Bill O'Reilly's Firing By Fox Earns Him Multimilion-Dollar Payoff, Report Says

MANHATTAN, NY — Multiple allegations of sexual assault can apparently earn millions of dollars for the accused, at least when you're Bill O'Reilly, the former Fox News Channel host who was removed in disgrace after getting mired in a lurid sexual harassment scandal.

O'Reilly's dismissal comes with a $25 million exit package, according to a Thursday report in The New York Times, which cited two people briefed on the matter.

The women who reported they were abused by O'Reilly? They didn't fare as well. Five of them were reportedly paid a total of $13 million in settlements.

The network’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, has now paid more than $85 million related to allegations of sexual harassment and other abusive behavior allegations at Fox News. That includes a $40 million exit package last summer to Roger Ailes, the Fox News chairman ousted last year over allegations similar to those against O'Reilly.

"After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the Company and Bill O'Reilly have agreed that Bill O'Reilly will not be returning to Fox News Channel," 21st Century Fox said in a brief statement Wednesday. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

O'Reilly's departure is a devastating blow to the cable news juggernaut and a humiliating fall for the man who became the face of Fox News, where he reigned for years as the top-rated host on cable television and commanded a salary reported at up to $25 million a year. O'Reilly's show generated $178.4 million in advertising revenue in 2015, according to the research firm Kantar Media. Overall, the Fox News took in a reported $2.32 billion that year.

The news channel and its parent company forced O'Reilly out under intense pressure that had been building since The New York Times reported on April 1 that five women had received payouts from O'Reilly, Fox News or 21st Century Fox in exchange for agreeing not to pursue litigation or talk about allegations of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior.

When Ailes, the station's chairman and CEO, was forced out last summer over similar allegations, 21st Century's top executives, James and Lachlan Murdoch, said the company was committed to “maintaining a work environment based on trust and respect.”

After that statement, though, even as allegations about O'Reilly's behavior mounted, the company struck two settlements to silence his accusers and learned of one woman he had secretly reached a settlement with in 2011, the Times reported April1. The company was well aware of the numerous claims against O'Reilly when it re-signed him earlier this year to a four-year contract.

The agreement included a provision that O'Reilly would receive a maximum of one year's salary should he be dismissed, the Times reported, adding that the company is expected to disclose the exact financial terms of his payout in future regulatory filings.

The five women who received the payouts described by the newspaper either worked for O'Reilly or had been guests on his show. Their complaints about O'Reilly, 67, involved a wide range of behavior, including verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances and phone calls in which it sounded as if he was masturbating.

O'Reilly and 21st Century Fox said following the report of the settlements that no current or former Fox News employee had used a company hotline to report inappropriate behavior. Four days later, Wendy Walsh, who had been a frequent guest on O'Reilly's show and had related complaints about him to the Times, called the hotline to report he had sexually harassed her in 2013.

That led the Murdoch family to enlist the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to investigate O’Reilly’s behavior. Following Walsh's call to the hotline, two other women came forward with complaints.

O'Reilly denied all the allegations reported by the Times, and he did so again Wednesday in a statement following news of his departure from Fox.

"It is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims," he said. "But that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today. I will always look back on my time at Fox with great pride in the unprecedented success we achieved and with my deepest gratitude to all my dedicated viewers. I wish only the best for Fox News Channel."

Tucker Carlson, who has hosted his own show on Fox, will be moving into O'Reilly's prime 8 p.m. slot starting Monday. Guest hosts will continue to appear on "The Factor" through the end of the week. The panel show "The Five" will move Monday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

In the hours following the Fox 21 statement announcing O'Reilly's departure, while MSNBC and CNN were carrying "Breaking News" reports about the development, Fox News Channel was mum on the loss of its most valuable host. The panel on "The Five" discussed their show's move to prime time without mentioning O'Reilly. The Fox News website reported the end of "The O'Reilly Factor" in a story by its media analyst, Howard Kurtz. Finally, during "Special Report," the news show that begins at 6 p.m. Eastern, the ousting of O'Reilly was announced on air.

Dana Perino hosted Wednesday's 8 p.m. hour on Fox, which was stripped of all O'Reilly branding. The show was simply titled "The Factor."

