Here’s a helpful list compiled by Axios of the known allegations of sexual harassment against Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly, along with some of the settlement details. I think it’s useful to see it all in one place:
O’Reilly’s accusers
- Andrea Mackris: Former producer. Accused O’Reilly of making inappropriate phone calls. O’Reilly paid her a $9 million settlement, according to the NYT.
- Wendy Walsh: Former regular O’Reilly guest. Claims he offered to help her get a position at Fox News but reneged after she declined to go to a hotel room with him. She has filed suit.
- Rebecca Gomez Diamond: Former Fox Business host. Accused O’Reilly of inappropriate phone calls. O’Reilly paid her a settlement, according to the NYT.
- Juliet Huddy: Former regular O’Reilly guest. Accused him of inappropriate phone calls and trying to kiss her, and then damaging her career after she rejected his advances. Fox paid her a $1.6 million settlement, according to the NYT.
- Andrea Tantaros: Former Fox News Host. Sued both O’Reilly and Ailes for alleged sexual harassment.
- Laurie Dhue: Former Fox News host. Sued both O’Reilly and Ailes for alleged sexual harassment. Fox paid her over $1 million, according to the NYT.
Ailes’ accusers
- Julia Roginsky: Fox News contributor. Sued Fox and Ailes claiming they had made “her deserved promotion to a regular spot hosting ‘The Five’ contingent upon having a sexual relationship with Ailes.”
- Gretchen Carlson: Former Fox News host. Sued Ailes for allegedly harming her career after she rebuffed his advances. Fox paid her $20 million.
- Megyn Kelly: Former Fox News host. During an internal investigation, she said Ailes had made unwanted advances when she was a Fox News correspondent, according to NY Mag.
- Kellie Boyle: Former GOP communications consultant. She claimed in NY Mag that Ailes had offered to help her career in exchange for sex but had her “blacklisted” when she declined.
- Rudi Bakhtiar: Former Fox News reporter. She claims Ailes made inappropriate comments to her and that she was fired after accusing another Fox News employee of sexual harassment.
- Tantaros and Dhue, whose allegations are listed above.
Over the weekend, the New York Times published a big piece on how Bill O’Reilly (unlike the deposed Roger Ailes) is thriving at Fox News despite now being responsible for about $13 million in out-of-court settlements with women he has mistreated. The Times even uncovered a couple of more disturbing incidences that never arose to litigation.
All the while, the network has mocked the very idea that there is a War on Women.
Of course, this is just one very influential media organ. The more consequential War on Women is taking place right now in the Senate where Neal Gorsuch is being considered for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.
It’s tiresome to have to keep fighting the same battles over and over, for civil rights, for gay rights, for women’s rights. We take a step forward and then find ourselves slapped back two more.
Women’s rights won’t hold their ground unless women also gain respect. Lord knows we’ve tried. The Women’s March after the Inauguration is proof in numbers that women’s voices will be heard and that we have value and purpose. Women have made strides in being hired in the same fields as men: medicine, education, business, government, but we don’t typically earn what our male counterparts do. We are penalized for taking time to give birth and care for our children.
Women in the public eye are not considered strong, but “bitchy” and women are judged by our wardrobes while men are not. When we serve in the military, we are not only fighting the enemy, but our male counterparts as well. Women are victimized daily, but when they come forward to testify against their abusers, they’re shamed and even the evidence, their rape kits, sit unevaluated on police shelves.
When the president of the United States is a proven misogynist and is supported by men and shamefully by women as well, the chances for large strides forward in true women’s rights seem pretty slim.
But maybe the blatant abuses will spur us on, and the men who respect us will back us up. It’s all we’ve got now, a conviction in what we believe is right.
That’s a very nice euphemism for “GOP Propaganda Machine”.
Mercedes Benz and Hyundai have pulled their advertisements from O’Reilly’s show. That kind of protest hits him where it hurts. Maybe those two companies will start a trend.
Civil remedies no substitute for criminal prosecutions.
Also, too: whatever happened to RICO?
Republican women don’t give a sh*t about any of this. They’re still mostly all loyal viewers. Go figure.
Of course, most Republican men could care even less than their female counterparts.
If companies start pulling their ads bigly, then we might see some changes. Until that happens – as it did with Glenn Beck – I don’t see either O’Reilly’s “show” and Fox under serious threat.
Fox delivers the red meat their viewers know, love and demand to have fed to them 24/7/365.