Between legal settlements with accusers and contract payouts for Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly, scandals have cost Fox at least $85 million.
The total amount of money Fox has spent covering for their serial sexual harassers has increased drastically as O'Reilly is expected to receive $25 million on his way out the door.
Mr. O’Reilly is receiving a payout of as much as $25 million, equivalent to one year of his salary, two people familiar with the matter said Thursday. [...]
Mr. O’Reilly’s package brought the total amount of payouts related to sexual harassment allegations at Fox News to more than $85 million — paid by the network’s parent company, 21st Century Fox. The vast majority of that — as much as $65 million in exit packages — is being paid to the men who were ousted because of the allegations.
The total amount of money Fox has spent protecting Ailes and O'Reilly could actually be far higher as these are only the payments we know about.
Federal prosecutors and a federal grand jury are currently reviewing secret settlements that may have been hidden from the pubic and even from company shareholders. At least one former Fox executive has been offered immunity in exchange for testimony.
We won't know for sure until those responsible are either cleared of wrongdoing or indicted, but it seems reasonable to me to assume the network could have paid out significantly more money than we know. Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly stalked the halls of Fox for 20 years and most of the accusations we know about are relatively recent. There's no reason to believe the two men haven't been behaving this way their entire professional lives. And they're probably not the only culprits at Fox.