# Is Bill O'Reilly's career finished? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878 "2017-04-20T21:56:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/21 "2017-04-21T10:31:09Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > He won’t ever be as big as he was… He _is_ big. It’s the cable news shows that got small!! ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/22 "2017-04-23T20:41:19Z")
Well, Bill’s exile didn’t last long. 😃 I don’t watch his program. But gotta admit he’s more persistent then a toothache. His new audience will be a tiny fraction of what it was before. I suspect he’ll eventually land on SiriusXM. [https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/100808492/](https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/100808492/) > [@](#): > > The former Fox News host is set to appear Monday with a new episode of his “No Spin News” podcast. The news was revealed in an update to O’Reilly’s personal website Saturday night. > > The podcast, available to premium subscribers of O’Reilly’s website, ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/23 "2017-04-23T22:42:25Z")
Mangosteen wrote: “Sexual harassment hasn’t seemed to hurt Bill Clinton’s “career”. The lefties are pretty forgiving of their own and many of them even view it as a problem. More of a perk.” I just love it when people take my argument, change a few terms and then regurgitate back at me. Easier than thinking, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/24 "2017-04-24T00:05:25Z")
I wonder if the news reports are accurate in saying only premium members will get the podcast? That’s going to cut his viewership to almost nothing. He has been charging $50 a year for premium membership and the show was free on Fox. > **[Free O'Reilly Book with Annual Membership](https://www.billoreilly.com/messageboards)** > > Watch Bill O'Reilly weeknights on your TV at 7 eastern or on-demand. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Hamsandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4bbf92/32.png) [@Darth\_Hamsandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Hamsandwich)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/25 "2017-04-24T01:57:08Z")
Is there a chance that Bill has reached out to HBO or vice versa? If he could snag his own show there, it would provide a counterpoint to Bill Maher and Last Week Tonight. Although, as someone mentioned upthread he has too much baggage for any outlet to take a chance on him as things stand now. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/26 "2017-04-24T02:01:24Z")
I’m really, really hoping he gets sued into penury. Let him live out the rest of his miserable life in an under-funded home for the mentally confused. In other words, fuck him and the lizard he rode in on. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/27 "2017-04-24T02:29:38Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > He _is_ big. It’s the cable news shows that got small!! “I’m ready for my closeup now, Mr. Ailes. Mr. Ailes…? Where is Mr. Ailes?” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/28 "2017-04-24T11:52:47Z")
To address one thing from the OP, nobody will ever get a deal from Sirius like Howard Stern. Jesus Christ himself could step down from the heavens and wouldn’t get a deal like Howard Stern. Circumstances made that a special case that won’t happen again. O’Reilly doesn’t have to go to a network or rely on anyone. The Blaze seems to work pretty well for Glen Beck and he’s batshit crazy. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/29 "2017-04-24T12:49:04Z")
I could try to describe O’Reilly’s future, but Walter Matthau did it b tree 60 years ago. Find his speech to Lonesome Rhodes at the end of “A Face in the Crowd.” In essence? I’Reilly can make a semi-successful comeback or two, but he’ll never be huge again. And in our lifetimes, we’ll hear people wondering “Remember Bill O’Reilly? What ever happened to him, anyway?” ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/30 "2017-04-24T14:07:03Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > To address one thing from the OP, nobody will ever get a deal from Sirius like Howard Stern. Jesus Christ himself could step down from the heavens and wouldn’t get a deal like Howard Stern. Circumstances made that a special case that won’t happen again. > > O’Reilly doesn’t have to go to a network or rely on anyone. The Blaze seems to work pretty well for Glen Beck and he’s batshit crazy. I agree on Sirius. On ‘The Blaze’ that’s a big risk of Beck’s own money. And whatever one thinks about Beck’s (often changing) views, all accounts I’ve read of him make me think he thinks he has something important to contribute to society. O’Reilly certainly doesn’t underestimate himself. By all accounts I’ve read of him he’s quite arrogant (which Beck apparently is not). But I think he, O’R, recognizes himself as an entertainment property rather than an ‘important voice’ the way Beck sees himself. So in short, hard for me to imagine O’R in a self funded venture with significant financial downside like The Blaze. O’R haters are anxious to see him ‘washed up’. It’s a question in my mind if O’R really cares. He’s got a huge pile of money and IMO it’s not likely a significant portion of it would get get sued away from him in future legal actions. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/31 "2017-04-24T14:46:28Z")
