Posted on 10/14/2004 5:52:38 PM PDT by TexKat
(KRT) - Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, the nation's top-rated cable news host and a brash advocate of personal responsibility and self-control, was sued for sexual harassment Wednesday, reports The Los Angeles Times, by a producer on his show who says he repeatedly pressured her to engage in phone sex and frightened her with lewd "monologues."
The suit, filed by Andrea Mackris, a 33-year-old associate producer on ``The O'Reilly Factor,'' quotes O'Reilly as speaking to her in highly explicit terms about vibrators, oral sex, masturbation and a fantasy in a Caribbean hotel room shower.
The suit also quotes O'Reilly as threatening "any woman" who would complain about his sexual advances, and as suggesting Fox News chief Roger Ailes would "go after" enemies of the channel.
"Look at Al Franken - one day he's going to get a knock on his door and life as he's known it will change forever," the suit quotes O'Reilly as saying. Franken, a liberal commentator, has been engaged for months in a public feud with O'Reilly. Franken did not respond to calls seeking comment.
The suit names O'Reilly and several other defendants, including Fox's parent News Corp. and Westwood One Inc., the syndicator of O'Reilly's radio show. Before it was made public, O'Reilly and Fox News filed their own claim in New York Supreme Court against Mackris and her attorney, Benedict Morelli, accusing them of trying to extort $60 million from him. "Enough is enough," O'Reilly said in a statement. "I will not give in to extortion."
In their court papers, O'Reilly and Fox News said Mackris' allegations "may ... be motivated by Morelli's political connections to the Democratic Party." Morelli has given to the campaigns of such Democratic candidates as Sen. John F. Kerry and Sen. John Edwards, the suit says. "The extortion scheme is timed to coincide with the upcoming presidential election, to cause maximum disruption and damage to plaintiffs, while at the same time benefiting Fox's major competitor CNN," the papers say.
The scandal comes at a particularly awkward time for O'Reilly and Fox News. The channel has logged record ratings for its coverage of the White House race, routinely beating rival CNN by margins of more than 2-1.
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She was about to lose a job with a very lucrative salary if she walked away from him. She needed evidence...and it is evidently not illegal to tape phone conversations in NYC.
It would be very hard for Andrea to get another job paying as well as the one at FOX in her cutthroa competitive field.
O'Reilly threw veiled threats at her, like telling how Al Franken (his sworn enemy) would some night get a knock on his door and "his life would never be the same". He also said that any woman accusing him of harassment "would not be believed--he said, she said" and that he was too powerful a man to cross.
She had the option of making a police report (in NYC--it would probably be blown off--O'R has an in with the NYCPD).
So she wisely decided to take the civil lawsuit course of action.
By the way, it's not a "set-up" when you are doing your own investigation.
It is not ALL hearsay. She has witnesses. She has tapes.
You will see--if it ever gets to trial.
Why the money? O'Reilly had the power to blackball her and prevent her from ever getting another producer stint in MSM. 60 Million? Of course she does not realistically expect that. But she can expect what she may have made for the rest of her career in TV. She's only 33. That could be 32 more years at $98,000 a year, or approximately
$3,136,000 in lost wages plus pain and suffering plus the lawyer's cut. Oh, I'd say Ten Million should do it nicely.
I wish ailes would fire him and replace him with Tony Snow.
common sense I would think would dictate..I agree with you ..too many questions and too many here seem biased and out for O'Reilly.
To be completely honest, I don't know who did what.
But I did see this coming for O'Reilly in one way or another.
O'Reilly must have forgotten when he points his finger there is one pointing back.
I am surprised that something negative has not come his way before now.
Initially, I didn't find this surprising. O'Reilly seems pompous and arrogant enough in my view to pull this kind of crap.
But after seeing this:
The suit also quotes O'Reilly as threatening "any woman" who would complain about his sexual advances, and as suggesting Fox News chief Roger Ailes would "go after" enemies of the channel.
....I'm wondering now if it is a set up.
PING
Lend your skills to this.
I don't know if it is a setup or not Lijahsbubbe. I wish Live with Regis and Kathy Lee provided a transcript of their show from today. I would have liked to hear what O'Reilly said in its entirety. The cable news stations are only showing clips.
"O'Reilly called again in April after Mackris' boss at CNN was terminated - for sexual harassment - and suggested they have dinner."
Seems where ever she goes her superior gets accused of sex harrassment. Andrea has red flags waving all over her. Can you say bunny boiler?
"He threatened Andrea several times with "showing up" at her apartment. As a single woman who lives alone, she took this as a stalking threat."
If that had happened to me I WOULDN'T HAVE OPEN THE DOOR! I WOULD'VE PRETENDED NOBODY WAS HOME... DUH I noticed you palladin keep harping on this really desperately. Is that you Andrea? Seems Andrea desperately needs, wants a man in her life. Bunny boilers are scarey.
"By the way, it's not a "set-up" when you are doing your own investigation."
It is when you're the bait baiting someone.
DOBBS: Very high-stakes conflict between these two. Jason, what is the next step here?
CARROLL: Well, sometime in late October, October 22, both of the sides will get together and if there is an issue about the tapes, perhaps at that time, that issue will be resolved.
DOBBS: Thank you very much, Jason Carroll.
Man....where DID the Spin Stop??? O'R has ticked off every conservative, so I guess it's up to the moderates to defend him......NOT!
RONN TOROSSIAN, SW PUBLIC RELATIONS: O'Reilly is a hard-core conservative who likes to talk about himself as the king of no spin. Mr. O'Reilly, keep spinning. Keep spinning and keep fighting.
My understanding of these charges she leveled is that O'Reilly was talking dirty to her over the phone! For God's sake, the woman doesn't know how to hang the friggen phone up? What a crock!
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
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