Fox News sacks host over sex harassment claims
Print Edition
FOX News has severed its ties with Bill O’Reilly, sacking its biggest star and America’s most-watched cable news anchor over a flood of sexual harassment allegations and crashing advertising sales.
It was a humiliating blow to one of the biggest US media names, a veteran broadcaster at Fox News for two decades who counted President Donald Trump among his personal supporters and whose ratings soared in defiance of his alleged abusive behavior toward women.
But the departure of advertisers, wary of being associated with “The O’Reilly Factor,” sealed his fate as the Murdoch family, who owns parent company 21st Century Fox, battles to keep a lid on reports of harassment at the channel and eyes a powerful merger in Britain.
“After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Bill O’Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel,” 21st Century Fox said on Wednesday in one-sentence statement.
Women rights activists declared his dismissal a victory and said they hoped it would encourage victims of sexual harassment to speak out.
“To see this seismic shift in corporate culture, for a company to put woman’s rights ahead of the bottom line, this is enormous,” said Wendy Walsh, a former O’Reilly guest who made allegations against him.
“Women’s voices are finally being heard and I’m elated,” she told CNN.
The announcement came just hours after the combative and right-wing television personality was photographed shaking hands with Pope Francis in St Peters Square on holiday in Rome.
“It is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims,” hit back the 67-year-old in a statement. “But that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today.”
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