UPDATE: Gabriel Sherman tweets this:
Bill O'Reilly may indeed be toast. According to CNN's Brian Stelter, Fox and O'Reilly's representatives have been talking about exit plans. The BillO camp denies this, but Stelter reports that Fox News people aren't taking questions about his return to The O'Reilly Factor.
Stelter further reports that an announcement about BillO's fate may come by the end of the week, after a Thursday board meeting where O'Reilly's exit trajectory is said to be at the top of the agenda.
Earlier today, Gabriel Sherman reported that the Murdochs were split, with Rupert Murdoch as the lone holdout for O'Reilly to stay. But with an internal investigation and more women coming forward, the morale inside Fox News is toxic.
Meanwhile, the Murdochs are also dealing with a restive workplace. Female Fox News employees are growing increasingly frustrated that the Murdochs have not forcefully confronted the company’s culture of sexual harassment in the wake of removing Roger Ailes. “Morale is awful,” one Fox female executive told me yesterday, adding that employees are wondering if budgets have been cut to pay for sexual-harassment settlements. “There’s been no word from management to calm the masses.” (Spokespersons for 21st Century Fox and Fox News did not respond to a request for comment.)
Whatever Bill O'Reilly's fate is, I can't imagine the culture at Fox News changing anytime soon. They will still have scantily clad women sitting on the couch, they'll still be racist jerks, and they'll still lie to their viewers.
This will be the third departure from Fox News because of the toxic masculinity in their environment. Roger Ailes first. Then Megyn Kelly, who had real issues with O'Reilly. And now, possibly BillO.
How many settlements will they have to pay before they get a clue?
Update: After the initial report from Stelter, O'Reilly's folks pushed back hard.
Update 2: Statement from O'Reilly's lawyer:
"Bill O'Reilly has been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-McCarthyist America. This law firm has uncovered evidence that the smear campaign is being orchestrated by far-left organizations bent on destroying O'Reilly for political and financial reasons. That evidence will be put forth shortly and it is irrefutable."
Oh.
