There have been multiple sexual harassment accusations against Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. Now, apparently the Murdoch family is having an internal fight about keeping him on the air.
According to rumors, it looks like a decision has been made and O’Reilly is preparing to leave his top rated cable show, The O’Reilly Factor.
O’Reilly initially denied the accusations, and is no longer commenting about the status of his show.
According to the bombshell report, it’s not a question of if O’Reilly will leave… It’s when:
A well-placed source said Tuesday afternoon that representatives for Fox and O’Reilly have begun talking about an exit. But this prompted a denial from sources in O’Reilly’s camp.
Even one person close to O’Reilly, however, said he will probably not be back on “The O’Reilly Factor.”
The original well-placed source said an announcement about O’Reilly’s fate was likely by the end of the week.
The fact that none of these sources were willing to go on the record speaks to the delicate maneuvering underway.
The network’s parent company, 21st Century Fox (FOX), will hold a board meeting on Thursday, a spokeswoman told CNNMoney. One of the sources said O’Reilly will be a primary topic.
The Murdochs, the men who control 21st Century Fox, are pointedly not commenting on any of this.
The scandals have have plagued Fox News has made 2017 a challenging year for the conservative network. When polled, 46% of Americans believe the sexual harassment scandals should be enough to cancel O’Reilly’s show:
Forty-six percent of people think Fox News should cancel “The O’Reilly Factor” amid its host’s escalating sexual harassment scandal, according to a Morning Consult poll released Wednesday.
Twenty-two percent said the network should keep Bill O’Reilly’s top-rated primetime show; 32% said they didn’t know or had no opinion, per the poll conducted Thursday to Saturday.
Among those who said they watch the “Factor,” 23% said it should be canned — a four-point jump from a poll conducted April 6 to 9, just days after the New York Times reported O’Reilly and Fox News had settled five sex harassment lawsuits against him for a collective $13 million.
This is bad news for Fox. The most popular cable news network has a loyal audience, but these behind-the-scenes scandals have been unacceptable to many viewers. Paying off so many alleged victims millions of dollars is not normal, and mistreatment of women should never be tolerated.
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