times to be somewhat entertaining. Splashy colors; attractive sets; and numerous physically attractive women, presenting the news from the perspective of the political "right", as the counterpart to news channel rivals as CNN and MSNBC which present news from the perspective of the "left". All as part of the highly controlled "left" - 'right" (re, in the U.S.A. Democrat and Republican Party) political spectrum.
Sexual harassment lawsuits
On October 13, 2004, O'Reilly sued Andrea Mackris, a former producer for The O'Reilly Factor, alleging extortion. O'Reilly claimed that Mackris had threatened a lawsuit unless he paid her more than $60 million. Later the same day, Mackris sued O'Reilly for sexual harassment, seeking $60 million in damages.[118] Her complaint alleged that in phone conversations, O'Reilly had "advised her to use a vibrator and told her about sexual fantasies involving her",[119] and an allegation that he threatened that if she reported his behavior, "Roger Ailes... will go after you... Ailes operates behind the scenes, strategizes, and makes things happen so that one day BAM! The person gets what's coming to them but never sees it coming." On October 15, 2004, Fox sought judicial permission to fire Mackris, but she was never dismissed. On October 19, 2004, Mackris filed an amended complaint seeking further damages for illegal retaliatory actions by O'Reilly, Fox News, and the News Corporation-owned newspaper the New York Post.[120] On October 28, 2004, O'Reilly and Mackris reached an out-of-court settlement in which Mackris dropped her sexual-assault suit against O'Reilly, and O'Reilly dropped his extortion claim against Mackris. The terms of the agreement are confidential,[121] but in 2017 The New York Times reported the settlement to be around $9 million.[13]
After Ailes was the subject of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former Fox News coworker Gretchen Carlson, O'Reilly said in July 2016 that Ailes was a "target" as a "famous, powerful or wealthy person" and called him the "best boss I ever had."[122] After Ailes was fired and the network settled the lawsuit with Carlson, O'Reilly declined to comment further, saying that "for once in my life, I’m going to keep my big mouth shut."[123]
Shortly after Ailes was fired, Fox News settled a sexual harassment claim against O'Reilly with former Fox host Juliet Huddy. Huddy alleged that O'Reilly pursued a romantic relationship with her, made lewd remarks, including a telephone call during which he appeared to be masturbating, and tried to have her fired when she rejected his advances. Legal fees in this case were settled and paid for by Fox News.[124] The New York Times reported the settlement to to have been worth $1.6 million.[13]
In August 2016, former Fox host Andrea Tantaros filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News, claiming that O'Reilly made sexually suggestive comments to her.[125]
In April 2017, The New York Times reported that O'Reilly and Fox News had settled five lawsuits against O'Reilly dating back to 2002. Previously, only the settlements to Mackris and Huddy were publicly reported; The Times reported that Fox hosts Rebecca Diamond and Laurie Dhue settled sexual harassment lawsuits in 2011 and 2016 respectively and junior producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein settled with Fox in 2002 after accusing O'Reilly of verbal abuse. The amount paid to the women filing the complaints was estimated at $13 million. The Times also reported a claim by former O'Reilly Factor guest Wendy Walsh, who declined an offer from O'Reilly to go to his hotel suite and was subsequently denied a job as a Fox News contributor.[13] Walsh appeared on The O'Reilly Factor for a few months after the hotel incident, and at one point asked producers for more airtime on the show.[126]
After Walsh's complaint, 21st Century Fox hired the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to conduct an investigation into at least that allegation; that firm also conducted an investigation into the allegations against Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, which led to his ouster from Fox.[127]
After the five settlements were reported, the O'Reilly Factor lost more than half its advertisers within a week;[128] almost 60 companies withdrew their television advertising from the show[129] amid a growing backlash against O'Reilly.[130][131] On April 11, 2017, O'Reilly announced he would take a two-week vacation and would return to the program on April 24; he normally takes a vacation around Easter.[132] On April 19, 2017, Fox News announced that O'Reilly would not be returning to the network.[133][134]
FOX is sometimes good insofar as some of its exposes, such as that concerning one of the creators of ObamaCare, ignored by the slavishly pro Democrat Party establishment media. As such, I have found FOX to be more informative when it is a Democrat President in the White House, as I found MSNBC during the preceding Republican Bush Administrations, due to my skepticism of the ruling class leading me to prefer the "opposition" stance against the incumbent.
FOX is also horribly repetitious in so far as focusing too much on whatever story they were promoting while failing to report others. Such is to be expected from an opposition that is so controlled, to keep people so focused so they are distracted from the things that indicate how BOTH the main parties have betrayed the public in favor of the ruling class. Such as in failing to report upon legislation regarding say financial interests, as banking, let alone the food and drug supply.
Most of FOX's talking heads I have found to be non-offensive, with the exceptions being the more sanctimonious ones where and when they speak blatant lies.
Particularly such when presenting the cherished dogmas of the Powers That Be, on issues that I am more well versed in. In particular, the so called "war on drugs".
Almost everything written about the "war on drugs" presents it as something started by the 37th U.S. President Richard Nixon during the early 1970s. Rather he merely presided over its U.S. re-codification, with the 1970 U.S. Controlled Substances Act, enacted in reaction to the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court Leary case. That case had declared as unconstitutional the basis of the previous U.S. drug prohibition "laws" dating back to the initial prohibition acts of 1937 and 1914 respectively regarding "Marihuana" and "Narcotics" (Opium, Coca leaves and their derivatives), the U.S. Congress power to impose taxes,
for violating the Constitution's 5th amendment guarantee against self incrimination.
While much attention has been given to Nixon's favoring the drug war as a tool to oppress ethnic minorities and dissidents, its earlier adaptation reflected an agenda of drug market control protecting key agricultural commodities (particularly Tobacco) from competitors (particularly Coca Leaf), and in establishing a protected market for synthetic (patentable) monopoly medicines (pharmaceuticals) as reflected by the 1906 U.S. Food and Drugs Act and its subsequent enforcement and amending. For more on this, see:
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2017/02/defeating-drug-war-requires-better.html
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2016/02/points-about-progressive-era-war-of.html
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-evil-prohibition-to-promote.html
O'Reilly has long acted as Rome's errand boy for promoting this modern day incarnation of the Inquisition known as the drug war.
Others at FOX that I have noted as more sticking out for this Inquisition incarnation over time have been Monica Crowley, Sean Hannity, and more recently, the figure taking over O'Reilly's evening time slot, Tucker Carlson.
I have observed Carlson joining this sorry category with his promotion of the "opioid epidemic" fake news demonifying people's pharmaceutical pain pills while giving a free pass to the dangers of mixing such with drugs as Valium, and of cutting off people's legal supplies so they turn to contraband that is increasingly laced with far more potent synthetic opiates as fentanyl and catafentanyl.
It is s if Tucker Carlson has been prepped to replace the most traditionally egregious FOX talking head.
http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com/2015/12/romes-pharmacratic-inquisition-series.html
