NBC’s Kelly: Abuse, threats, shaming of women ‘has to stop’
NEW YORK — Megyn Kelly took on her former Fox News Channel colleague Bill O’Reilly in blunt terms on Monday, revealing she had gone to her bosses to complain about O’Reilly’s behavior and saying the size of a newly revealed $32 million settlement of harassment charges made by a Fox analyst was “jaw-dropping.”
O’Reilly responded, in part, by posting a copy of a thank you note Kelly had sent to him for a baby shower gift.
The New York Times reported that O’Reilly had agreed to the $32 million deal to set aside allegations that include a nonconsensual sexual relationship with former Fox analyst Lis Wiehl, bringing to six the number of harassment settlements involving him. The deal was reached a month before O’Reilly signed a contract extension and three months before O’Reilly was fired because of publicity about the cases against him. O’Reilly has said he’s done nothing wrong.
More than just an embarrassment that Fox had hoped was in its rearview mirror, the story could have costly consequences. Fox’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, is awaiting a decision by British regulators regarding its purchase of the Sky satellite television company, and the issue of Fox News’ management is being considered.
Kelly, on her NBC show Monday, refuted O’Reilly’s claims that no one had complained about him, saying Fox “was not exactly a friendly environment” for women who had stories to tell about abuse.
She said she went to Fox’s leaders, Bill Shine, who has since resigned, and Jack Abernethy, who is now president of Fox News Network, after her memoir was published last November with her anger about O’Reilly’s suggestion that people who complained about their treatment at Fox were disloyal. Kelly had written in her book about alleged harassment by Fox’s one-time leader, Roger Ailes.
“Perhaps he didn’t realize the kind of message his criticism sends to young women across the country about how men continue to view the issue of speaking out about sexual harassment,” Kelly said she wrote to her bosses.
O’Reilly’s attitude of “shaming women into shutting the hell up about harassment on the grounds that it will disgrace the company” is precisely how Fox got into the mess it was in, she said.
“This must stop,” she said. “The abuse of women, the shaming of them, the threats, the retaliation, the silence of them after the fact — it has to stop.”