Controversy has always hovered over O’Reilly’s career
Even before the latest sexual harassment charges ended his career at Fox News, Bill O’Reilly had always been a magnet for squabbles and distractions.
Over the years, he’s faced charges of domestic abuse, accusations of numerous racist or racially insensitive statements, a custody battle, spats with colleagues over work credit and allegations of inaccuracies in reporting and tyrannical behavior on the job.
The fact that he’s carved out a lucrative 21-year run at Fox News and honed his brand to become arguably the most influential right-wing pundit, despite the controversies, speaks to his appeal as a TV showman. His show, The O'Reilly Factor, garnered top ratings for his time slot on prime time and until the controversy, helped to contribute to Fox News' massive profit, said to be about $1 billion a year.
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But the 67-year-old’s tenure with Fox came to an abrupt close Wednesday. In a brief statement, 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, said, “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.”
The confirmation comes hours after New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reported that top executives of 21st Century Fox had decided to fire O’Reilly, and were going over a list of replacements.
The discussions, likely including Rupert Murdoch, 21st Century Fox chairman, and his sons, James and Lachlan Murdoch, followed a blistering New York Times report this month that detailed allegations of O’Reilly’s inappropriate behavior toward female colleagues. Fox and O’Reilly paid five women about $13 million in total in exchange for agreements to not sue or speak about the allegations.
O’Reilly and his lawyer have denied that he acted inappropriately.
In 2004, O’Reilly and a former producer of his show were involved in a heated legal battle, in which he alleged extortion. In seeking $60 million in damages, Andrea Mackris, the producer, claimed that O’Reilly had made lewd and offensive comments in phone conversations. They eventually settled the lawsuits later that year.
Last year, Fox News founder Roger Ailes was fired following a lawsuit by former Fox News broadcaster Gretchen Carlson. It was soon revealed that Fox News also settled a sexual harassment claim against O'Reilly made by former Fox broadcaster Juliet Huddy, who also alleged a lewd phone call made by O’Reilly.
Andrea Tantaros, another former Fox News broadcaster, also filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News and said O'Reilly made sexually suggestive comments to her.
Still, O’Reilly seemed immune to the house-cleaning and changing-of-the-culture at Fox News, which was promised by the Murdoch family after Ailes’ departure. At least until the April report by the Times, few believed the company would kick out its most treasured asset who had come to embody the network’s — and for that matter, much of right-wing America's — disdain for political correctness, full-throated promotion of “traditional” values and a feverish embrace of hawkish politics and the military.
O’Reilly, a native of New York City, was given the job in 1996 at Fox by Ailes, who revolutionized cable news by unabashedly introducing opinion-driven talks in news shows. O’Reilly shaped public opinion with aggressive editorializing of events.
The pugnacious host was a natural for the job, but also drew media critics who accused him of intellectual dishonesty and questionable tactics, such as having his camera crew ambush people. .
But his on-camera talents were undeniable, said Andrew Tyndall, TV analyst at the Tyndall Report, a research firm. O’Reilly was “a showman with a twinkle in his eye, a brawler’s argumentative style, a vernacular turn of phrase, and a teasing ability to walk right up to a serious accusation in his No Spin Zone (a segment on his show) and then back away with a ‘just saying’ shrug,” Tyndall said.
O'Reilly's popularity was also fueled by his accessibility and plain-spokenness that was rare when he started the show. “He violated the studied ideological mainstream neutrality of the anchor’s politics. He also punctured the pomposity of the anchor’s Voice Of God,” Tyndall said.
O’Reilly had been well-prepared for the soft-news approach in his previous gig as the host of Inside Edition, a gossipy TV news magazine program that ran nationally in syndication. In an Inside Edition outtake that surfaced in 2008 and went viral online, O’Reilly can be seen screaming at his camera crew over the closing line of the broadcast script. “We’ll do it live!” he shouted, along with a string of expletives.
His career before Inside Edition followed the track of other traditional broadcasters, with gigs at small stations followed by stints at larger markets. He worked as a local news reporter or anchor at Scranton, Pa.; Dallas; Denver; Portland, Ore.; Hartford and New York.
In 1982, he joined CBS News as a correspondent. He also worked for ABC News.
