The tens of millions of dollars Fox News has paid in legal settlements inresponseto accusations of sexual harassment by formerchairman Roger Ailes and top personality Bill O’Reilly, among others, appear to be acceptable damages the company is willing to incur, a moral judgment made at the expense of profit.
“Bill, you’re my boss!” said Andrea Mackris, a former Fox News producer who filed a lawsuit against O’Reilly in 2004,in response to the TV hostpropositioning both Mackris and her college friend to have phone sex, and then inviting the women to a hotel to give them sex”lessons.”
For over a decade, women employees at Fox have claimed that O’Reilly, the network’s biggest star, andAileshave sexually harassed them.Fox, its parent company 21st Century Fox and O’Reilly have paid more than $30million insettlements.