Bill O’Reilly making a comeback

Published 6:14 pm Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Remember Bill O’Reilly? Well, it appears as if he is staging a comeback into the homes of conservatives around the country. As you are aware, he was perceived as a prophet and proselytizer of genuine conservatism in America.

Viewers who regularly tuned in to O’Reilly on Fox News were given a weekly dose of information designed to get them riled up about how liberals had gone too far in ruining our country. He was also an accomplished writer and the sales of his books always catapulted him in the New York Times Best Seller category.

The irony, however, was that just as one of his new books was hitting the shelves, he was accused of paying five women millions of dollars who had accused him of sexual harassment or verbal abuse.

Yes, Bill O’Reilly, a “messiah” to the conservatives, a so-called impartial arbiter of what is good for America, and the major moneymaker for Fox News, severely criticized former president Bill Clinton for such indiscretions. He faced a similar predicament and was forced out of his job.

Although the sexual harassment charges and concomitant lawsuits against the news host are now in the public court of opinion, his popularity among those who seek a regular dose of O’Reillian balderdash has not waned.

This is not the case, however, with advertisers who were not amused and take sexual harassment and verbal abuse of women as serious matters. More than 50 advertisers “killed” the O’Reilly show following the allegations of improprieties against women. Advertisers did not seem to care that O’Reilly was a moneymaker for Fox News.

They did not want their names and brands associated with supporting and sponsoring someone who diminishes women by seeing them as sex objects.

These companies have major policies in place which recognize diversity and respect for women.

They included companies such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline, a multi-billion-dollar company, whose chief executive officer was a woman. A senior executive at Mercedes-Benz called the sexual harassment accusations “disturbing, given the importance of women in every aspect of our business, we don’t feel this is a good environment in which to advertise our products right now.”.

O’Reilly’s new landing spot appears to be Newsmax, which is looking to become a major competitor to Fox News. For the record, Newsmax has around 60 million views, Fox, however, has more than 95 million viewers.

It appears that if a deal can be made between O’Reilly and Newsmax, that supporters will be able to resume receiving their diet of conservatism at 8 p.m., his favorite time slot while at Fox.

Hiring O’Reilly, could be risky business. Advertisers may not be as forgiving of his past indiscretions.