Lurid Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Fox’s Bill O’Reilly

Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly was accused of sexual harassment by former Fox TV personality Juliet Huddy, and the company paid “in the high six figures” to avoid a lawsuit and keep the matter private, according to an article in the The New York Times. The deal was made shortly after Fox chairman Roger Ailes left the company last July, in the midst of his own sexual harassment case. The Times details the O’Reilly matter in lurid detail, based on a copy of a letter that lawyers for Huddy sent to Fox. The Times said it received the letter anonymously in December. According to Huddy she rebuffed O’Reilly’s advances, which took place in 2011 at a time when he was able to make or break her career. The letter also says that Fox executive Jack Abernethy pursued Huddy and then retaliated against her when she also rebuffed his efforts to strike up a personal relationship. For O’Reilly, it’s not the first time he has had to fend off sexual harassment allegations. In 2004 he settled for for millions of dollars, in a lawsuit that alleged behavior similar in some details to what was alleged in the Huddy matter, without admitting wrongdoing.
It’s not the first sexual harassment matter involving the Fox News star opinionator, who is said to have generated about $180 million in advertising dollars in 2015,