O'Reilly out at FOX!

[Childless]

9 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"How the Murdochs took a multi-million dollar gamble on Bill O’Reilly — and lost"

Boy, political views aside, as a woman, I can't imagine working at Faux.

Given Fox's love affair with Lord Dampnut, do these actions at all surprise you?  It's evident the don't see women as human beings with worth.

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, Childless said:

Given Fox's love affair with Lord Dampnut, do these actions at all surprise you?  It's evident the don't see women as human beings with worth.

No, I wasn't surprised. However, it's sad that we still have such blatant scum companies in 2017.

[Cartmann99]

He's got a new podcast premiering tonight:

Quote

 

For the first time since Fox News cut ties with the star anchor, Bill O'Reilly will speak publicly to an audience.

O'Reilly's podcast, "The No Spin News," returns at 7 p.m. E.T. on Monday, according to his website. It will be free to hear through Sunday, after which point listeners will have to pay a subscription price.

 

http://fortune.com/2017/04/24/fox-news-bill-oreilly-podcast/

[GreyhoundFan]

17 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

He's got a new podcast premiering tonight:

http://fortune.com/2017/04/24/fox-news-bill-oreilly-podcast/

So, listeners will have to pay after Sunday. Um, they'd have to pay me to listen.

[infooverload]

So, listeners will have to pay after Sunday. Um, they'd have to pay me to listen.

Considering the average age of his viewers is 72, should be interesting to see if he ends up with many listeners. Also I was listening to the young turks earlier and they pointed out his former foray into audio content was an epic failure.

[kpmom]

Wow, i didn't realize his average listener was that old.

When he got fired I told my sister I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up on Sirius/Xm radio like Dr. Laura did.  But his ratings might not be high enough for that.

[47of74]

8 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

So, listeners will have to pay after Sunday. Um, they'd have to pay me to listen.

Yeah I was just coming here myself to make note of Butthole the Clown having a new podcast.

mediaite.com/online/bill-oreilly-resurfaces-in-new-podcast-very-confident-the-truth-will-come-out/

Quote

Bill O’Reilly has returned tonight with a new episode of his No Spin News podcast after being ousted from Fox News last week following the allegations of sexual harassment against him.

This week the podcast is available to everyone, but next week it will go back to being an exclusive feature for premium members.

He proceeded to move on to recapping the big news of the day, talking about topics like President Trump and the level of “hatred” towards him, the budget fight, Ann Coulter vs. Berkeley, and former President Barack Obama‘s public appearance in Chicago today.

He read some viewer emails towards the end and one of them was about him wishing Fox the best in his statement after parting ways. O’Reilly touted the history he made on Fox throughout the years before saying, “You know, that vehicle was fabulous for me and I said in the beginning that I’m sad, but why wouldn’t I wish them the best? They were there, we performed well for them, and that’s the fact.”

That didn't take long.

[SusanDelgado]

This one's been fun to watch crash and burn. 

[Cartmann99]

7 hours ago, infooverload said:

Considering the average age of his viewers is 72, should be interesting to see if he ends up with many listeners. Also I was listening to the young turks earlier and they pointed out his former foray into audio content was an epic failure.

 

 

That's the thing about going the podcast route, your audience has to be comfortable with the technology required to listen to it. While some seniors are very tech savvy, there's still a good number who aren't. I could see some of his more rabid fans asking friends or family members for help so they could listen, but I do think he will lose a good chunk of his older audience.

 

[Childless]

7 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

That's the thing about going the podcast route, your audience has to be comfortable with the technology required to listen to it. While some seniors are very tech savvy, there's still a good number who aren't. I could see some of his more rabid fans asking friends or family members for help so they could listen, but I do think he will lose a good chunk of his older audience.

 

My dad watched him, but won't bother following online.  Particularly if it costs money.  He's not much for doing stuff online beyond email and reading a few news articles.

[Flossie]

Yeah, switching media like that is going to hurt O'Reilly.  A lot of people simply aren't going to want to bother.

