“If you believe that O’Reilly’s unceremonious exit from Fox News came because the media giant has a moral compass and doesn’t condone bad behavior, you’re dead wrong. Fox News was leveraged into beheading its biggest star by the show’s biggest sponsors.”
As a kid, I was exposed to The O’Reilly Factor early and often. My pop was a fan of most Fox News programs, but this one was his favorite. Not too many nights went by where I could walk past the TV in the Lefever household without hearing those cocksure diatribes, pinhead references, and intense debates O’Reilly and his guests would engage in. During my final two years of high school and probably my first two years of college — a period I consider the more liberal years of my life — I came to a point where I naturally wanted to rebel against my dad’s political opinions and consequentially those of Bill O’Reilly. Maybe I fell into the Daily Show trap where the ridiculing of conservatives and their opinions through comedy had been so effective. It could have been the over exposure to liberal indoctrination in the college classroom. Either way, I definitely spent some time in the North Pole rubbing shoulders with the snowflakes back then.
In those years, “Where did you hear that from, Bill O’Reilly?”, was a popular kill shot liberals would deliver as an equally lazy but effective rebuttal to anything a conservative might say. Simply asking this question in a dismissive tone could shut down any conservative point of view expressed in a college classroom and write it off as out of touch rhetoric for crotchety old folks angry at the younger generations. It was like calling someone a racist during a debate about race relations. Conversation over. Drop mic.
As I got older, I realized the truth. Despite his attacking style and constant talking over his own guests, his actual opinions were more reasonable than most of the other talking heads on the left or the right. Compared to his counterparts on MSNBC and CNN, O’Reilly was more willing to take a few steps to the center. This is something he was never given proper credit for by the left.
With Bill O’Reilly now out at Fox News over the latest round of accusations of sexual harassment, a major scalp has been collected by the liberal forces of the culture war fiercely being waged within our country. Like with anything else, there is more than meets the eye here.
The official story is that O’Reilly has been clipped as a result of allegations made by a former temp-worker at Fox News by the name of Perquita Burgess. According to Burgess — a black female who has been making her rounds on self-celebrating liberal programs such as The View — O’Reilly referred to her as “hot chocolate” and “grunted like a wild boar” in passing but didn’t talk to her at all as a colleague otherwise. Whether or not these interactions happened the way Ms. Burgess says they did is something we’ll never know. It would strike me as suicidal to carry oneself in this way as someone with so much to lose, but crazier things have happened. Maybe old Bill just got to the point where he felt untouchable and could get away with it. O’Reilly has a long history of surviving accusations of unwanted attention by female co-workers, after all.
Despite the repugnant picture of O’Reilly making racial comments and grunting like a wild boar being painted into the national imagination, the man has been accused of far more lurid and damning behavior. Compare this most recent incident to the Andrea Mackris lawsuit settlement of 2004 when O’Reilly made a hefty payout to keep tape recordings of him getting ultra-X-Rated with the woman from going public. In addition to the Mackris saga, O’Reilly has faced multiple allegations of sexual harassment by other women and even domestic violence by his ex-wife over the years. Despite this, he has come out on top every time and maintained the title of “King of Cable News” to boot.
“O’Reilly was more willing to take a few steps to the center. This is something he was never given proper credit for by the left.”
As a nation, we have paid far more attention to O’Reilly doing his best Porky Pig impersonation at the office than Anthony Weiner’s involvement in child porn, Bill Clinton being accused of rape and other forms of gross sexual misconduct, and the takedown of vast pedophile rings in the past several months. So how did this one finally take him down? Why now?
If you believe that O’Reilly’s unceremonious exit from Fox News came because the media giant has a moral compass and doesn’t condone bad behavior, you’re dead wrong. Fox News was leveraged into beheading its biggest star by the show’s biggest sponsors. Check out this spreadsheet by Buzzfeed to see which sponsors left and which ones stayed. Despite O’Reilly’s ratings hitting record heights prior to his extended “vacation”, the dismissal was inarguably a financial decision. Now, if you think O’Reilly got the axe because of the sponsors are the ones with the moral compass, you’re still dead wrong. Let’s talk about what you won’t hear in the mainstream media regarding those sponsors, shall we?
Hyundai Motors had this to say in regards to O’Reilly:
“We had upcoming advertising spots on the show but are reallocating them due to the recent and disturbing allegations…As a company we seek to partner with companies and programming that share our values of inclusion and diversity. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation as we plan future advertising decisions.”
But here is Hyundai Motors’ past statement regarding a partnership with The Clinton Foundation:
“Hyundai is expanding its golf presence by becoming the official vehicle of the Humana Challenge in partnership with The Clinton Foundation and vehicle partner for the Farmers Insurance Open.”
The disrespecting of Juanita Broderick continues. While Hyundai claims that they will not partner with O’Reilly because of “hot chocolate” comments, they have no problem partnering with Bill Clinton who has been accused of rape. But Hyundai isn’t the only company whose values bend like a contortionist to match those of Bill Clinton while demonizing Bill O’Reilly.
Allstate Insurance removed their sponsorship of The O’Reilly Factor all the while using their Allstate Foundation to join The Clinton Foundation in a partnership geared towards Domestic Violence Awareness – which begs to ask this question? Why sponsor someone accused of sexual harassment when you can partner with someone accused of rape?
In regards to Bill O’Reilly, Mitsubishi had this to say:
“Mitsubishi Motors takes these allegations very seriously and we have decided that we will pull our advertising at the present time. We will continue to monitor this situation as we assess our long-term strategy.”
But in regards to Bill Clinton? Well, they had no problem partnering with The Clinton Climate Initiative in “leading the EV era towards a sustainable future”. To Mitsubishi, the only thing that separates unacceptable behavior from good behavior is a last name and a lot of money.
What does this double standard in corporate sponsorship tell you? It tells me that we’re living under censorship in the US in 2017. There is no equal treatment provided to public figures if they align with the wrong political affiliation. While conservative voices are leveraged financially out of existence, liberal voices are given a pass and maintain the support of the multi-national corporations that pull the strings.
It would be bad enough if the fear of upsetting a member of any protected class was driving sponsors to pull ads even if the treatment was applied evenly across the political spectrum. I’m not even talking about all those people being unfairly and incorrectly labeled a racist, sexist, Islamophobia, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic or a bigot. Even those for whom the shoe fits should be able to speak. I want to hear what a racist has to say. I want to hear what a real racist has to say about whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and green people. I want to hear what the most oppressive Muslim cleric has to say about women who can only show their eyes in public and are free game for spousal abuse. I want to hear what the most radically anti-gay person has to say about homosexual lifestyles. Let them completely hang themselves when rational people are free to determine the value of their speech. Anytime the masses are deprived of opinions and content because sponsors are afraid of the boogiemen who will use any means possible to hurt their bottom line, we all lose.
To me, it is clear. Whether the accusations are true or false, O’Reilly is a casualty of the information war being waged in America today. Had he been a liberal CNN voice, he’d be on television tonight at 8:00pm. So, what will he do next? It’s obvious that he could become a YouTube star like Mike Cernovich, Alex Jones, Mark Dice, Michel Lebron AKA Lionel, and the list goes on. People can decide whether his political discourse deserves their attention in the independent arena where it is free of sponsorship ties and network influence. I’d be very intrigued to see what he might have to say about the world without having to play by the rules of the main stream media.
