According to The Wall Street Journal (via Variety), Bill O'Reilly has signed a new contract with Fox News. This despite the fact that Fox was already aware of the multiple allegations of sexual harassment against him and the $13 million paid in settlements.
O'Reilly made no mention tonight of the sexual harassment bombshells that have been dropped about him and Fox News the last few days. He did happen to use his "Tip of the Day" segment to first promote his children's book and then boast that the "hundreds of thousands of dollars" he made from it was donated to the Child Help organization.
Sorry, Bill, you'll have to do better than that to persuade us that you're a family values kind of guy.
Watch the Tip of the Day segment from the April 3, 2017 The O'Reilly Factor.
But remember that advertisers jumped off the Limbaugh train a few years back when he attacked Sandra Fluke, and Limbaugh is still there churning out the hate every day on AM radio. O’Reilly will continue to do the same unless something really catastrophic happens.
Although I will say that his recent broadcasts are showing signs of paranoia on the one hand and wishful thinking on the other. For the former, he keeps desperately trying to fan the flames of the supposed “unmasking scandal” to try to distract everyone from the very real issues of the Trump campaign’s troubling connections to foreign agents. And he keeps trying to push a narrative of Dems being horrible obstructionists to the point that he shouted down two different guests last night when they tried to reason with him. Memorably, when someone pointed out the Merrick Garland issue, he screamed “That’s old news!”
On the wishful thinking front, O’Reilly is trying to tee up the expected confirmation of Neil Gorsuch on Friday as “a big win” for Trump. Not sure where he’s getting that as a “big win”. Gorsuch will get on the court with a large black eye because the GOP succeeded in spitefully refusing to do their job last year and then gaming the system to get away with the trick. So they’ll change the Senate rules, vote on a party line basis, and Gorsuch will be able to steal the seat that should have gone to Garland. That’s not what we call a “win”. That’s what we call a “theft”. History will record it as one of the most shameful moments ever seen in the US Congress. But we can count on O’Reilly to gloat about how great it all is.
This is the only way to do it. We know the only reason Bill’s past and present behavior has been swept under the rug is because of the advertising revenue he brings into the network.
Hopefully, other advertisers won’t be moving in to replace those leaving. Losing the $‘s is what is Bill’s Kryptonite.
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