It seems that allegations of sexual harassment have brought Bill O'Reilly down, at long last. As the reports of O'Reilly's behavior grew, the sponsors of his Fox cable show started to jump ship. At least 40 to 50 sponsors ditched Papa Bear (or is it Papa Bare?), and the list includes many of the worlds largest companies. This is commendable, but way too late. These companies tried to spin their decisions in cloaks of outrage over the way O'Reilly apparently has treated women, but in my humble opinion, their protestations were sickening PR stunts designed to keep them from getting any O'Reilly shit on themselves. These companies are rats deserting a sinking ship, after getting every crumb of advertising revenue they could wring from it.
The fact is that O'Reilly is, and always has been an outspoken loudmouth who has built a cable TV empire based on bigotry. I never paid much attention to O'Reilly; maybe I should have. I have now seen some post-mortems with clips from his show, and I am astounded by the blatant bigotry and hatred he spewed towards women, people of color, LGBT people and all others who are not white Christian patriots.
All of the wonderful companies that sponsored the O'Reilly show are tainted by his bigotry, and issuing PR statements about how shocked they are regarding his treatment of women are too little, too late. The O'Reilly stink is on these companies and will not come off, no matter how much liberal drivel they publish. Where were these companies every time O'Reilly made bigoted remarks about African-Americans, gays, lesbians and transgender people, Latinos, Muslims? Why didn't they pull their ads then?
Sorry, I don't buy it.
And then there is the so-called 45th President of the United States, a huge fan and friend of Bill O'Reilly. Here is what he said recently about the O'Reilly sex scandal: "I think he shouldn't have settled; personally I think he shouldn't have settled," Trump told the New York Times on Wednesday. "Because you should have taken it all the way. I don't think Bill did anything wrong," he said. "I think he's a person I know well — he is a good person," he said.
Wow, such terrific support from the Groper in Chief!
Shame on the companies that advertised on the O'Reilly show. Shame on The Donald of the United States for supporting a sexual predator. Shame on me for not paying attention all these years. Shame on a society that allows a beast like this to become obscenely wealthy and influential based on blatant bigotry.
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