O’Reilly’s fall entirely due to own behavior
John Thompson, who was Georgetown’s basketball coach during the frenzied reign of Patrick Ewing, described what it was like to be in the eye of incessant public scrutiny by observing, “The wind blows hardest at the top of the mountain.”
No one knows that any better now than the deposed Bill O’Reilly, the erstwhile king of cable TV news who spent Monday night desperately trying to keep his name alive by airing a “No Spin News” podcast on his personal website while the charismatic Tucker Carlson gladly slid into his old seat at Fox News.
As the late, great Billy Sutton used to say, peacock one day, feather duster the next.
Somehow the thought of the toppled O’Reilly clinging to an internet lifeline evokes the image of a washed-up big leaguer riding buses in the boonies, still convinced the world longs to see him in the batter’s box again.
But where the analogy fails is that O’Reilly, 67, was not washed up. It wasn’t a receding talent that pushed him out the door; if anything, it was a success so great that it allowed him to kid himself into believing he was so wonderful that rules applying to
the rest of us didn’t apply to him.
Imagining himself to be quite the ladies’ man — as if ratings were a reflection of romantic prowess — he allegedly persuaded himself that women he found appealing could be his for the asking, whether or not they agreed or consented.
The word for someone like that is predator. And if he used the influence they thought he could exert over their careers as leverage to coerce their acquiescence, that makes him even more vile, more barren of common decency.
If you’re a self-styled tough guy reading this, inclined to wonder what the big deal is, ask yourself how you would feel if it was your wife, your sister, your daughter who worked to achieve a dream that was suddenly imperiled if she didn’t satisfy the longings of a jerk who saw her only as a plaything. That changes the narrative, doesn’t it?
Sometimes momentary indiscretions can be understood, even forgiven, such as a drunken Joe Namath slurring, “I want to kiss you!” to ESPN sideline reporter Suzy Kolber, for which Broadway Joe later profusely apologized, admitting he had a problem with alcohol.
But O’Reilly? He has no excuse to offer.
So he was booted off the top of the mountain and properly so.
If you want to know more, you’ll find him at his podcast.