His broadcast media footprint, and income from that source, will surely shrink significantly. But as others have pointed out, he’ll get a general pass on the harassment issues from his fan base. And, alas, not just his die-hard fans, IMHO some more casual fans will still find his point of view compelling. However, I suspect he will keep cranking out his “Killing of…” books and they will continue to sell just as well. Again, alas, the market for those is not impacted by accusations of misogyny and racism. Anecdotally, I have a friend - a 70 year old white male mid-westerner good catholic - he is a very kind thoughtful fellow, not a “drunk-uncle” right-wing crank at all. He’s more of a traditional soft “r” Republican. He wouldn’t dream of having a heated debate about politics. But, he is always telling me of the latest Bill O’Reilly book he is reading and suggesting I check it out. I’m sure he won’t stop buying them. But, I guess I must admit, also alas, I will keep going to Woody Allen (disputed claims), and Roman Polanski (not disputed claims) movies, so there is that. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/32 "2017-04-24T15:15:52Z")
Beck is the first conservative pundit I’ve seen who started to become more liberal. And he was apparently able to pull some audience along with him. He’s also a whole lot less batshit crazy. The problem with Clinton is that there is a single accusation of any validity, followed by a bunch of consensual stuff. There is also no evidence it continued after it was brought up, unlike O’Reilly. The situations are not the same. If it had been only one time, people would easily be thinking O’Reilly may have messed up but would get better. But, since there’s a lot of stuff here, with him paying off several, it comes off as if he never learned his lesson. And thus people on either side are less forgiving. That doesn’t mean he can’t bring along fans of his show to an Internet venture. He can. And that is more likely because a portion of his audience doesn’t really think what he did was wrong in the first place. I don’t know how many, but it does seem to be something that is more common on the right. With stuff like /r/RedPill out there, it’s obvious that O’Reilly could find an audience okay with what he did. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/33 "2017-04-25T01:57:07Z")
O’Reilly saved my life. If it wasn’t for Bill, there never would have been a Colbert Report. And with no Colbert Report, how would I have learned about the dangers of the [Godless Killing Machines](http://wikiality.wikia.com/wiki/Bears)? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/34 "2017-04-25T02:34:50Z")
Bears and leopards are the only animals to pointedly prey on hoomans. Others don’t like a stout stick across the nose. It’s their “why did you do THAT?” reset button. Bears are too drunk to care and leopards drop on you from behind and drag you into a tree to age. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/35 "2017-04-25T06:58:27Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I could try to describe O’Reilly’s future, but Walter Matthau did it b tree 60 years ago. > > Find his speech to Lonesome Rhodes at the end of “A Face in the Crowd.” In essence? I’Reilly can make a semi-successful comeback or two, but he’ll never be huge again. And in our lifetimes, we’ll hear people wondering “Remember Bill O’Reilly? What ever happened to him, anyway?” The legal climate is a lot different than it was sixty years ago. Suppose you’re a network or an affiliate and you hire O’Reilly. And a year from now, a female employee files a lawsuit saying he sexually harassed her. She’s going to sue you too. She won’t have a hard time demonstrating that you knew O’Reilly’s history when you hired him and therefore you’re liable for creating a workplace environment that’s hostile to women. Under those circumstances, who’s going to hire O’Reilly? Somebody might be willing to publish his books or give him a speaking engagement. But nobody’s going to give him an on-air job that brings him into a regular workplace. And that’s what’s killed O’Reilly’s career. He’s lost access to his audience. He’ll never again have a job where he can address millions of people on a regular basis. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/36 "2017-04-25T10:47:07Z")
