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Ruth: The indefensible behavior at Fox News

 
Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Published April 5, 2017

Do you have the sneaking suspicion that when former Fox News head Roger Ailes and the network's current resident grand inquisitor Bill O'Reilly wake up in the morning and gaze lovingly at themselves in the mirror, they hear Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" wafting through the air?

And the answer to that question would be an unqualified … Noooooo!

Recent disclosures by the New York Times exploring the more than $30 million to settle claims by women who said they were sexually harassed by Ailes or O'Reilly, the two wild and crazy Festrunk brothers of Fox News, are certainly embarrassing for the network's owner, Rupert Murdoch.

Perhaps O'Reilly's next paint-by-the-numbers bestseller ought to be titled "Killing a Reputation."

Sure, to you $30 million to make accusations that Fox News was employing two declasse lounge lizards go away seems like a great deal of money. But O'Reilly's nightly cable television show generates about $446 million in advertising revenue, which proves the adage that we all have a price and it's only a matter of negotiation.

In this case, the price to put up with Ailes (until recently) and O'Reilly is $446 million.

While the sexual harassment charges are rather prurient, it seems Ailes and O'Reilly were shot down more often than the Iraqi air force. It wasn't for lack of trying. As the New York Times reported, O'Reilly has a reputation for calling up female colleagues in the dead of night and making X-rated suggestions about a possible intimate relationship. But the only thing that resulted from all the heavy breathing was a date with (ahem) himself.

Time and again, the newspaper reported, O'Reilly promised to help women advance their careers at Fox News if only they would get frisky with him. And time and again the response was basically the same: "Naw, I'd rather host the afternoon movie on a cable access station in Fond du Lac than see any part of your flesh below the neck."

For his part, Ailes tried to persuade former Fox anchorwoman Gretchen Carlson to participate in some coo-coo-ca-choo with wink-wink/nod-nod promises of advancement. That resulted in Carlson being advanced a $20 million payout. Not exactly a Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe moment.

And according to former Fox anchorwoman Megyn Kelly, Ailes once took an inordinate interest in her bra collection.

Some men probably go through life humming the James Bond theme and envisioning themselves at the center of some erotic Addicted to Love video.

So perhaps we should engage in a little of our own "no-spin zone."

O'Reilly is a 67-year-old man who looks every day of at least 66. Ailes is a rotund 76 with more chins than a manatee. We're talking some real macho, macho men here.

And these two chaps, regardless of their wealth and power at Fox News, believed they could come on to female employees with vague promises of advancement and/or salacious comments. O'Reilly and Ailes treated their perches at Fox News as Playboy Mansion meets Mad Men — two aging cads deluded into thinking their positions were an aphrodisiac guaranteed to make women swoon.

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About the only thing missing were the Nehru jackets, bell-bottomed pants, love beads and mullets. Groovy, so very groovy.

Now advertisers are starting to run away in droves from O'Reilly. And what was once a profitable kingmaker has been exposed (in more ways than one) as simply a pathetic third-rate Don Juan of Fox Blues.