Bill O'Reilly's Fox News Contract Protected Him from Sexual Harassment Accusations
by EG
Bill O'Reilly, the former host of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, was apparently so dogged by accusations of sexual harassment that he had a protection clause written into his old contract with the network. Because of the clause, Fox News couldn't fire O'Reilly for the many sexual harassment claims against him. That is, they couldn't fire him until his contract expired, which is what they did.
According to 21st Century Fox independent director Jacques Nasser, Bill O'Reilly had a clause in his old employment agreement with Fox News that stated he could not be dismissed on the basis of harassment allegations unless those allegations were proven in court. The revelation may help explain why O'Reilly survived so long at the cable news channel despite many settlements including a $32 million deal with former Fox News legal analyst Lis Wiehl.
Nasser spoke to the UK's Competition & Markets Authority on Oct. 25 as Fox's bid to take over Sky continues to get regulatory scrutiny. Bullet points of his testimony were released on Wednesday.
At the hearing, Nasser said that the 21st Century Fox board hadn't historically known about sexual harassment allegations regarding former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, and once board members were made aware, it reacted quickly by forcing his departure. But the O'Reilly situation was different, continued Nasser, thanks to that anti-firing protection in O'Reilly's employment agreement.
As recently revealed by The New York Times, O'Reilly personally settled claims made by Wiehl in January. A few weeks later, Fox renewed O'Reilly's contract before it let him go upon a firestorm about alleged sexual harassment throughout the years.
In reaction to this bombshell, Fox made a statement at the time that "it knew that a sexual harassment lawsuit had been threatened against him by Lis Wiehl, but was informed by Mr. O'Reilly that he had settled the matter personally, on financial terms that he and Ms. Wiehl had agreed were confidential and not disclosed to the company. His new contract, which was made at a time typical for renewals of multiyear talent contracts, added protections for the company specifically aimed at harassment, including that Mr. O'Reilly could be dismissed if the company was made aware of other allegations or if additional relevant information was obtained in a company investigation."
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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