My mom watched All My Children religiously.  She watched the first episode, the last episode, and most episodes in between.  She built her day around making sure she was home to see the show.  She wouldn't answer the door or the phone when it was on.  She was the first of her friends to get a VCR so she could tape the show. 

But when it was announced that All My Children would carry on online, Mom didn't plan to watch it.  It wouldn't be the same, she said.  And that was before she found out that she'd have to pay to watch, and none of the regulars would be on.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Bill O’Reilly’s gone, but don’t worry: His protege has the sexism covered"

Quote

...

Attendees at a panel discussion in Berlin booed and hissed at Ivanka Trump when she attempted to credit her father’s bona fides on women’s and family issues. “That is something I’m very proud of my father’s advocacy, long before he came into the presidency, he championed this in the primaries. He’s been a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive,” said Trump, to an unappreciating audience.

Lefty Euros shaming the daughter of a Republican president? No better topic for discussion on the upwardly mobile roundtable Fox News program “The Five,” which switched from an afternoon show to a prime-time show following the dismissal of Bill O’Reilly.

Co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle handed off the topic to fellow Fiver Jesse Watters, who had some thoughts on the matter. “It’s funny, you know, the left says they respect women and then when given an opportunity to respect a woman like that, they boo and hiss,” said Watters. “And I always thought that Europeans were supposed to be sophisticated and well-mannered. And now they’re treating this like it’s a soccer match. I don’t understand what’s going on.”

Perhaps, then, he should have shut up. Nope: “I think Ivanka is supposed to be the moderating voice for her father, so I think people in Europe should support that,” continued Watters. “I don’t know why also saying that ‘my father respects families’ is controversial. He’s probably hired a ton of fathers and mothers and children, so I don’t really get what’s going on here, but I really liked how she was speaking into that microphone.”

No one on the panel immediately asked for an amplification of Watters’s microphone comment. Yet the dung-eating look on his face left little doubt as to what the puerile protege of fallen Fox News host O’Reilly was getting at. Have a look at that grin, in the screenshot at the top of this post.

Watters is now taking the glorious step of enhancing this particular story. Via Fox News’s PR office, he has issued a statement saying the following: “During the break we were commenting on Ivanka’s voice and how it was low and steady and resonates like a smooth jazz radio DJ. This was in no way a joke about anything else,” says the Watters statement. Of course, if the co-host had really wished to riff on  Trump’s silky voice, he could have. Here’s another screenshot, this one capturing the position of Watters’s right hand as he complimented Ivanka Trump on how she spoke into the microphone:

...

This is the legacy of Bill O’Reilly. Though Fox News and its overlords at 21st Century Fox — the Murdoch family, that is — unloaded the King of Cable News last week after the blowback from his multiple sexual-harassment settlements became too much to bear, O’Reilly spent 21 years at the network. Among his legacies is Watters, the brash ambush artist who scored airtime on “The O’Reilly Factor” as a young producer for the show. “The man knew how to work the system like nobody I’d ever met,” wrote Joe Muto, the onetime Fox News “mole,” in his 2013 book “An Atheist in the Foxhole.” “There was a reason why he was the only producer on the staff to regularly appear on air: His personality was a perfect match for the program. He was unctuous, a bit smirky, and sarcastic to the point where I decided it was a miracle he’d never been punched in the face.”

By irking various liberals with his ambush interviews, Watters over the years earned the admiration of the top-ranked O’Reilly, to the point that his segments on “The O’Reilly Factor” graduated to monthly and then weekly shows. Then he was elevated to the prime-time cast of “The Five,” despite having helmed a crude and racist man-on-the-street segment last year in Chinatown.

From his mentor, he learned well. The oral-sex crack about Trump is just the sort of nastiness that draws scorn from other media outlets, this one included. We know what happens from there: The backlash generates a counter-backlash from the Fox News faithful, boosting the audience numbers for the program. That very dynamic explains to a significant degree how O’Reilly himself climbed the charts. So, well done, Jesse.

...

Gee, Faux seems to have a never-ending supply of slimy reich-wing frat-boys.

