During an extended segment that opened Monday’s “Megyn Kelly Today” -- in sharp contrast to the soft infotainment approach the program has taken since it debuted last month — host Megyn Kelly launched a broadside at both her former employer, Fox News, and colleague, Bill O’Reilly.In the segment, she told viewers that she had complained directly to Fox News’ co-presidents about an interview O’Reilly had conducted on “CBS This Morning” last November, in which he said “I’m not interested in making my network look bad. That doesn’t interest me one bit.”
The host then quoted at length from an email she said she sent to FNC co-presidents Bill Shine, who was fired 10 months after former chief executive Roger Ailes was ousted, and Jack Abernethy, saying of O’Reilly, “‘Perhaps he didn’t realize the kind of message [his comments] sends to young women across this country about how men continue to view the issue of speaking out about sexual harassment. Perhaps he didn’t realize that his exact attitude of shaming women into shutting the hell up about harassment on grounds that ‘it will disgrace the company’ is in part how Fox News got into the decadelong Ailes mess to begin with.”
Ailes, who died in May, was ousted from the network in 2016 after multiple charges of sexual harassment surfaced against him.
Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that O’Reilly had paid former Fox on-air legal analyst Lis Wiehl $32 million to settle a harassment claim subsequent to signing a new contract with the network earlier this year. The Times had also reported that Fox and O’Reilly had paid out millions of dollars of settlements to other women who had leveled charges of sexual harassment against him over the years. O’Reilly called Saturday’s report “a malicious smear.”
On Monday’s program, Kelly also interviewed Juliet Huddy, a former Fox anchor who accused O’Reilly of sexual harassment and later won a settlement from the company. Huddy left the company in September 2016. Huddy had signed a nondisclosure agreement after securing the settlement and told Kelly she was “terrified” about speaking out, adding, “I think many women go into the settlement agreement because they just don’t want to face what potentially could be coming at them. Again, you are dealing with a corporation filled with people who are going to do everything they possibly can to make sure they win, and you don’t. And if you are just a woman, made $100,000 a year and you have bills to pay and you have other things going on, you have to worry about facing bad press. You have to think about your future and some people just want to make it go away and just move on with their lives.”In a statement responding to Kelly’s and Huddy’s charges, 21st Century Fox said, “21st Century Fox has taken concerted action to transform Fox News, including installing new leaders, overhauling management and on-air talent, expanding training, and increasing the channels through which employees can report harassment or discrimination. These changes come from the top, with Lachlan and James Murdoch personally leading the effort to promote civility and respect on the job, while maintaining the Company’s long-held commitment to a diverse, inclusive and creative workplace. ”
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