Bill O’Reilly Says He Was ‘Smeared’ by New York Times Report of Sexual Harassment Settlement

Report was “obviously designed to embarrass Bill O’Reilly and to keep him from competing in the marketplace,” rep for former Fox News star says

Bill O'Reilly
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AIBill O’Reilly blasted the New York Times on Saturday for a report that the ex-Fox News star paid a $32 million settlement to a former coworker who had accused him of sexual harassment.

According to The Times, O’Reilly paid Fox News analyst Lis Wiehl after she threatened to sue him for a “nonconsensual sexual relationship” and that O’Reilly had sent Wiehl “sexually explicit material,” including gay pornography.

In a statement shared with TheWrap by attorney Mark Fabiani on behalf of O’Reilly, the former host said The Times had “maliciously smeared” him by relying on “unsubstantiated allegations, anonymous sources and incomplete leaked or stolen documents.” The statement added the report failed to print a sworn affidavit from Wiehl “repudiating all allegations.”

Times reporter Michael Schmidt pushed back against this claim on Twitter, saying the report mentioned the affidavit twice.

The payment to Wiehl was made in January — a month before Fox News parent company 21st Century Fox inked O’Reilly to a new $25 million a year contract. In a statement shared with TheWrap on Saturday, 21st Century Fox said it had knowledge of O’Reilly’s payment to Wiehl, and that its contract had added “protections” to deal with harassment claims.

O’Reilly was ultimately booted from Fox News in April, after the NYT reported O’Reilly and Fox News had settled with five other women for $13 million.

The Times’ latest report was “obviously designed to embarrass Bill O’Reilly and to keep him from competing in the marketplace,” Fabiani wrote.

Read the full O’Reilly statement below:

Once again, The New York Times has maliciously smeared Bill O’Reilly, this time even failing to print a
sworn affidavit from his former lawyer, Lis Wiehl, repudiating all allegations against Bill O’Reilly. The
Times ignored that evidence, sworn under oath, and chose to rely on unsubstantiated allegations,
anonymous sources and incomplete leaked or stolen documents.

Here are the facts: after the Chairman of Fox News Roger Ailes was fired in July 2015, dozens of women
accused scores of male employees of Fox News of harassment – including the current co-president of
Fox News Jack Abernathy.

21st Century Fox settled almost all these cases, paying out close to $100 million dollars. Six months
after Mr. Ailes left the company, Fox News Corporation signed Bill O’Reilly to a record breaking new
contract after the company had analyzed and considered all allegations against him.

In its first article about Mr. O’Reilly on April 1st, The New York Times printed inaccurate settlement
figures while fully understanding that O’Reilly and his counsel are legally bound by confidentiality and
cannot set the record straight.

In its latest diatribe against Bill O’Reilly, the Times printed leaked information provided by anonymous
sources that is out of context, false, defamatory, and obviously designed to embarrass Bill O’Reilly and
to keep him from competing in the marketplace.

Finally, in the more than 20 years Bill O’Reilly worked at Fox News, not one complaint was filed against
him with the Human Resources Department or Legal Department by a coworker, even on the
anonymous hotline. The New York Times has copies of two letters written by 21st Century Fox lawyers
attesting to that fact.

The Times failed to print them, too.

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