How the Murdochs took a multimillion-dollar gamble on Bill O'Reilly--and lost (time to go, murdochs)
(billo is no longer on fixed noise, but the whole culture and climate of sexual harassment and corruption still exists. time to bring the murdoch empire to a close)
How the Murdochs took a multimillion-dollar gamble on Bill O’Reilly — and lost
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Media magnate Rupert Murdoch with sons Lachlan, left, and James, in 2016. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)
Earlier this year, when Rupert Murdoch and senior executives at Fox News’s parent company signed Bill O’Reilly to a new multiyear contract, they knew something the rest of the world didn’t: The star host had been accused of sexual and verbal harassment by women at Fox five times over the preceding 15 years. They knew it because the company, 21st Century Fox, had paid money to settle two of the complaints. They also knew that the public was unlikely to find out because attorneys for O’Reilly and the company had signed his accusers to agreements binding them to confidentiality. In exchange for their silence and a promise not to sue, the women received payments totaling $3 million from 21st Century Fox.
Those settlements came on top of some $10 million that O’Reilly himself had paid earlier to three other women who had complained about his behavior while working at Fox. They also came after a bruising sexual harassment scandal involving Fox News co-founder and chairman Roger Ailes last summer, one in which 21st Century Fox paid some $35 million to settle a lawsuit by former Fox presenter Gretchen Carlson and allegations against Ailes by several unidentified women. This was in addition to $40 million paid to Ailes as severance. In effect, Rupert Murdoch and his sons James and Lachlan, who run 21st Century Fox, took a calculated risk. They re-signed O’Reilly — Fox News’s most valuable asset — fully aware of his history but in the apparent hope that they could continue with business as usual, according to knowledgeable people at the company. Just to be safe, however, the company added an unusual feature to O’Reilly’s new contract: A clause permitting 21st Century Fox to terminate him, with up to a year’s salary as severance, if new allegations arose.In the end, the Murdochs’ bet on their guaranteed moneymaker didn’t pay off.
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The O’Reilly debacle raises questions about 21st Century Fox’s stated commitment to ensuring a hostility-free environment. In one of their few public statements about the problem in the scandal-scarred Fox News Channel workplace, James, 44, and Lachlan, 45, said after Ailes’s ouster last summer, “We continue our commitment to maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect.” Yet after making that pledge, the company settled two more allegations against O’Reilly — one with former anchor Laurie Dhue, who left the network in 2008, and another with Juliet Huddy, a former network host.
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Through all of this, 21st Century Fox has taken steps to keep the allegations and settlements as quiet as possible.In addition to binding Dhue, Huddy and other women who have settled to silence through nondisclosure agreements, most full-time employees at Fox have arbitration agreements that “force them into secret corporate courts,” said Nancy Erika Smith, the attorney who represented Carlson. “Secrecy is what allows harassers to keep it up,” she said. As a corporate matter, 21st Century Fox has made minimal public disclosures about the cost and extent of the problems. The company’s entire official accounting of the Ailes drama is contained in a half-sentence buried in two quarterly 10Q reports, a financial disclosure document required by federal securities law.“For the three months ended September 30, 2016,” the disclosure reads, “the Company recorded . . . approximately $35 million of costs related to settlements of pending and potential litigations following the July 2016 resignation of the Chairman and CEO of Fox News Channel after a public complaint was filed containing allegations of sexual harassment.” (The complaint referred to is Carlson’s lawsuit.)
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-the-murdochs-took-a-multi-million-dollar-gamble-on-bill-oreilly--and-lost/2017/04/22/d2e12cca-2618-11e7-bb9d-8cd6118e1409_story.html?utm_term=.6172791c37f8
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