I'm reading the filing at SmokingGun right now. As of Page 11, Macklis has nothing on O'Reilly that rises to the level of harassment. He treated her well but apparently trusted her too much by discussing sexual topics with her in a way that friends discuss sex, forgetting, much to his eventual regret I'm sure, that she was an employee. That relationship -- employer to employee -- is so laden with legal baggage in today's world that no sane boss can afford to get personal with an underling.
In any case, though the claim of actual sexual harassment looks weak, O'Reilly is toast as a serious pundit. Some of the slimy stuff in these papers he will never be able to live down. In fact, his lowlife comments to Macklis tend to confirm what I have always thought about him -- he's a mental midget blowhard egotist.
Apparent to some, alleged to others. All that matters is how this will effect FOX and the election as, you said, the merits are not there, and it will go away.
Interesting that this same lawyer had a client (I posted earlier on this thread) that arranged the planting of fabricated emails on the corporate computer to aid his case.
After they settled, this lawyer said that he really didn't have that much of a case. But it was all about gays and race and publicity and the company did some stupid things so they decided to cut their losses and settle paying $1 million to the Urban League.
And has been for a long time IMHO.