Litigators

How Do They Get Away With It? A Bill O'Reilly Case Study.

Remember, the whole system is designed to protect predatory men, not their victims.

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Bill O’Reilly (by the_World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and Karppinen, via Wikimedia)

If I say a person is “contractually allowed to commit sexual assault,” people will accuse me of hyperbole. Well… white Republican males will accuse me of hyperbole, at least. Because those guys are either willfully ignorant or proudly obtuse about how “the system” works.

All of the sexual predators are “bad apples,” to them. All of the victims are also at fault for not “coming forward.” Earlier, we posted a story about Roy Moore allegedly inappropriately touching a 14-year-old girl, but here’s a guy on Twitter who is “not impressed”:

Don’t act like area Wisconsin man here is the only one. Roy Moore will probably still be the next Senator from Alabama. Even if he’s somehow magically, not, he’s already allegedly gotten away with it for almost 40 years.

No matter how many people are “outed” for their sexual misconduct (Louie CK, Mark Halperin, Donald Trump) there are people who resist the notion that this behavior is somehow authorized. There are people who refuse to accept that we have erected a system and society designed to allow men to victimize women they meet, and then protect those men from their accusers.

This week, we have as close as we’re going to get to contractual evidence that sexual harassment and assault is both contemplated and condoned when powerful men are involved. The focus is Bill O’Reilly, but, as we’re learning, it could be about any sufficiently successful, powerful, and wealthy man. From the Washington Post:

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According to testimony from an executive with 21st Century Fox, a contract for the fallen King of Cable News contained a helpful provision stating that he “could not be dismissed on the basis of an allegation unless that allegation was proved in court.” The revelation stems from a proceeding of Britain’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA), which is reviewing a bid by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox to assert control of the portion of satellite TV outlet Sky that it doesn’t already own. As part of the review, Jacques Nasser, a director of 21st Century Fox, gave testimony on the company’s inner workings.

The “conviction” bar is ludicrous.

Don’t get me wrong, having allegations “proven in a court of law” is absolutely the standard that should be applied we where are talking about taking away a person’s freedom. If you’re going to send someone to prison, by all means, you need to convince a jury of your peers beyond a reasonable doubt.

But that’s a ridiculous standard to meet in order to fire a fool. And when you are as rich as Bill O’Reilly, it’s a standard that will never be met. You’ll just pay off any person with a colorable claim. And if you finally happen upon someone with the SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH it would take to sue you or get you prosecuted, well she’s going to have a hard time winning given that everybody who might corroborate her story has been paid off.

Bill O’Reilly paid at least $13 million across five settlements. Then he settled with legal analyst Lis Wiehl for, reportedly, $32 million.

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Don’t. ACT. Like he’s the only one.

You can look at his lawyers as complicit in O’Reilly’s behavior, you can look at Fox which created the employment opportunity for him to act out, and actually signed over their right to fire him for a time. But this contract is just symbolic of the power men who would like to sexually harass or assault their colleagues can expect.

Most of these guys don’t need to put in in their employment contracts, because the system is so stacked in their favor anyway.

How do they get away with it? Because it is allowed. They’re not stealing money out of a bank vault. They’re stealing lunch money on the playground while the teacher looks the other way.

What comeuppance these sexual bullies receive now is far too little, far too late.

Testimony: Bill O’Reilly had a contractual provision virtually allowing sexual harassment [Washington Post]

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