[JMarie]

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Bill O’Reilly’s gone, but don’t worry: His protege has the sexism covered"

Gee, Faux seems to have a never-ending supply of slimy reich-wing frat-boys.

Quote

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Watters is now taking the glorious step of enhancing this particular story. Via Fox News’s PR office, he has issued a statement saying the following: “During the break we were commenting on Ivanka’s voice and how it was low and steady and resonates like a smooth jazz radio DJ. This was in no way a joke about anything else,” says the Watters statement. Of course, if the co-host had really wished to riff on  Trump’s silky voice, he could have. Here’s another screenshot, this one capturing the position of Watters’s right hand as he complimented Ivanka Trump on how she spoke into the microphone:

 

But that's how she talks all the time.  That's what her voice sounds like!  He's just trying to cover up his excitement of seeing her exposed calves on TV!  (not that there was anything wrong with her dress -- I mean, the print was kind of Grandma's sofa-ish, but it was perfectly acceptable -- well, for most people, anyway)

[JMarie]

20 hours ago, JMarie said:

But that's how she talks all the time.  That's what her voice sounds like!  He's just trying to cover up his excitement of seeing her exposed calves on TV!  (not that there was anything wrong with her dress -- I mean, the print was kind of Grandma's sofa-ish, but it was perfectly acceptable -- well, for most people, anyway)

He's officially "on vacation," just like O'Reilly was "on vacation."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/fox-host-jesse-watters-announces-vacation-following-backlash-over-ivanka-trump-remark/ar-BBAqQ56?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

Quote

"I'm going to be taking a vacation with my family, so I'm not going to be here tomorrow," Watters said during his show, according to reports. "I'll be back on Monday, so don't miss me too much."

His abrupt departure comes just three days into the new prime-time slot for his show. CNN's Brian Stelter noted that Watters will miss two days of his first week in prime time, as well as his weekend show.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Fox Loyalists Feel Robbed of Bill O’Reilly, but Stick With Network"

Quote

Two days after Bill O’Reilly’s ouster from Fox News over sexual harassment accusations, Alyce Bradley sipped white wine at an outdoor mall in Alpharetta, Ga., and rued the loss of the network’s biggest star. She and her husband have watched Fox News for years — “It’s always on,” she said — and they enjoyed what they described as Mr. O’Reilly’s “biting commentary” and “different perspective.”

“We will miss him very much,” Ms. Bradley, 61, said.

And then, she delivered her verdict. “I think the left is just out to get him — they won,” she said. “He’s never been convicted, and I feel like he has been shut down.”

Her husband was more circumspect. “I like him, but I don’t like what he did, all the sexual harassment,” Bill Bradley, 57, said. “He could be innocent,” he added, “but why did he resign or whatever?”

In cities across the country — and even under the same roof — Mr. O’Reilly’s fans have had mixed reactions to his ouster amid revelations that he and the network had paid five women a total of about $13 million to settle accusations of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior against him.

Their views highlighted the inherent tension Mr. O’Reilly’s fate has prompted among his fans as they struggle to square their admiration for him with the troubling nature of the accusations.

Like Ms. Bradley, some supporters have remained loyal to Mr. O’Reilly and have dismissed the claims against him, which he has denied. Others, like her husband, were less willing to give Mr. O’Reilly the benefit of the doubt.

Bill Wohead, of Mentone, Ind., who said he was in his early 60s, was skeptical of the accusations against Mr. O’Reilly. “You’re innocent until proven guilty,” he said. “Until you see some actual charges, I don’t believe it.” He called the accusations “a big smear campaign from the left” and said he and his family had no plans to abandon Fox News.

Some fans were disappointed, even angry, that they had been robbed of their favorite television host.

“I was just sitting here thinking about who I could call to say he should be back on the air,” Toni Drugmand, 56, said, at a Starbucks in Phoenix on Tuesday morning. A copy of Mr. O’Reilly’s book “Killing Jesus” rested on the table in front of her.

And what did she think of the accusations against Mr. O’Reilly?

