Producer alleges Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly forced her into phone sex
Fox News Channel traded accusations Wednesday with one of the producers of Bill O’Reilly’s show, with the woman alleging that the commentator had phone sex with her against her wishes three times. Fox in a claim of its own dismissed the sexual harassment complaint as a politically motivated extortion attempt.
Ok, so exactly how do you “force” someone to do phone sex? Besides that, how can anyone get a word in edgewise with O’Reilly??
Yesterday O’Reilly’s extortion charge was publicized and I felt sorry for him. Today, after reading the complaint, it seems so detailed and entirely possible, and I don’t have the same conviction. It still makes me wonder if she was approached before, why did she come back to this job? Why didn’t she say something to someone there?
They say she left or was fired from CNN due to sexual harrassment. There’s a red-flag there. Why do I keep thinking of Linda Tripp. Did you see this woman’s picture? She’s not that attractive. Can O’Reilly be that hard-up?
I read his column online after this. I keep thinking in the back of my mind what he was alledged to do. It changes the way you read him, the way you look at his work.
I hope we get to the truth of all of this and then get it behind us at some point.
Patrick, save the “attractive” or not for somewhere out of court. Federal guidelines on sexual harrassment are clear as a bell — and have been for a spell. Whether or not someone chooses to return to a place of employment for a second go-round also is a non-starter as far as the law is concerned. Harrassment feels the same to someone harrassed — just as bullying achieves its intent. Conscious or otherwise.
The workplace regulations are not new. Standards for meetings/education for staff have been around for years. I worked for a firm that was put under state scrutiny because of one dolt on the payroll who couldn’t keep his mouth shut about another employee who was gay! It was none of his business. It certainly wasn’t something that he had to bring up on company time.
If Bill O’Reilly is going to claim ignorance — as I imagine he eventually will — that won’t do FOX any good, unless [and it IS a possibility] it’s swept under a convenient legal rug.
If she has the recordings to back up her quotes in the filed papers, O’Reilly’s in trouble and should have the book thrown at him.
However, it also seems likely that she came back from CNN to be sexually harrassed so she could have a lawsuit. That’s either terribly canny of her, or grounds for dismissal of the suit. At the very least, it gives strong validity to O’Reilly’s countersuit, and she should have the book thrown at her. She would, after all, be trivializing all the women who are truly victims of harrassment if she staged all this in some sort of sting attempt. (Or, to be more blunt, “blackmail or extortion scheme.”)
But what about FOX’s harrassment policy/grievance procedures which were in place, documented, had training on, and which she signed even recent to these allegations? She had a clear course of action that she certainly had to know as an employee. The way this was brought up, with no documentation prior to this indicates a pre-meditation on her behalf to extort money for these allegations. I don’t doubt the content of the allegations- I am sure O’Rielley would have categorically refuted what was false in his typically outspoken way unique to him. He is taking a different tack on this and think they both have merit.
It doesn’t take much imagination to think that O’Reilly pretty much did everything in the suit; people that are high on themselves and blunt tend to be overly open in private conversations.
Meanwhile, I’m sure this woman is trying to capitalize on all of this for the money.
They deserve each other.
Youm are off the mark with your comments about the showing of these cartoons on TV. OIur children must have standards and learning to oiverlook the sinful behavior of these perverts is not accepyable. If you do not want you kids to smoke,teach them to stay away from smokers. If you do not want them to use filthy language, teach them to keep those people out of thier circle.