O’Reilly must undergo the humiliation of defending a sexual harrassment law suit.
A guy who has made it clear to us on the radio and TV what a man of morality he is. The Plaintiff must have tapes to support her charges.
My question is this: imagine yourself as a celebrity or a well known anchor as Bill O’Reilly. Would YOU be able to sleep at night feeling assured that no matter how much dirt anyone would try and dig up you know that there is NOTHING that they could use that would embarrass you or humiliate you as what happened to Bill.
I for one would be unable to sleep confortably. How about you?
I only heard a snippet on the morning news about this. He said something (at least I think it was him) like, “She’s asking for $60 million. The 9/11 survivors didn’t get that much.” What was the context? What do the 2001 WTC attacks have to do with a sexual harrassment lawsuit?
And yes, I believe that the only things in my history that would cause me embarassment I could let fly without having any sleepless nights.
How? Don’t do things that are stupid. It’s just that simple.
I’m a businessman. I have a staff. I have had many people working for me over the years. Due to my industry many of them (disproportionately) have been female. At least once here on the board I posted about a strong sexual attraction I felt towards one of them.
But I never did or said anything about it.
This is called ‘being an adult’. It’s also called ‘not being an idiot’.
I’m not saying that O’Reilly did anything. I don’t know the facts.
But if he did do what he’s charged with then he’s an idiot.
I, for one, would not mind if everyone got what they deserved for being an idiot.
O’Reilly? Don’t make sexual calls to someone on your staff.
Woody Allen? Don’t start banging your wife’s adopted daughter.
Clinton? Don’t respond to advances made by interns.
Etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Call me a moralistic prig if you must. I brought Allen up because I once heard his situation defined by an afternoon radio talk show host in DC (Chris Core) as being that area in which you should tell yourself, “I’m an adult. And adults do NOT bang their wife’s adopted daughters. Adults have more restraint.”
Say it, Jonathan Chance - you’re speaking the truth.
If O’Reilly - or anyone in a public/celebrity role - engages in harassing behavior, are told to stop, don’t and are stupid enough to (apparently) be recorded doing it, they clearly get what they deserve. In this day and age, it’s not like there is no warning…
Sure - there are degrees of stupidity…to me. Having an affair with an intern? Wrong and bad - you are hurting your family. Lying about it? Not impeachment-worthy but clearly worthy of censure.
Woody Allen - please. Just wrong.
Kobe Bryant? If she in fact said no the way she claims, he should go to jail.
O’Reilly? If he harrassed her the way she claims - especially if the (supposed) tapes reveal her to be responding with “don’t do this,” he should go to jail or certainly be fired and disgraced.
Rush and drugs? Should be disgraced, and potentially be in jail.
A crime is a crime, regardless of how famous the criminal is. Adultery and lying aren’t crimes, per se, but profound moral indiscretions. Harrassment, rape and violating drug laws are crimes.
Can we get a new class of fallacy known as the Clinton tu quoque? It’s used so much that it deserves recognition. Maybe we could just call it a CliQuoque. Or maybe a Tu Qlinton.
What I find funniest is the line where O’Reily whines that fame draws all sorts of attacks. This from a guy who’s based his career as a loudmouth celebrity on complaining that other loudmouth celebrities shouldn’t express opinions on politics and such… that’s something only HIS sort of celebrity is allowed to do.
If the charges are trumped-up, there’s a certain poetic justice in having it happen to him, of all people. O’ Reilly makes his living by vilifying those who disagree with him, and he has no qualms about slander and lying to achieve that end.
The best part is what an intolerant law and order guy Bill O’Reilly is. Whenever something goes wrong Bill always wants as many people punished as brutally as possible. Now the tables are turning and its damn nice to watch.
And I’m sure he’ll make the supposed victim out to be the perpretrator, and I can see he already has. Sad, because he is still considered a moral, upstanding guy by many people. The sexual harassment thing isn’t too bad by itself (I wouldn’t think much less, if any about someone if they sexually harassed someone) but trying to demonize and terrorize your victims to protect yourself like the lawyers in the Kobe Bryant case did is downright revolting.
Whether she was “forced” or not, it happened. She has the tapes. O’Reilly is not disputing that he made the statements attributed to him in Mackris’ com-laint. He’s only denying that it was harassment.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s more than satisfying to know that BO’R is on tape perving all over some woman not his wife and sodomizing himself with a dildo. The gods could not have been any kinder just for giving us that. If he’s found civilly liable, that’s just frosting. It isn’t the cake.
