What Happens If O'Reilly Is No Longer a Factor?
Reported by Marie Therese - October 26, 2004 -
In an online report entitled, appropriately, "The O'Raunchy Factor," Star Magazine notes that, in the event Bill O'Reilly's image is permanently tarnished by the Andrea Mackris sexual harrassment lawsuit, FOX News has contingency plans.
(Begin excerpt.) In the days since the lawsuits were filed, Mackris and O'Reilly have been hitting the press, appearing on talk shows like Today and Anderson Cooper 360* (her) and Live with Regis and Kelly (him). Fox has publicly thrown its support to O'Reilly -- and, according to one source, hired a detective to look into Mackris'background.
But according to insiders, Fox's support may not last forever. A source close to Fox News Channel tells Star that O'Reilly won't have his higher- ups in his corner to the end -- despite the fact that The O'Reilly Factor is one of the cable network's best-watched shows and is said to bring in $60 million a year. "Sean Hannity is in line to replace O'Reilly if, and when, he goes down," says the source. "If it costs multi-millions, Fox won't support O'Reilly because they previously supported him in his lawsuit against Al Franken [over Franken's use of O'Reilly's image on the cover of the book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them]." That ended up costing News Corp. a lot of money -- and [CEO] Rupert Murdoch reportedly was furious.
Other sources take O'Reilly's side more strongly. "Look, Bill had some inappropriate conversations with Andrea, but many attorneys say it does not rise to the level of sexual harassment," adds a highly placed Fox News Channel source. "This is definitely about money. I think [t]his whole thing is a setup." (End excerpt.)
To read the entire article go to Star Magazine.
Comment
As we News Hounds have been reporting since last week, plugs for O'Reilly's show have disappeared from teasers for FOX News' "powerful" primetime lineup. Could this be a hint of future developments? Only time will tell.
