Trevor Noah: Fox News Goes Easy on Bill O'Reilly After Sexual Harassment Claims
by EG
When movie producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of multiple counts of sexual harassment and assault, the conservative Fox News network spent plenty of time calling him all kinds of extremely vicious names. But when its own Bill O'Reilly, host of the Fox's The O'Reilly Factor, was accused of very similar behavior, the network offered him a lucrative contract extension. Only after O'Reilly's behavior became public knowledge did Fox scale back its relationship with him, and even then, O'Reilly has been welcomed back on Fox News. It's pretty blatant hypocrisy, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah couldn't let it go unnoticed.
On Monday's Daily Show, Trevor Noah took on this weekend's New York Times report about Fox News' handling of sexual harassment allegations against Bill O'Reilly. The O'Reilly report comes after more than 50 women have accused disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault, so the new O'Reilly story made Fox News' coverage of the Weinstein scandal confusing to Noah.
Noah earlier commended Fox News for its coverage of the Weinstein claims, airing clips of hosts condemning Weinstein's alleged behavior, calling it "disgusting," "sickening" and "vile." But then when the Times reported that O'Reilly's contract was renewed after the former host struck a $32 million agreement to settle new sexual assault claims, Noah said, "We know that Fox News not only knew what O'Reilly was up to for a long time, they even hid some of it, which means that while Fox News might be woke in the streets, they're definitely enablers in the sheets."
Noah later called out Fox News for different, "partisan" approaches to the Weinstein and O'Reilly scandals.
"Man, there is no faster way to get Fox News to care about something than to find out a powerful, liberal person has done it," the Daily Show host said. "At least with Weinstein, Hollywood has totally shut him out. … But less than six months after Fox fired O'Reilly they invited him back for a friendly primetime visit [with former colleague Sean Hannity]."
And he encouraged Fox News to keep exposing alleged sexual harassers, "because it's the right thing to do," even if the alleged offenders are in the same building.
"Does liberal Hollywood have a problem with sexual predators? Yes. Does conservative Fox News have the same problem? Yes," Noah said. "That's my issue with this. It's not supposed to be partisan."
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
Do you think there's a difference between what Harvey Weinstein allegedly did and what Bill O'Reilly allegedly did? Tell us about it in the comment section below.