Discussion for article #234083
not going to buy the book, but I would like to know how O’Reilly was “blackmailed” in the Andrea Mackris matter. Because Mackris did not immediately report the first instance of sexual harassment or resign ASAP? I hope that is not what the author is basing that opinion on, because that would be pretty goddamned naive. O’Reilly repeatedly harassed her, he was gross and disgusting (does he really think he’s a handsome guy that any non-golddigger would willingly fuck?), and he deserved everything he got. Actually he deserved a lot more but the wealthy and powerful can buy their way out of problems they create.
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Keith Olbermann was the only “balance” to Bill-O-the-clown.
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Really, it’s OK if FNC doesn’t fire O’Reilly. This story has been covered well-enough that he has been discredited everywhere outside the Fox News bubble as just another partisan propaganda-peddling hack rather than as some dignified pundit from the right deserving of the benefit of the doubt. Probably the best result that can be hoped for, other than for Goddess to give BillO the same affliction Jim Carrey had in “Liar Liar”.
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And, MSNBC made Keith resign. What’s up with that? MSNBC has blown so many opportunities, I hardly know where to start.
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two sets of principles. One for himself, one for others.
Isn’t this carved in granite or marble somewhere in Washington, DC?
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Mr. Kitman sir, you still you got it. I’m a longtime fan of Marvin Kitman. 
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Sounds like O’Reilly made his wishes crystal clear, and Kitman failed to obey them, followed by an entirely predictable and devastating backlash. I guess once you’ve committed a few years to a project, you might as well finish it, but I don’t quite understand Kitman’s petulance. He could certainly see this coming (better than most), and he had a choice to make: lick O’Reilly’s ass, or kick it. Either way, he could have been paid for his investment.
I haven’t read the book, and really I have no interest in learning more about O’Reilly. Reading Kitman’s own description, it seems we are left with a fairly weak result, even if it clings to some kind of journalistic creed. Why waste time and dead trees on that? O’Reilly is not some historic figure full of ambiguity and nuance, deserving of academic restraint. Love him, or hate him, but admit that he’s little more than a bully and a brute.
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She filed a complaint, O’Reilly launched vitriolic personal attacks against her, his attorneys pointed out to him that the lengthy quotations in her complaint were a clear signal that she had him on tape and was willing to settle fast if the price was right, and suddenly poof the whole thing vanished.
If that’s “blackmail,” I should be jailed for any number of letters and civil complaints I’ve done over the years that telegraphed the same “you did something bad, we can prove it, we can litigate to an inevitably public humiliation or you can settle now” message. Indeed, by this standard, every intentional tort complaint is “blackmail.”
And while that lends itself easily to lawyer jokes and lawyer-bashing, I find myself amused only by the knowledge of how quickly people who make those complaints turn to litigation when its their ox that has been gored.
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right. So - again, without having read the book - I’m thinking Kitman believes Mackris ‘blackmailed’ him by collecting a lot of evidence over time and then demanding payment from him, rather than, I dunno, reporting it to O’Reilly’s superiors because of course they would have told him to stop harassing Mackris and not retaliate against her for reporting the harassment?
She did exactly what I or any other intelligent person would have done: hold on to your dream job, hope that you can get the harasser to stop harassing or at least avoid the harassment, and build up documentation just in case you need it some day. He had it coming in spades and he’s fortunate she was willing to be bought off.
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Oreilly paid ‘ten million’ dollars for phone sex. That’s, ten million American dollars, because he is a perverted wanker and apparently an idiot. Didn’t this dumbass have a VCR or a real girlfriend? TEN MILLION DOLLARS, OMG!
This is the right wings #1 guy, the big Kahuna of misinformation, which are skills that he honed at home it looks like. How satisfying can lying everyday of your life be really? Oreilly is a giant walking, talking, phoning, sponging mass of dishonesty and the Republicans love him. Think about that.
Faux, Oreilly, conservatives, neo-cons, teabaggers, these are all the lovers of liars and truth is their Kryptonite.
Oreilly’s biography is a novel by nature.
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Me too. I’ve enjoyed Marvin’s work in Newsday since the 70s.
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Yes he does. Remember him well growing up on L.I. Wouldn’t buy the book but I’m sure it’s a good read.
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fucker could have hired a lot of call girls for $10M and they would have actually fucked him too
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Apparently not. Falafel/Loofah boy seems to have some legit performance problems.
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So Mr. Kitman…who actually paid the settlement…Bill O’ or Fox?
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Don’t know much about it, but apparently no matter how smart and informative and funny and heartfelt Keith’s show was, he was maybe an impossible jerk otherwise on the job. It’s too bad. It was a great little show.
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If you read those appalling transcripts I can’t imagine in what way one could possibly think he was blackmailed. She went the correct route: she asked him to stop, and he didn’t. As she was an employee with a lucrative job she didn’t want to lose, this was definitely sexual harassment on the job. Then she went the legal route and evidently wound up with a nice (though not published) settlement, IMO much deserved. Sounds very right and proper to me. People have been whining “Why didn’t those women report Cosby when those things happened? Sounds like they made it all up then.” She did report, and now she’s “blackmailing”? Pfft! If this is an example of the interpretations in the bio, I wouldn’t bother reading it.
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Sadly I think O’Reilly can lie,and screw up all he wants but his audience just wants to hear what it wants to hear, and the truth or his character does not matter one bit.
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Bill-Bo - The Wizard of Ooze.
Love it!
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