Bill O'Reilly's job is to discuss the day's headlines on his Fox News show, The O'Reilly Factor, but lately he is the headline. Over the weekend, the New York Times broke their investigation into sexual harassment claims against the conservative commentator, revealing that five women have received settlements totaling $13 million in exchange for not pursuing further litigation against O'Reilly or Fox News.
In the aftermath, multiple advertisers want to end their association with The O'Reilly Factor, which happens to be the number-one show in cable news. O'Reilly brings in hundreds of millions of ad dollars every year. Within a day, twenty companies wanted to pull ads from the show, including:
Of course, the advertisers taking a stand doesn't mean their millions of dollars disappear overnight. In a statement, Paul Rittenberg, the executive vice president of advertising sales at Fox News, said, "We value our partners and are working with them to address their current concerns about the O'Reilly Factor. At this time, the ad buys of those clients have been re-expressed into other FNC programs."
The network is still cashing in, but the advertiser exodus maintains some symbolism: the pressure is on for Fox News to figure out what to do with their most popular employee. Last summer, the company ousted its own CEO Roger Ailes after his own sexual-harassment controversy. It might be time for another heave-ho.
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