Bill O’Reilly Gone

It’s the end of an era. Bill O’Reilly, the top rated news show for over a decade, has finally come to a somewhat unsavory end.

It seems like the menfolk at Fox News can’t seem to keep it in their pants. First Fox News President and former CEO Roger Ailes was shown the door after sexual harassment allegations.

Now the same behavior has claimed the career of Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly.

After five women received hush money in the amount of $13 million dollars and the loss of 60 or more Fox News advertisers the die was cast.

O’Reilly was unceremoniously kicked to the curb high ratings and all this morning.

Scandals Are Nothing New

Celebrity scandals come and go. Elliott Spitzer was forced to resign as Governor of New York after spending $80,000 on prostitutes while governor and New York Attorney General and he ends up getting his own TV show on MSNBC.

Short lived that it was.

Anthony Weiner was forced to resign from congress because he apparently sends Snapchats photos of himself in various forms of undress to any woman who has a cell phone.

He ends up helping Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Perhaps that’s part of the reason she lost.

The O’Reilly Lesson

Just because you're rich and famous doesn't mean you impose yourself on others with some future promises.

Unfortunately for O’Reilly, the public takes sexual harassment more seriously than swapping nude photos or a little extra curricular activity from a few hookers.

If these were serious infractions in the eyes of the public half of congress would probably be looking for another job.

Do the allocations against O’Reilly have merit? It really doesn’t matter.

A payoff here and there might be ignored  or swept under the rug but five women, $13 million dollars, and the loss of over 60 sponsors definitely got the attention of Fox News higher-ups and they had to make a decisive move and O’Reilly paid the price.

Some Final Thoughts

As I predicted some months ago, I thought Tucker Carlson was being groomed to take O’Reilly’s place, if and when, he decided to step down.

Did the Fox News Board know they were going to ax O’Reilly before they put Carlson in prime time? That’s anyone’s guess.

I think they knew that in spite O’Reilly’s high ratings that Carlson was their future. As Carlson’s rating grew it became obvious that the time had come to cut the cord and rebuild with new untainted blood.

Will O’Reilly end up on a network like Megan Kelly, or move to MSNBC? That would be very doubtful. No network wants that kind of baggage no matter how popular you are.

So Bill has probably taken good care of his money and if not he can always dump the many charities that receive his book money.

I would look for Tucker Carlson, Jessie Waters and a comedian to be named later to finish out O’Reilly’s tours. Maybe not.

Unfortunately the only thing that will be remembered about O’Reilly’s long career will be the late night talk show host’s comedy bits. Stay tuned. Not sure this is over yet.

Maybe Spitzer or Weiner can give O'Reilly some damage control tips.

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