(Fred Weinberg) – I don’t really have any idea if the accusations of sexual harassment against Bill O’Reilly are true, false or based on a campaign from the left to destroy him. Or maybe, in part, all three.
But the case of O’Reilly was certainly not helped by the almost willful self-destruction of 21st Century Fox’s cash cow news channel by Rupert Murdoch’s two sons, James and Lachlan.
Corporations are solely about money.
Fox News Channel has spent the last 21 years making a lot of it for 21st Century Fox. It did so by exploiting the mainstream media’s major weakness which is that the major outlets are all virtually in the tank for the left.
Fox News was different. It presented conservative opinion shows, did very careful story selection and presented the issues from the center right. Both in news and opinion programming.
It was the bane of the left. More so than even talk radio.
For the past 21 years, the left couldn’t destroy FNC based on its reporting or presentation.
So, it went after the “culture” of the company. First, it brought down the guru who invented FNC, Roger Ailes. Then, O’Reilly. And the company—instead of protecting its checkbook—let them. Both of Murdoch’s sons are Eurofop dandies who appear to have little tolerance for the American right.
Do you really think the left has seen the end of either Ailes or O’Reilly?
Now let me be clear. Sexual harassment in the workplace is not a good thing. Women, on the other hand, who put up with it and only complain years later when they do not get something they want are just as complicit as those they accuse and I’ll debate Gloria Allred on that point any day.
Neither of the aforementioned gentlemen will probably end up at one of Fox’s competitor networks. The glee with which their competitors reported the story probably precludes that although money can always provide a serious analgesic. And it is unlikely that one of the second tier up and comers can afford them.
More likely, it could be a conservative television station owner like Sinclair which has 173 television stations in 81 United States markets. And doesn’t need to beg for clearance.
Ailes was the original architect of CNBC which is still NBC’s only real cable hit. Murdoch Sr. lured him away to design FNC.
If he has another deal in him, we’re liable to find out soon.
O’Reilly is an undeniably talented former ABC, CBS and syndicated (Inside Edition) correspondent who, at age 67, is probably not ready to go spend the rest of his days on the beach.
Those FNC-haters who think they have just won a war may well wake up to the reality that they only won a battle against two idiot boys who could not carry their brilliant but aging father’s jockstrap.
Frankly, if there’s a lesson here, it isn’t about O’Reilly or Ailes or Fox News Channel.
It’s for very successful people with children.
Make sure that your child can replicate your own success with hard work but don’t go overboard giving them the world like Rupert Murdoch did. The Warren Buffet approach may well work better.
Mr. Weinberg is publisher of the Penny Press. Get to know more about him by visiting www.PennyPressNV.com.
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