When alleged serial sexual harasser Bill O’Reilly returns from his week-long restorative vacation, there’s a very good chance he’ll be out of a job.
The Wall Street Journal reports that sources close to the situation say that Fox News is getting ready to cut ties with O’Reilly. A report late Tuesday afternoon from New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman claimed that the Murdoch family was considering taking O’Reilly’s nightly hour-long shriekfest for the air in light of the sexual harassment allegations. The Murdoch family owns the Wall Street Journal as well as 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News; while there has yet to be clear confirmation that this is actually happening, it would seem that the writing is on the wall.
A decision on O’Reilly’s fate as Fox News’s top ratings draw could come in “the next several days,” the Journal reports.
On Tuesday his lawyers released a fairly ridiculous statement comparing the current allegations against the shout-y pundit to a McCarthy era witch hunt.
“Bill O’Reilly has been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-McCarthyist America,” the statement says, before making the somewhat unbelievable assertion that there is “irrefutable” evidence that proves the multiple allegations of sexual harassment are a “smart campaign” that’s “orchestrated by far-left organizations bent on destroying O’Reilly for political and financial reasons.”
O’Reilly is currently vacationing in Italy, a vacation he announced rather abruptly on air April 11. Sources tell the Journal that while his vacation was planned, he hadn’t intended to leave this early. If he does indeed have a job when he gets back, he’ll be back on air Monday.
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