Several outlets reported last night that Fox News parent company 21st Century Fox secretly settled a sexual harassment allegation against host Bill "motherfucking iced tea" O'Reilly, but now we know the exact details of the allegations against him.
While former Fox News chief Roger Ailes was accused of funneling the network's female hosts and potential recruits into his office to twirl for him, and even blackmailed one former host with a video tape of her dancing for him, current host Bill O'Reilly was accused of taking similar actions against a Fox News employee.
Warning: what you're about to read may be disturbing.
The employee, Juliet Huddy, had said that Mr. O’Reilly pursued a sexual relationship with her in 2011, at a time he exerted significant influence over her career. When she rebuffed his advances, he tried to derail her career, according to a draft of a letter from her lawyers to Fox News that was obtained by The New York Times.
The letter includes allegations that Mr. O’Reilly had called Ms. Huddy repeatedly and that it sometimes sounded like he was masturbating. He invited her to his house on Long Island, tried to kiss her, took her to dinner and the theater, and after asking her to return a key to his hotel room, appeared at the door in his boxer shorts, according to the letter.
Huddy was reportedly paid "six figures" in exchange for not suing 21st Century Fox and for not going public, but someone has obviously gone public with the information.
It's no coincidence that the network's highest profile women, Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren, have both departed for NBC. To describe Fox News as a frat house is beginning to feel like an insult to frat houses.
As much as I may vehemently disagree with their politics, I'm glad for any women who successfully departs Fox News to pursue their career elsewhere.