“I think the man has a lot of money,” she said. “It’s easy to target anyone who has a lot of money.”

“A lot of things are taken as sexual harassment that aren’t ever meant that way,” she added.

...

Sigh, just sigh.

[GreyhoundFan]

Another great Tweet from George Takei. This is so accurate:

[JMarie]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Fox Loyalists Feel Robbed of Bill O’Reilly, but Stick With Network"

Sigh, just sigh.

 

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

“I think the man has a lot of money,” she said. “It’s easy to target anyone who has a lot of money.”

 

If that's the case, why hasn't Anderson Cooper been accused of sexual misconduct?  He doesn't write dopey books, but he's rich and famous in his own right (in the same job as O'Reilly), as well as his family's legacy.  He'd be an obvious target, right?  But he seems to be a decent human being, and is probably very nice to his coworkers.  Plus, he's many women's Fantasy Husband.  I don't think any woman thinks of O'Reilly as a Fantasy Husband.

[GreyhoundFan]

20 hours ago, JMarie said:

 

If that's the case, why hasn't Anderson Cooper been accused of sexual misconduct?  He doesn't write dopey books, but he's rich and famous in his own right (in the same job as O'Reilly), as well as his family's legacy.  He'd be an obvious target, right?  But he seems to be a decent human being, and is probably very nice to his coworkers.  Plus, he's many women's Fantasy Husband.  I don't think any woman thinks of O'Reilly as a Fantasy Husband.

LOL, yes, AC would be many women's fantasy husband. Billy O would be a nightmare husband. I loved John Oliver's "tribute" to Billy O at the end of his show last night. John, another fantasy husband, tells it like it is.

[onekidanddone]

Didn't know to put this in a new Fox tread or here with Bill O' The Clown... so here it is

I am so sad... I can't stop crying over this... no, not really

Bill Shine, Fox News co-president, resigns from network amid harassment scandal

Quote

The turmoil at Fox News continued on Monday with the ouster of co-president Bill Shine, who succeeded Roger Ailes amid a sexual-harassment scandal last summer despite Shine’s alleged role in abetting Ailes in tolerating a workplace hostile to women.

Shine, a 20-year Fox News veteran, appeared to have the backing of Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch in the wake of the firing of Bill O’Reilly, Fox’s biggest star. Only last week, Murdoch, Shine and Fox co-president Jack Abernethy were photographed emerging from lunch at a Manhattan restaurant, a tableau widely read as a vote of confidence by Murdoch in the two men.

Instead, Shine appeared to come under increasing pressure all week, as rumors began circulating that Murdoch’s sons — Lachlan and James, who run Fox’s parent company, 21st Century Fox — were seeking his successor.

Shine runs the programming side of the media empire, while Abernethy, also a longtime Fox News executive, runs the business side of the company, including ad sales, finance and distribution.

Rupert Murdoch announced Shine’s departure in an internal memo Monday afternoon:

“Sadly, Bill Shine resigned today,” he wrote. “I know Bill was respected and liked by everyone at Fox News. We will all miss him.”

Murdoch said Suzanne Scott, Shine’s top deputy, will become president of programming. Jay Wallace, executive vice president of news, will be president of news.

Added Murdoch: “Fox News continues to break both viewing and revenue records, for which I thank you all. I am sure we can do even better.”

The terse and relatively upbeat announcement masked what has become an extraordinarily tumultuous nine months for Fox News. Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson’s harassment lawsuit against Ailes last July triggered a succession of lawsuits, internal investigations, resignations and firings.

In addition to Ailes, O’Reilly and now Shine, Fox has lost Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren, both of whom anchored evening programs on Fox. Both joined NBC in January, with Van Susteren becoming the host of a program on MSNBC while Kelly is slated to host a prime-time magazine show on NBC in June.

The network also has a new chief financial officer and head of human resources.

The appointment of Scott puts a woman at the top of the network for the first time in its 21-year history and may be the most visible sign yet that the younger Murdochs are attempting to foster what they called “a workplace based on the values of respect and trust” when Ailes was forced out last year.

