It appears that things may actually be going south for Fox News host, wife-beater and sexual harasser Bill O’Reilly after more than a decade of having his news network foot the bill for his crimes.
Amid a sea of scandal surrounding Fox and O’Reilly especially, three car manufacturers have pulled their planned advertising from use during “O’Reilly Factor” due to “disturbing” allegations.
Over the weekend, the New York Times published an exposé on O’Reilly’s extensive history with women, noting that since 2004, Fox News has paid $13 million to settle cases of sexual harassment from women working for and with O’Reilly. While media has long covered each individual allegation against Fox and O’Reilly, the bad press from the NYT has become enough to put pressure on advertisers.
In a statement explaining their pull, car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz announced they would be pulling advertising from the show for the time being in consideration for the many talented women who are a part of their company.
Said Mercedes-Benz in a statement to Buzzfeed News:
“We had advertising running on The O’Reilly Factor (we run on most major cable news shows) but it has been reassigned in the midst of this controversy. The allegations are disturbing and, given the importance of women in every aspect of our business, we don’t feel this is a good environment in which to advertise our products right now.”
Hyundai followed suit shortly after, and on Tuesday, BMW also indicated that they, too, would be pulling their ads from the show.
While Fox‘s continued support of O’Reilly has been consistent throughout a multitude of scandals for which they footed the bill, public pressure and advertiser action may actually begin to make a difference the same way that it was used to oust CEO Roger Ailes.
