People like Bill O’Reilly are regarded as the best media personalities of recent times. His show The O’Reilly Factor caught the attention of millions of viewers and without a doubt, the political commentator was a star during the time he spent with Fox News.
Aside from his prowess as a journalist, Bill O’Reilly is also an accomplished writer whose books like ‘Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History’ have been ranked No.1 on the list of New York Times Bestsellers. However, this media star was hit by an unfortunate case of sex scandals and various cases of sexual harassment which eventually ended his career with Fox News. Here is all you need to know about Bill O’Reilly’s story and what he is doing currently.
What Happened To Bill O’Reilly From Fox News?
According to reports published by the New York Times in April 2017, a total of $13 million had been secretly given to 5 women to remain silent about the sexual harassment they faced at the hands of Bill O’Reilly. It was also revealed that this sum was not solely paid out by Bill but Fox News contributed a huge chunk of the amount paid out to the women. This is speculated to have been possible because the O’Reilly Factor was very successful.
It is also known that in 2016, Fox News had to compensate Lauri Dhue, a past employee of the network who was harassed by O’Reilly and Roger Ailes, a one-time Fox CEO. This trend also followed with the likes of Juliet Huddy, Andrea Tantaros, and Lis Wiehl who were also paid handsomely for their silence. It was only the case of the former Fox producer, Rachel Witlieb that did not include sexual misconduct by Bill. The lady allegedly left the network because of a fallout she had with the political commentator after he shouted at her inappropriately.
The news network ended up paying millions of dollars just to save their reputation, as well as Bill O’Reilly’s face. However, with the amount of scandal that was being published, Bill’s show began to lose advertisers which eventually led to his show being shut down. The exodus of Fox fund was no longer acceptable with regards to the ongoing scandal and eventually, they had to terminate Bill’s appointment.
Where Is He, What Is He Doing Now?
With the determination to rise from his fall, Bill O’Reilly refused to leave the limelight. The much-talked-about show host made a comeback shortly after he was fired by Fox in April 2017. This time around, he went to radio broadcasts and became a regular guest on the Glenn Beck Radio Program. He also started appearing on The Spin Stops Here alongside Dennis Miller sometime in June 2017.
As of now, it is known that Bill O’Reilly has officially commenced his own radio talk show which he captioned, ‘O’Reilly Update’. He will be working with Key Networks and they have confirmed that they have no problem working with the journalist, irrespective of his sex scandal. The Chief Revenue Officer of the network, Dennis Green even revealed that they decided to work with Bill because he was good at what he does.
Not letting his tarnished reputation get in his way, Bill is also set to hosts some persons on a luxury tour sometime between March to April 2020. This tour will be done alongside Glenn Beck and they will be using the Costa Luminosa for the celebrity cruise.
While many are happy that the journalist is finally finding his feet, some still frown at how he is still succeeding in the midst of several cases of sexual misconduct. Many women even find Bill O’Reilly’s comeback as offensive because had it been a woman who was in such a mess, it would mean the end of her career. A ‘#MeToo’ movement was pioneered to show that men were treated better than women in the workplace. It cited that a star like Bill made his company lose millions of dollars to cover his mess which has not been done for any woman. However, this movement has not made any significant impact as no actions have been taken to stall Bill O’Reilly from coming back into the spotlight stronger and better than before.