Women’s groups, and some Fox employees, have complained that the Murdochs weren’t serious about reforming Fox as long as its leadership — selected by and loyal to Ailes — remained mostly intact.

O’Reilly was fired last month after the New York Times revealed that he and Fox had paid millions of dollars to quietly settle a series of sexual harassment allegations against him, including two after Ailes left last summer. Both O’Reilly and Ailes have denied the many accusations lodged by female employees of Fox against them.

Shine has been implicated in the harassment scandal, and an unrelated racial discrimination action, via several lawsuits filed by Fox employees. Among the claims are that Shine ignored or downplayed complaints and concealed Ailes’s behavior. Among others, former host Andrea Tantaros alleged in a suit last year that she complained about Ailes’s harassment of her to Shine, and Shine advised her against pursuing the claim.

More broadly, Shine has been under suspicion for his close association with Ailes over the years, and over what role, if any, he played in helping Ailes maintain silence in the face of allegations of harassment and employee intimidation. He has repeatedly disclaimed any knowledge of Ailes’s allegedly unethical or illegal behavior.

He did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Some at Fox believed Shine gave the network stability and continuity as it was buffeted by the Ailes and O’Reilly episodes.

Shine started his career at Fox News as a producer on Hannity & Colmes, the program Sean Hannity hosted with the late Alan Colmes.

He got an unusually public endorsement on Thursday from Sean Hannity, Fox’s biggest star. Amid reports that Shine could be on his way out, Hannity tweeted, “I pray this is NOT true because if it is, that’s the total end of the FNC as we know it. Done.” He added: “Somebody HIGH UP AND INSIDE FNC is trying to get an innocent person fired.”

Bolded. ... Oh shut up Sean.. you are such a whiny man.

[GreyhoundFan]

2 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Didn't know to put this in a new Fox tread or here with Bill O' The Clown... so here it is

I am so sad... I can't stop crying over this... no, not really

Bill Shine, Fox News co-president, resigns from network amid harassment scandal

Bolded. ... Oh shut up Sean.. you are such a whiny man.

Hey, maybe Handjob can go cry on Billy O's shoulder all the way to the uncharted desert isle we wish they would inhabit. Heck, I think we would spring for one-way tickets for both of them to said isle.

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Hey, maybe Handjob can go cry on Billy O's shoulder all the way to the uncharted desert isle we wish they would inhabit. Heck, I think we would spring for one-way tickets for both of them to said isle.

At this rate, we're going to need a bigger boat island.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 minute ago, Cartmann99 said:

At this rate, we're going to need a bigger boat island.

 

LOL, I'd say Antarctica is plenty big, but all that hot air will melt the ice faster than climate change. Instead, maybe we can have an uncharted deserted archipelago for those on our "list".

[47of74]

CNN had this about how the leadership changes at Faux Spews won't really fix anything;

cnn.com/2017/05/02/opinions/putting-a-woman-in-charge-may-not-fix-fox-filipovic/index.html

Quote

With Ailes, O'Reilly and Shine gone, there are a few men -- Tucker Carlson replaced O'Reilly -- but the women of Fox seem to be ascending: Suzanne Scott is taking over much of Shine's role.

This, unfortunately, is typical: When companies are in crisis because of poor male leadership, that's when they tend to put women at the head. And then when the sinking ship inevitably goes down, it's a female leader, and not her male predecessors, who shoulders the blame. It's such a common occurrence that social scientists have even given it a name: The Glass Cliff.

Whether the women of Fox will be able to walk the company back from the precipice is an open question. As is the issue of the company's culture: Now that sexual harassment at Fox has consequences (at least sometimes), will it end?

Fox's viewer base is old white conservative men. They may like seeing attractive blondes on camera, but they want their red meat -- and that doesn't mean feminism or even fair treatment for women. It's a good thing that the worst harassers and those who covered it up are out at Fox. But it may not mean any real change is coming.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This is a good article about Billy O: "Bill O’Reilly’s Self-Aggrandizing Sense of Persecution"

Quote

...