Apparently [he’s going to keep up with his podcast.](http://abcnews.go.com/US/bill-oreilly-sad-firing-returns-podcast/story?id=46982490) I wouldn’t think that there’d be enough overlap of his audience and those able to figure out what a podcast is much less how to listen to it. I say that because my retired parents, for whom 15 or so years ago I bought a “No Spin Zone” floor mat that they still have, don’t ever listen to podcasts and have almost figured out how Facebook works. They’re in their late 60s and although they’re fans of B O, they won’t go into the podcast world to follow him. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2017, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/37 "2017-04-25T13:25:06Z")
I’d say the rest of his career looks like Glenn Beck’s. They both do the same job, have the same fanbase (which doesn’t give a fuck about the reasons Fox canned them). So, slow fade into oblivion on their own network & stage circuit. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/38 "2017-12-20T21:49:00Z")
[Poor Bill O’Reilly: His accusers are teaming up against him](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/12/20/poor-bill-oreilly-his-accusers-are-teaming-up-against-him/?utm_term=.70fee02e2aac) > [@](#): > > . . .Throughout the ordeal, O’Reilly has professed his innocence, declared that he’s a target for such claims, insisted that he paid out settlements to protect his family and argued that he never caught an HR complaint over his two-decade career at Fox News. At one point, O’Reilly vented to the New York Times, “I’ve been in the business for 43 years, and I’ve never had a complaint filed by anyone at 12 different companies.” > > And that’s where the troubles have continued. Earlier this month, Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, a former Fox News staffer who’d reached a 2002 settlement over mistreatment (not sexual harassment), sued O’Reilly for breach of contract and defamation — alleging that O’Reilly had violated settlement terms with all his suggestions that the claims against him were folly. Far from being a “target” of extortion, claimed the Bernstein suit, O’Reilly “is a serial abuser and Ms. Bernstein’s complaints against him were far from extortionate.” > > Now two other O’Reilly accusers are joining the suit against O’Reilly: Andrea Mackris in 2004 settled with O’Reilly for $9 million over sexual harassment claims, and Rebecca Gomez Diamond in 2011 settled for an unknown amount with the host, also for sexual harassment. In both cases, the women made recordings of conversations with O’Reilly. The suit, written by Neil Mullin and Nancy Erika Smith of Smith Mullin, P.C., claims that all three women did, in fact, bring their complaints to the Fox News hierarchy. Bernstein went to HR and “other Fox executives” to complain about O’Reilly; Mackris complained through her lawyer to Fox News vice president of legal Dianne Brandi; and Diamond did likewise, according to the suit. > [@](#): > > The irony of all this post-settlement litigation is that O’Reilly — as well is his former (and late) boss Roger Ailes — expertly used non-disclosure/non-disparagement clauses plus stacks of money to enable and excuse his workplace behavior. This was a sophisticated hush operation. Yet O’Reilly lacks the sophistication — which is to say, he won’t shut up — necessary to keep the whole putrid operation glued together. ---
**Author:** ![Labor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Labor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labor)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/39 "2017-12-22T16:05:37Z")
Is it okay to say “I hope so.” That man spread enough hate and mis-information for several lifetimes. I hope that he enjoys his millions and does some nice charitable work. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878/40 "2017-12-22T22:31:41Z")
> [@Labor](#): > > Is it okay to say “I hope so.” > > That man spread enough hate and mis-information for several lifetimes. I hope that he enjoys his millions and does some nice charitable work. Is it okay to say “fuck that”? I hope his career is over. I’d prefer that his voice and his influence never be felt again and would not be ashamed at the indifference I would feel at hearing that his life was the equal in misery of all the negative impact he and his life’s work had on others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bill-oreillys-career-finished/784878.md?page=1)