Back in April, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly abruptly announced he’d be taking a vacation. The trip, he said, had been scheduled since the previous fall. “I like to take time off around Easter, it’s calming” he told the audience.
That show ended up being O’Reilly’s last.
There was no shortage of suspicion that it would be his last, given the odd timing (he took off for Easter in the middle of the week), and the controversial New York Times report from earlier that month. On April 1st, the New York Times published a report revealing that O’Reilly and Fox paid $13 million to five woman as settlements for sexual harassment complaints. O’Reilly told the Times he signed off on the settlements to protect his family from controversy and had not admitted any guilt. A majority of advertisers pulled their ads from his show following the revelation, with the show down to only seven advertisers (from 33). After accuser Perquita Burgess also came forward following the publication of the Times article, O’Reilly was suspended from Fox.
And just like that, after two decades at the country’s largest conservative TV network, O’Reilly was gone. In an interview with Glenn Beck the week after his firing, he told the host that the smear job by the Times “was a hit.” He continued: “In the weeks to come, we’re going to be able to explain some of it. It has to do with destroying voices that the far left and the organized left-wing cabal doesn’t like.”
Many speculated that O’Reilly would reveal that he was forced out of Fox. After all, it wasn’t the lawsuit against O’Reilly that got him suspended and then fired – it was the New York Times reporting on the lawsuit. Did that give Fox leeway to cite backlash from the public to get rid of O’Reilly?
This all happened back in May. But now, it looks like O’Reilly is making good on his promise to have the whole truth revealed. Last night, the former Fox star posted the following to Facebook, which went viral instantly:
Sorry to have to post this article but it is necessary to expose the evil in play in this country. More to come.
Posted by Bill O'Reilly on Sunday, September 17, 2017
In the Newsmax article O’Reilly cites, we learn that in 2015, the key accuser in the harassment-related firing was arrested by a Detroit police officer after submitting a false crime report.
The key accuser, Perquita Burgess, claimed that O’Reilly made a number of sexually suggestive comments to her. Burgess had worked at Fox only for a few weeks back in 2008, serving as a clerical temp. It was her allegations that played a “significant role in O’Reilly’s termination” according to a Fox News source quoted by Newsmax.
But back to her false report. An investigation from the Detroit Police on February 11th, 2015, documents her arrest on charges of “making a false report and obstructing a court order.”
The document states that she claimed her boyfriend had struck her in the face with a gun. Police arrived at the scene, found no evidence of an assault, and an intoxicated Burgess.
The arrested officer stated in the report that “I asked Ms. Burgess where the gun was that she was struck with in the face, she replied there is no gun. I again asked her where the gun was, and if she had been assaulted. Ms. Burgess stated there was no gun, and he didn’t assault me!”
Nobody had bothered to look into her record. And she was paraded around on The View to spew her unsubstantiated claims. “The press just printed everything she said,” O’Reilly said in light of this revelation. “She’s on ‘The View,’ and nobody’s even checking her out? I mean, come on.”
What do you think? Was Bill O’Reilly falsely accused of sexual harassment? Should he get his job back at Fox News? Tell us your thoughts below and share this story over Facebook and Twitter!
