Bill O’Reilly was kept on at Fox News despite a string of harassment claims because his contract prohibited him from being fired over them, it has emerged.
Jacques Nasser, an independent director of Fox, made the claim to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is looking into 21st Century Fox’s planned £11.7 billion ($15.3 billion) buyout of British telecom company Sky.
He said that while Roger Ailes was ousted soon after harassment allegations also emerged against him, O’Reilly received a stay of execution thanks to a clause in his contract, a CMA report said.
Bill O’Reilly (seen in September on the Today show) could not be fired over sexual harassment claims unless they were proven in court, according to his Fox News contract, it has emerged
Jacques Nasser (pictured), a Fox director, made the claims in a UK hearing over Fox’s planned buyout of a British broadcaster. O’Reilly settled claims out of court, so couldn’t be touched
O’Reilly had been the subject of multiple claims of sexual harassment going back to at least 2002.
But according to CMA’s memo, Nasser said that O’Reilly’s contract ‘stated he could not be dismissed on the basis of an allegation unless that allegation was proved in court.’
Also, ‘at the time of the allegations being raised, the evidence was uncertain.’
The existence of multiple settlements did not become public knowledge until April of this year, thanks to a New York Times expose.
Soon after that article was published, sexual harassment claims about Ailes, who was then the chairman of Fox News, also emerged. Unlike O’Reilly, he was ousted in under a week.
O’Reilly, meanwhile, could not be kicked out until his contract came up for renewal in February of this year – and in January he settled another suit for $32 million with Lis Wiehl, a legal analyst.
Juliet Huddy (left in October) is one of O’Reilly’s accusers. Nasser said that Fox stripped the protection out of O’Reilly’s new contract in February. O’Reilly was fired from Fox in April
Nasser said that the board was aware of the existence of the Wiehl settlement – although not how much it was settled for – and and that some wanted to fire him, but instead the board renewed his contract.
However, he said, ‘the board ensured that a clause was inserted to state that he could be dismissed on the grounds of an allegation against him without it having to be proved in court.’
Fox also said at the time that it had ‘added protections for the company specifically aimed at harassment, including that Mr O’Reilly could be dismissed if the company was made aware of other allegations or if additional relevant information was obtained in a company investigation.’
The earliest of O’Reilly’s settlements dates back to 2002 and was given to Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, a junior producer. The amount is not known.
The second, in 2004, was for $9million 2004 and was awarded to Andrea Mackris, a producer on The O’Reilly Show.
Rebecca Gomez Diamond, a Fox Business host, received an undisclosed amount in 2011. In 2016, Laurie Dhue and Juliet Huddy both received undisclosed settlements.
O’Reilly settled for $32m with Lis Wiehl (pictured) just before signing his new contract. In April his previous settlements were exposed and he was fired that month
O’Reilly left in April, the same month it was revealed that he’d paid off the women.
Nasser also told the CMA that ‘with the benefit of hindsight, there could have been better governance structures in place at Fox News to ensure that the board came to know of allegations at an earlier stage.’
However, he told them, the 21st Century Fox board has now brought in new procedures to escalate issues to the board quicker while also stopping harassment from occurring in the first place.
The CMA said he ‘added that, in his view, it would not be conceivable that anyone at 21CF or Fox News would now believe that he or she may misbehave with impunity.’
The claims against O’Reilly added to opposition against 21st Century Fox’s purchase of Sky, which provides TV broadcasting and broadband services.
The CMA is investigating the proposed purchase on the grounds of broadcasting standards and concerns over a lack of different ‘voices’ in the UK news industry.
It was announced yesterday that Sky would shut down its newsroom if the Fox purchase was denied by the CMA.