Is O'Reilly Out? Drudge Tweet Seems to Speak of His Show in Past Tense

Another woman has come forward to accuse Bill O'Reilly of sexual harassment.

Though, honestly, this seems to be a pretty weak kind of sexual harassment.

I'd earlier said that if what was claimed of Roger Ailes -- that he linked job advancement to having sex with older, powerful, married men -- then that would be textbook sexual harassment.

In this case, it seems more like O'Reilly was just hitting on her. Okay, not "just" hitting on her -- hitting on her in the guise of wanting to talk about her career (according to the woman complaining, Wendy Walsh).

But very few people ever say "Come up to my room and then we'll have sex." It's almost always put in the guise of "Come up to my room and we'll do this other thing which is completely innocent."

Everybody knows this. Wendy Walsh, the complaining woman here, knew it right away. O'Reilly was hitting on her.

But...

I'm not sure if there should be a rule against men with money and power just hitting on women. For one thing, you don't become a monk just because you make it.

For another thing, women often seem to dig men with money and power.

It also seems like O'Reilly did not "retaliate" against this woman. She did not get the coveted Fox News Contributor status she coveted -- but then, 90% of the people you see on Fox News covet that paid status, but never get it. The Fox News Contributor thing is one of the most chased-after prizes in media -- and far more chased than caught.

But he kept having her on his show after the turn-down, and advertised her book a fair amount.

Is that "retaliation"?

She says O'Reilly "promised" to "help" her get that coveted slot.

How does she know he didn't?

"Help" doesn't get you a gig that every woman (and dude) loosely affiliated with the conservative movement is chasing. They're not handing these out like tampons in a male bathroom, after all.

According to Walsh, 54, O'Reilly dropped her as a regular guest on his show and reneged on a promise to help her secure a paying position as a Fox News commentator after she turned down his invitation to visit his hotel suite during a dinner meeting in Los Angeles in February 2013.

Eh, I kinda don't like O'Reilly but this seems like very thin gruel -- especially thin gruel for a dismissal.

This woman seems fairly credible to me. I'm really not calling bullshit on her story -- I'm questioning whether or not this story amounts to anything actionable or particularly terrible.

(Eh, on second thought, if her story is true, then it's somewhat terrible. To even mix "coming up to my room" with a business dinner which is conducted for business and career-advancement reasons is... problematic, as the kids say. It would put this woman in a "no-win situation," as she says. Still, without any of this being overt, and without any real retaliation, I can't say this is anything more than a guy hitting on a woman, getting turned down, and then... not really doing anything about it. I don't think you can make this illegal.)

I know a lot of people who've hooked up on the job. Not all of these people were exactly equal on the corporate hierarchy when these hook-ups occurred. Some later got married.

Is this now all illegal?

There's been chatter that the Murdochs are turning against O'Reilly. This Drudge tweet suggests he's hearing something:

Comment Blather: Is O'Reilly's problem here that he's taking the typical ingratiation that all job applicants offer for some kind of "Dude, she's totally into me" signal?

posted by Ace at 11:48 AM

| Access Comments