Bill O’ Reilly Charged With Sexual Harassment By Wendy Walsh; 21st Century Fox To Investigate
Bill O'Reilly, the host of Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor" TV show, was recently charged with a sexual harassment case by Wendy Walsh, a guest who used to appear frequently on the talk show. The allegation, which has resulted in several companies to pull their advertisement contracts with O'Reilly's show, will now be investigated by 21st Century Fox.
The complaint was lodged by Walsh, who's a psychologist and a radio host, and her lawyer via a phone call last week to the network's head office. The former accused O'Reilly of revoking an offer to secure her as a contributor on the network after she refused to follow him back to his hotel room after dinner in 2013.
Before Walsh, five other women had come forward with similar allegations against O'Reilly, who paid $13M in settlement charges along with Fox. The talk show host, however, has maintained that he was unfairly targeted due to his popularity.
"21st Century Fox investigates all complaints and we have asked the law firm Paul Weiss to continue assisting the company in these serious matters," Fox said in an official statement regarding Walsh's accusation, The Guardian reported. The former guest speaker has made it aptly clear that she is not looking for settlement after so many years and just wants to see justice done.
"I'm told that they are taking it seriously, and they are going to do the investigation that's legally required of them," Bloom told CNN. The corporate companies that have terminated their advertisement contracts with O'Reilly's show are BMW of North America, Allstate Corp, Sanofi SA, Constant Contact, Untuckit and T Rowe Price.
There has been a lot of criticism regarding the workplace environment at Fox after the network's founding chairman, Roger Ailes, was accused of sexual misconduct by a Democratic political consultant, Julie Roginsky. Incidentally, the same law firm will be used in handling Reilly's case, which previously handled Ailes.