Men and women, both behaving badly

Of Bill O’Reilly, and the culture of corruption

Who are all these people, behaving so terribly, and so crassly, at Fox News?

Let me be frank. I’ve never watched the network or the now-fired big-gun host Bill O’Reilly, there being enough cable news television in this country, good and bad, that I don’t have to look elsewhere.

In other words, I wouldn’t know O’Reilly if I tripped over him, which reminds me, if I worked at Fox and tripped over him, I’d sue him, because that’s what Fox women do.

One of the multiple women who sued him — Juliet Huddy, according to The New York Times, who settled for $1.6 million when O’Reilly allegedly pursued a sexual relationship with her — complained that once, when he tried to kiss her, she pulled away and fell to the ground and he didn’t help her up.

There’s my tripping precedent, especially if the bastard didn’t give me a hand.

I am not suggesting that Ms. Huddy or any other woman should have to put up with predatory, grabby, sexist or loutish behaviour from male colleagues.

What I’m saying is how lovely it would be if just once in a while, such a putupon woman did the right thing for its own pure sake — either quit, there being no conscription at Fox or any other network; or blew the whistle on the man publicly and contemporaneously and had the gumption to put her name to it; or just, you know, moved on, the way that people used to do — without first trying to leverage the situation to her advantage, whether financially or otherwise.

(Wendy Walsh, a former guest on The O’Reilly Factor as the show was called, comes closest, in that she’s not suing him but came forward to say that when she turned down his suggestion to have drinks in his hotel room, he became hostile and reneged on his alleged promise to make her a regular on the show.)

(Oh, plus he apparently told her that her black purse was ugly, the unfeeling cretin. O’Reilly’s defenders said Walsh was on the show 13 times after the alleged incident, and that he promoted her book on air.)

The Times reported earlier this month that the parent company of Fox News, 21st Century Fox, and/or the 67-year-old O’Reilly, who was estimated to earn about $18 million a year, had paid out about $13 million to five women in exchange for agreeing to drop litigation or speak about their accusations against him.

The women making the allegations either worked for him or appeared on his show, and complained about what the Times says was a wide range of alleged misconduct, from verbal abuse and lewd comments to unwanted advances and phone calls.

One young producer, Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, was allegedly screamed at by O’Reilly in the newsroom; she left with a payout and a confidentiality agreement, though no sexual harassment was alleged.

(Cue weeping as thousands of other yelled-at young people and interns realize they missed their moment.)

Another producer, then 33-year-old Andrea Mackris, filed a sexual harassment suit against O’Reilly when his lawyers pre-emptively sued her, alleging she was seeking to extort $60 million in exchange for her silence.

Conveniently, Mackris had recorded some of the unwanted phone conversations, which is, it appears, what the modern woman does when she senses the career earth shifting beneath her feet.

Anyway, they settled, too, for about $9 million and a public statement that “no wrongdoing whatsoever” occurred. The Times duly reported Mackris “never worked in television news again,” to which a cynic might say, who would work again with that dough burning a hole in your pocket?

Another of the settlement recipients, Rebecca Gomez Diamond, who had hosted a show on the business network, had also recorded conversations with O’Reilly.

As the Times put it, “Armed with the recordings, her lawyers went to the company …” She left with a payout, amount unknown, and a confidentiality agreement.

The fifth woman was Laurie Dhue, a former Fox News anchor, who apparently got a $1-million settlement though she hadn’t raised sexual harassment complaints during her eight years at the network or when she left. She was also suing Roger Ailes, the company’s former chairman who was forced out last year amid his own sexual harassment scandal.

Anyway, it’s all a mess. While Wendy Walsh on Wednesday told CNN that “as a woman and as a mother of daughters entering the workplace, I am thrilled that a corporation has made this seismic shift to put women’s rights ahead of their bottom line,” I don’t know that it means all that and find it un-thrilling in any case.

If the claims against Bill O’Reilly reveal anything, it’s that absolute power — such as is wielded by someone who was watched by an average of almost four million people a night — does indeed corrupt absolutely.

But moderate amounts, or the desire for some, corrupt too, as the women with their tape recorders, lawyers, meaningless confidentiality agreements (“Most spoke on condition of anonymity,” the Times said) and payouts demonstrate.