I'm sticking to my gut instincts on this one. Andrea is another Omarosa(The Apprentice) looking for a free lunch. So there... (grin)
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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Miss Mackris' complaint alleges Mr. O'Reilly says she has nice large breasts. I'd like to see a confirming picture of this allegation, to know if it is true, or if it is all in Miss Mackris' head.
The pictures in the papers today didn't really hint at much bouancy up top.
I believe the third page of the suit makes a gratutious reference to supposed connections between the Republican Party, FOX News, and O'Reilly.
One can only hope.
Uh, the fact is that "celebrities" are held in very high regard by liberals. Very high. Liberals love these folks, pander to them, want to be like them and God help us is we elect two of them.
Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't (with O ). That's debate or it would get rather boring. He has his opinion, I can have mine. Ticked off (me), No.
Excellent points. OR saying he's "too powerful a man"? Pride cometh before a fall.
Tony Snow is a good guy but toooooo NICE. He doesn't have strength in his voice for real passionate discussions. He is a definite conservative so we all just shake our heads in the positive and agree.
The Factor is like a vineyard. On any given day, the taste of the grape either lingers too long on the back of the pallet; or goes down with no lingering after taste.
Fri Oct 15, 2:09 AM ET Local - New York Post
By TODD VENEZIA
The woman accusing Bill O'Reilly of sex harassment threw a hissy fit inside a tony Midtown hotel bar last week and then sneered to onlookers that she works for "The O'Reilly Factor," a Manhattan chef told The Post yesterday.
"She literally verbally attacked and abused and harassed us at The Peninsula hotel, like a raving lunatic," said Bethenny Frankel, a chef and owner of a cookie-making company. "It was very strange."
The altercation allegedly started when Frankel asked Andrea Mackris if she could borrow two chairs from a four-person table where the TV producer was having a drink with her handicapped mother.
Frankel and a friend who witnessed the debacle last Friday say Mackris refused to yield a chair and became abusive, leading to an angry altercation.
"I said, 'Can we have those chairs?' " Frankel said. "She started flipping out . . . she was like 'There's something wrong with you, why can't I sit here with my mother?' So I said to her, 'What are you so upset about?' And all of a sudden she said: 'Do you know who I am? I work at the O'Reilly report.' "
Izzy Goldreich, an attorney and consultant who was part of Frankel's party, couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Before you knew it, this woman got simply irate. It just became like women's wrestling hour," he said. "This woman was more or less in Bethenny's face."
Mackris' attorney, Benedict Morelli, confirmed that Mackris was at the hotel having a drink with her mother, who he said has MS and walks with a cane. But he said Frankel escalated the incident.
"They came in and they wanted the chairs because they had a large party, and Ms. Mackris said why don't you wait until the maitre d' comes over because you need more than one chair and you can get a group of chairs [from him], and this woman started to really insult her and bad-mouth her and act inappropriately."
After the initial confrontation, Mackris turned to the management of the hotel, who Morelli said booted Frankel and her party.
Frankel said she and her group were asked to leave. She said it was only because Mackris raised such a fuss that flustered bar workers asked them to go so things would calm down.
Morelli said the bar management, which could not be reached for comment, gave Mackris a box of truffles to smooth over the incident.
But Frankel said Mackris kept the anger flowing by following them to the elevator and berating them.
"So as we're leaving, and she comes flying at me at the elevator, and is like, see you're leaving and I'm staying," Frankel said.
Mackris filed a lawsuit Wednesday, accusing the Fox News Channel host of making lewd passes at her as she worked for him. O'Reilly has filed a countersuit accusing Frankel of blackmailing him with the threat of the suit.
On TV talk shows yesterday, Mackris and O'Reilly attacked each other.
On "Good Morning America," Mackris said O'Reilly "pushed boundaries further and further." While on "Live with Regis and Kelly," O'Reilly denied the charges and said, "This is the worst day of my life."
While Mackris and Fox traded accusations, observers also noted that O'Reilly and Fox never specifically denied that he had held the conversations with his producer.
"Bill believes in retrospect that the conversations may have been recorded, and he's confident that if they exist in an unadulterated state, it will be exculpatory," Green said.
Without confirming or denying that sexually explicit conversations took place, Green said tapes might indicate whether they were "initiated for the purpose of entrapment."
Green also filed a motion with the court to have any tapes turned over by Oct. 22, but has received no response from Morelli, he said. The move to remove Morelli as Mackris' attorney, Green said, comes because he is "a litigant. And he can't be both a litigant and an advocate."
"I said, 'Can we have those chairs?' " Frankel said. "She started flipping out . . . she was like 'There's something wrong with you, why can't I sit here with my mother?' So I said to her, 'What are you so upset about?' And all of a sudden she said: 'Do you know who I am? I work at the O'Reilly report.' "
My gut feeling about this black widow is turning out to be true. Her ego is MUCH bigger than O'Reillys. 2 sex harrassment suits at 2 different companies and this incident. Poor Andrea, she's always "harrassed" where ever her royal heinous goes. She's the white Omarosa from Trumps reality show The Apprentice. This chickie poo won't be able to get a job at dog pound. She's too toxic.
O'Reilly's got his goons out already to spin and to make Andrea Mackris look like a nut. Don't believe a word of what Frankel said, or her lawyer Izzy Goldreich.
To deliberately pick a fight with a woman out dining with her disabled mom is reprehensible.
O'Reilly's putting his NYC "power force" into action.
He is a bastard, and I hope he gets reamed in court.
"Tapes that have not surfaced..witnesses we have not heard from... "
You expect all this BEFORE the trial--BEFORE O'Reilly's attorneys even answer the complaint?
These are things that happen in due time, during discovery, and at depositions.
Oh, yes, Virginia. It's true because you read it in the New York Post, and surely the Post would never lie to you.
I'm sticking to my gut instincts on this one. Andrea is another Omarosa(The Apprentice) looking for a free lunch. So there... (grin)
Reading the outcome of that incident, I came to the same conclusion.
You are a brat! ;)
"You are a brat!"
But you can be judge and jury before you have the facts?
As some of us have stated, there are questions to be answered on both sides. What's rumor and what is fact. Plus some of us on FR don't have this fixation others do on how The Factor conducts his show..it's commentary only, his views; not yours or mine..his. Just as you and I might disagree, so can you and O. I do not need O to validate my findings from my own research and discovery of facts.
"Entertainment television" is part of his show. O wants viewers to respond that he is either too Left or too Right..that's the image he wants to leave with his viewers...his opinion of fair and balanced. The Factor is opinion!
However, I find the timeframe of the suit suspicious as well. But will not lose any sleep over it, nor should you.
Thanks for your opinion,
fight_truth_decay
"O. I do not need O to validate my findings from my own research and discovery of facts."
Uh I noticed you keep referring to O'Reilly as "O". So is this Andrea wearing the "O" around her neck in reference to O'Reilly or Oprah? LOL... so many O's so many mysteries.
Has anyone seen the clip of Bo Dittle (sp?) going after Mackris (more like a threat). I just saw the clip on MSNBC. I believe Bo has been hired by O'Reilly or Fox News. This is getting serious.
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