Lisa Bloom, an attorney representing three of the women who have accused O'Reilly of misconduct, declared victory and issued a celebratory statement.

"This is what happens when women speak our truth: we can slay dragons," she said.

"I am very proud to have stood with my brave clients who stood up for themselves and all the silenced women," she continued. "Wendy Walsh is the very definition of courage. My anonymous accuser was equally brave in calling in her report to Fox News. And my third accuser client, Caroline Heldman, just called in her complaint to the Fox News hotline today."

She added: "Fox News should have fired him in 2004 when the first complaint was made, but at least they did it now. They did it because we persisted."

In addition to O'Reilly and Ailes, Fox News has recently lost other major players, including Megyn Kelly, Greta Van Susteren and Gretchen Carlson. Carlson, a former host of "Fox & Friends," left Fox News in July when she filed a lawsuit charging Ailes of sexual harassment. Kelly is among those who have accused Ailes of sexual harassment.

Rupert Murdoch, who controls 21st Century Fox, joined his sons in a letter to staff that praised O'Reilly without mentioning the scandal that brought him down.

"By ratings standards, Bill O'Reilly is one of the most accomplished TV personalities in the history of cable news," the note said. "In fact, his success by any measure is indisputable. Fox News has demonstrated again and again the strength of its talent bench. We have full confidence that the network will continue to be a powerhouse in cable news."

It continued: "Lastly, and most importantly, we want to underscore our consistent commitment to fostering a work environment built on the values of trust and respect."

O'Reilly began working at the Fox at its inception 1996, when it was still a fledgling network. His personal brand mixed a no-nonsense attitude and an often bombastic, confrontational style that appealed to the conservative views and principles of viewers he attracted to the network.

He has frequently been a controversial figure and a target of outrage. A few weeks before the Times unveiled the sexual harassment allegations, O'Reilly came under criticism for saying he couldn't hear what Rep. Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, said on the House floor because he was distracted by her "James Brown wig." Many viewed the comment as racist and sexist.

After the news broke Wednesday of his departure from the network, Waters wrote on Twitter: "Regarding the news on O'Reilly, a day will come when rich men won't be able to buy their way out of criminal conduct & they will go to jail."

O'Reilly had weathered charges of journalistic malfeasance for years. After he had claimed in 2012 to have seen nuns "shot in the back of the head" in El Salvador in 1980, the liberal watchdog Media Matters said that there was no way he actually saw these events in person. O'Reilly later clarified that he had seen "depictions" of the nuns getting killed.

He was also taken to task for statements he made claiming that he was at the scene in 1977 when George de Mohrenschildt, a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald, committed suicide in Palm Beach, Florida. O'Reilly claimed he had "heard the shotgun blast that marked the suicide." CNN later obtained phone recordings between O'Reilly and a congressional investigator who was in Florida as part of a probe into John F. Kennedy's assassination when Mohrenschildt shot himself.

O'Reilly makes clear in that conversation that he was in Texas, not Florida, on that day.

On April 11, with sponsors fleeing O'Reilly's show and rumors circulating that his future with Fox was uncertain, he announced that he would be taking a two-week vacation from his show. He never addressed on air the allegations of abuse and payoffs that the Times had reported.

By the time he left for vacation, more than 50 advertisers had publicly announced that they would not buy airtime on "The O'Reilly Factor," though many continued to run commercials during other time slots. Jenny Craig, H&R Block, Advil, Esurance, and GlaxoSmithKline were among those who pulled their ads. Angie's List, which initially said it would stick with the show, later pulled its ads.

“We value our partners and are working with them to address their current concerns about the O’Reilly Factor," Fox News Channel’s EVP of Advertising Sales Paul Rittenberg said in a statement at the time.

While many fans still supported the embattled host — O'Reilly's ratings actually rose as the controversy continued — much of the public was turning against him. On Tuesday, protesters gathered outside Fox News' headquarters in midtown Manhattan demanding O'Reilly's ouster. They chanted "Fire Bill O'Reilly," "Shame on Fox News" and "Lock him up."

President Trump became O'Reilly's highest-profile supporter during the firestorm. In an interview with The New York Times a few days after its April 1 report, Trump praised O'Reilly as "a good person." He added: "I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.”

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