‘Fox’ out of the henhouse

Channel sacks O’Reilly over sexual harassment allegations

New York: Bill O’Reilly has lost his job at Fox News Channel following reports that five women had been paid millions of dollars to keep quiet about harassment allegations.

The 21st Century Fox issued a statement on Thursday that “after a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Bill O’Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel.”

He had been scheduled to return from a vacation next Monday. O’Reilly was photographed in Rome shaking Pope Francis’ hand on Thursday. It marks a stunning end to a near-perfect marriage between a pugnacious personality and network. For two decades, O’Reilly has ruled the The No Spin Zone with cable news’ most popular show, and his ratings had never been higher.

In a memo to Fox staff on Thursday, the Murdochs said the decision followed an extensive review done in collaboration with an outside counsel.

Fox said that Tucker Carlson’s show would move to replace O’Reilly and that the panel talk show The Five would take Carlson’s time slot.

The fast-moving story took shape with an April 2 report in The New York Times that five women had been paid a total of $13 million to keep quiet about unpleasant encounters with O’Reilly, who has denied any wrongdoing.

Dozens of his show’s advertisers fled, even though O’Reilly’s viewership increased. O’Reilly has denied wrongdoing.

Even though at least one of the harassment cases against O’Reilly dated back more than a decade and was widely reported then, the accumulation of cases outlined in the Times damaged him much more extensively.

It wasn’t clear when those stories would end, with a group of women demonstrating in front of Fox’s headquarters on Wednesday and another woman, a former clerical worker at Fox, calling a harassment hotline and accusing the host of boorish behaviour.

“I’m not going away,” said Lisa Bloom, attorney for the latest accuser and another woman who alleges her career stalled because she spurned O’Reilly’s advances. “My phone is ringing off the hook,” she added. O’Reilly’s attorney, Marc Kasowitz, said he was being subjected to a “brutal campaign of character assassination”.

— AP Sylvester Stallone with his family during the premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday; Vin Diesel with his children at the premiere of the film.