The termination of Fox cable's leading star Bill O'Reilly is the latest example in the continuing devolution of the inner rot animating the Murdoch empire and the conservative infomercial industry. Many of the attitudes and misinformation that led to the rise of Trump and Trumpism emanated from Fox, and much of that was hatched in a workplace culture under the thrall of sexual criminals.
Former Fox "News" president Roger Ailes went down last year under the weight of repeated allegations and finally the news that there had been $20 million in payouts of hush money to aggrieved women at Fox who were propositioned and pressured to have sex with the boss. Now, thanks to the New York Times and one courageous woman who wouldn't be bought, O'Reilly is going down too, though with a $25 million severance check. It was the Times that dug up the information that five women had been paid a total of $15 million to keep their mouths shut about O'Reilly's predation, blackmail and retaliation against non-compliant females. Wendy Walsh is the woman who told her story rather than settle for a payoff to stay quiet.
Consider the moral bankruptcy of Fox's ownership, patriarch Rupert and sons Lachlan and James. So long as things could be kept quiet with hush money and ratings were good, the millions spent on keeping their management's and star's criminality confidential were simply part of the cost of doing business to them. The culture of misogyny was nothing to be concerned about so long as the bottom line was served. It was only after the Times informed the world that there had been a long history of this with O'Reilly, (as with Ailes), and that Ms. Walsh was apparently out of control and would not settle, and consequently that advertisers began deserting O'Reilly's program that action was taken. In other words, when profits were threatened that's when the purveyors of "family values" saw the light and finally "did the right thing." How noble.
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