This might not surprise you if you are familiar with O’Reilly’s self-aggrandizing temper, his fondness for the phrase “shut up” when he’s speaking to or about people he deems insufficiently patriotic or submissive. It’s probably what you’d expect from someone with a personality not unlike our President’s—thin-skinned and pugnacious, with a tendency to treat women as chattel. Familiarity with O’Reilly’s attempt at fiction, “Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder,” might make the prospect of dignified accountability from him seem even less likely. The book, which my colleague Jia Tolentino recently wrote about, recounts, in gory detail, the murderous rampage unleashed by a pugnacious Irish-American news anchor after he is fired.

Still, O’Reilly’s evasions might, or at least should, surprise some of the many readers of his newest book, “Old School: Life in the Sane Lane” (co-authored with Bruce Feirstein), which has been on the Times’ hardcover nonfiction best-seller list almost since the day it was published, March 28th. (It’s currently No. 1.) “Old School” is pretty much what you’d expect: a crusty uncle’s lament for a time before cell phones and hoodies and gender studies, when parents answered uncomfortable questions from curious kids by snarling “What do you care?” and food was lousy but you had to clean your plate anyway, and you could wish someone a Merry Christmas and not have the A.C.L.U. on your case. (Oh, wait—you can do that now.) You’re either Old School or you’re a Snowflake—no in-betweens, and we all know which hook O’Reilly hangs his hat on.

“Old School” doesn’t say much about relationships between men and women, but what it does say would seem to send the hypocrisy meter into the red zone. “No means no,” O’Reilly and Feirstein write. “It’s all about the Old School tenets of respect and responsibility.” In the old days, dating meant walking a girl to her door, and maybe getting a “soft kiss.” Today, it is a “grim” business, driven by “compulsive texting centered on ‘hooking up.’ ” “Wooing” is an Old School word and concept, according to the book. Call me old-fashioned, but in my day “wooing” didn’t involve anything like the allegations made by the women who worked with O’Reilly.

Beyond the personal hypocrisy, though, is another, broader contradiction. Margaret Hoover, a former Fox News contributor, evoked it last week in a Times Op-Ed, in which she wrote, “As conservatives, we need to acknowledge that behavior that takes sexual advantage of women is inconsistent with a movement that heralds family values and moral righteousness.” Conservatives, Hoover wrote, profess the belief “that a self-governing society depends on individuals taking responsibility for their actions, and those of their family and community. They deride others, especially American liberals, who fall short of this standard, who blame anything other than themselves for personal transgressions or failures.” Yet there had been “no acknowledgment of mistakes publicly or privately” from either O’Reilly or Ailes. “Instead Mr. O’Reilly blamed others, embracing the victimization he so ridiculed of the American left.”

And there’s another value that’s being traduced here, one that Old Schoolers often uphold: hard work. Bosses who treat their workplaces as their harems are, among other things, lazy. They can’t be bothered with taking the time and effort to get to know someone well enough to, for example, tell whether that person might at all be interested in having sex with them. They crudely leverage their power over people’s livelihoods rather than courting them; in other words, they cheat. Watch some actual Old School TV in which the leering boss is not a figure to be admired. Spend some time, for instance, in the late-nineteen-fifties world of “Perry Mason,” wherein Perry treats his secretary, Della, with companionable respect, and evidently finds his dates outside the office.

...

I won't buy any of Billy's books because I don't want to put a penny in his pocket, but I have no doubt about their tone.

[Childless]

15 hours ago, 47of74 said:

CNN had this about how the leadership changes at Faux Spews won't really fix anything;

cnn.com/2017/05/02/opinions/putting-a-woman-in-charge-may-not-fix-fox-filipovic/index.html

 

I find it weird that Fox seems ok catering to the old conservative white male.  What happens when the boomers start dying off?  How will they survive?  This country is also becoming less white.  Again, what will they do as the number of caucasians decrease?  It just seems like a poor business decision to cater to such a small and disappearing segment of the population.