Coordinated?

Bill O’Reilly of FoxNews ‘The O’Reilly Factor‘ was forced out today after allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment which were made public in a New York Times article on April 1st. Some of the allegations were disgusting. Some were trivial. What is the truth?

Mr. O’Reilly says all these are ‘unfounded’ allegations that all in the public eye have to deal with. He is ‘disheartened’ that these ‘unfounded’ allegations cost him his job.

This situation ‘spun up’ very quickly. Here is how it developed:

-7/21/16: Roger Ailes, Chairman & CEO of FoxNews, resigns for alleged harassment of popular Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson and supposedly others.
-4/1: The New York Times article is published detailing previous allegations and legal settlements involving Mr. O’Reilly.
–In response to The Times’ investigation, Mr. O’Reilly and 21st Century Fox had said that no current or former Fox News employee had raised concerns about him through a company hotline.
-a new allegation is filed on the Fox company hotline
-more allegations are reported
-advertisers begin to leave the ‘Factor’
-Fox does internal investigation
-4/19: O’Reilly forced out
-4/21 update: Author warned O’Reilly would be targeted. email from a liberal fundraiser show her crusade to get O’Reilly ousted from Fox News Channel. The email from Mary Pat Bonner showed her efforts — titled “advertiser education program” — to sway companies to yank their advertising from O’Reilly’s show.

WAS ALL THIS A COORDINATED POLITICAL ATTACK?
-The left is very public about their efforts to squash right wing media and messages.
-The left actively targets advertisers for these public assassinations (see Ivanka Trump).
-The left has used this strategy successfully (Herman Cain) and not successfully (Rush Limbaugh & Donald Trump) before.

My bet is that it was a coordinated attack on a top political enemy. After the resignation of Roger Ailes for alleged harassment, this strategy gained traction by the left targeting FoxNews. Investigations revealed O’Reilly was now vulnerable.

Remember the allegations that came at Donald Trump just before the election. This was supposed to be the left’s “October surprise”. He would be finally done. Some quickly distanced themselves from Mr. Trump. But, Trump did win the election by fighting back hard against what he called unfounded allegations. Where are those allegations and those accusers now? Wouldn’t the need to prosecute a legitimate wrong continue after the election? Apparently not.

But, there is clearly another side to this story. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. So it may also be a good bet that Mr. O’Reilly actions left him open to such attacks. And, if he did these things, he needed to go.

If though, none of this is true, as Mr. O’Reilly persists, then the message to the rest of the high profile world is – stop settling lawsuits for short term cost reasons. Fight it in public and in court so that the truth comes out and you don’t have to face being open to job loss, embarrassment or worse in the future, simply because someone ‘alleges’ you did something wrong!

As a result of this pattern of settlements, when the media amplifies such allegations, advertisers have little choice but to separate from the issue. They have no way to tell the difference between real and “fake” scandal news stories. And, your employer will have no choice.

I guess ‘the spin doesstop here’.

More From The Wall Street Journal: