During an appearance to promote his children’s book on “Live with Regis and Kelly,” O’Reilly said he’d been repeatedly threatened with lawsuits and bodily harm over the past few years. He said he knew that by filing his lawsuit, he could perhaps ruin his career.
“If I have to go down, I’m willing to do it,” he said. “I’m going to take a stand. I’m a big mouth on the air and I’m a big mouth off the air.”
That’s very generous; but sorry, not interested.
Sorry about the Salon quote – if you want to read the full article, click the “Day Pass” link, watch a short ad, and read, read, read. Once the political season ends, I’ll go back to occasionally reading the weekly column by the airline pilot. For now, though, I tend to read a lot there, and then go looking elsewhere for quotable links. Not this time, though – couldn’t resist.
The link to the harassment filing at The Smoking Gun is here. I can’t access it at the moment, of course, but I wanted to go back and verify which hair-raising incidents happened before Ms. Mackris returned to work at FOX News, and which ones happened after her return.
I think that if the notorious “Caribbean shower fantasy, with falafel fetish” incident happened after her return, it was a case of “Oh, he couldn’t possibly try anything now. He knows I’d quit again.” Or if it was the “climactic” phone conversation, same thing. Some people have been questioning why she would possibly want to return to a “hostile work environment.” I think it may be a couple of things.
- She’s a conservative, and feels comfortable at FOX News
- She didn’t really like it at CNN, and wanted the plum Repub convention slot
- They would match her higher CNN salary (or so she thought)
- She thought she had made it clear to O’Reilly she wouldn’t stand for “funny stuff.”
Remember Anita Hill? I believed her then, and most people believe her now. I wonder if Ms. Mackris’ experience will be like that – disbelief from many, but eventually regaining her cred?