Posted on 10/21/2004 2:15:27 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
A psychotherapist years ago introduced me to the term "bear hug." I'm not sure anymore exactly how she defined it (and I don't think she originated it), but I've used it ever since to describe those situations where you are powerless to get out of someone's grip, causing anger and often rage. This, I think, helps explain the sexual harassment suit leveled against Bill O'Reilly.
The specifics of the suit — the actual complaint — are all over the Internet, and so I leave it to you to find the gamier allegations on your own. Suffice it to say that a woman named Andrea Mackris, who once was O'Reilly's associate producer, has accused her former boss of pressuring her to have telephone sex with him. She says O'Reilly repeatedly made these requests both in person and over the telephone — conversations she apparently recorded. She quotes O'Reilly verbatim. It's rough stuff.
If the allegations are true, there is no excusing O'Reilly. The picture painted by Mackris in her suit is of a media figure who is so high on his fame that he thinks he is invincible. He is fearsome — and Mackris says she did fear him.
Still, she must not have feared him that much because, after she had left O'Reilly's Fox News Channel show and gone to work at CNN, she went to dinner with him. This happened after repeated episodes of the rawest sexual harassment, Mackris says. Yet, on April 13, 2004, "Defendant Bill O'Reilly asked plaintiff Andrea Mackris to come watch the president's press conference on the television in his hotel room," Mackris' suit says. And how did she respond? Mind you, she wasn't even working for O'Reilly at the time. She said, sure — and went to the hotel room. "They watched the press conference without incident," the suit says, and later Mackris returned to Fox and the O'Reilly show . . . for more money.
Let us dispense with the boilerplate denunciation of O'Reilly as an alleged pig and even more boilerplate about him being the all-powerful man and Mackris being the totally powerless woman. All of that could be true. It seems also true, though, that Mackris either skipped classes in common sense when she was at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism or was playing O'Reilly like the proverbial violin.
Whether Mackris was aware of her power is impossible for me to say. But I can say that she never went to Fox's human relations department to complain about O'Reilly. She never seemed to realize that by not complaining and, more specifically, by going to dinner with him, to his hotel room and then, upon returning to Fox News, accepting assignments and a salary increase not given others, she was hardly telling O'Reilly that she found his behavior thoroughly repugnant, as she says in her suit. I almost pity O'Reilly. Off camera, he must be a bit slow.
Initially, I gleefully read about O'Reilly's troubles because, among other things, the man has taken my name in vain — and inaccurately. But it was a young, female television producer who suggested I write about this because, if I may paraphrase, suits such as Mackris' infantilize women. They portray women totally as victims, without recourse or remedy at their disposal.
I can understand the rage of women subjected to the sort of sewer O'Reilly allegedly opened up on Mackris. If he did it, it is wrong — just plain wrong.
But it is also wrong for a woman to be even a bit complicit and then act as if she played no role whatsoever in the oldest game known to mankind. I can appreciate that Mackris was in an awful bear hug. But she screamed for help a bit late in the game.
She wasn't in a bearhug, she wanted to be in a bearhug but he wouldn't give it to her... hence the lawsuit..
Mackris reminds me of Anita Hill . . . inexplicably coming back for more when they claim these guys harassed them.
She's an Anita Hill wannabe.
I don't care if O'Reilly's accuser is Hillary's secret lover. O'Reilly is still a smarmy scumbag.
He's a fat head.
Andrea Mackris, left, looks on as her lawyer Benedict Morelli, right, speaks at a news conference in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2004. Mackris, A Fox News Channel producer, sued Bill O'Reilly for sexual harassment Wednesday, alleging her boss had phone sex with her against her wishes three times. Fox filed a claim of its own, saying the complaint was a politically motivated extortion attempt. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Andrea had lunch with the ultra-liberal, maggot Al Franken (openly jealous of Bill O'Reilly) - pretty much says it all.
Heh...that too.
ping
Wow....look at Andrea's Conservative Churchlady outfit with a turtleneck. I'm suprised she didn't wear the Crucifix necklace to add to the effect.
6/30/2004; $1,000; Israel, Steve; Morelli, Benedict P; New York,NY 10022; Benedict P Morelli & Associates
8/6/2004; $2,000; Kerry, John; Morelli, Benedict P; New York,NY 10022; Benedict P Morelli & Associates
8/6/2004; $2,000; DNC Services Corp;
Ratner, David; Great Neck,NY 11021; Benedict P Morelli; 8/6/2004; $2,000; Kerry, John
One of Ellen Ratner's brothers?
Yeah, I noticed that too. I can't stand that pompus liar O'Reilly but she seems suspect. Who can ignore the Anita Hill syndrome of following her abuser back to a job and even two jobs and her Democrat-donating lawyer and associate.
Makres has been seen in a bar with Al Franken, laughing loudly about having taken down Rush, and now they're taking down O'Reilly. There was a witness to this incident.
"History has shown that the neutral position is the most dangerous position to take. Unfortunately for Bill O'Reilly, the host of Fox News' O'Reilly Factor and the target of sexual harassment lawsuit, his attempts at reasonableness are neither liberal enough for the hard left nor conservative enough for the solid right.
Conservatives bite the hand that feeds them when they fail to recognize that O'Reilly, in his position as an independent moderate, provides the perfect doorway through which a maturing, political aficionado can pass as he discovers the dangerous liberal slant of the mainstream media. (Certainly, a budding neo-con does not wake up one morning to the sudden discovery that he is ready for conservatism "al Sean Hannity.")
O'Reilly's political positions--his support of abortion, homosexual adoption, homosexual marriage, fiscal conservatism and limited government; and his opposition to animal rights activists, "feminazis" and environmental whackos-- parallel very closely the interim stage that many moderates pass through on their journey from the young, brainwashed me-generation to the more logical realm of adult conservatism...."
"...As a key member of this New Media, Bill O'Reilly is now a serious threat to the radical leftists' civil-rights agenda, and apparently is more than the Homosexual Mafia can control. Al Franken, in his position not only as a spokesman for the Homosexual Agenda, but also as a general in his political army, went on a blatant attack of O'Reilly with his book and, more subtly, by naming his competing radio show The O'Franken Factor. Given that these latest strategies have not worked--they didn't even dent O'Reilly's ratings--Franken, according to the manager of a restaurant patronized by the liberal media, is in cohorts with Andrea Mackris, O'Reilly's staff member known for her "sexual rants and drunken propositions." Mackris hopes to publish a tome that paints O'Reilly as anything but conservative, Franken-style, in an attempt to break any remaining ties between O'Reilly and his semi-conservative followers...
Here's a link to the full article and thread: The Homosexual Mafia attacks the "Door to the Right"
Ellen Ratner's brothers are Bruce Ratner and Michael Ratner.
I say O'Reilly is getting punished for turning RAT! No sympathy here for that "so full of himself" fat head!
Just like Newt. They'll take you out in a heartbeat while praising and protecting their own.
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