O'Reilly called for "a full-body search" on co-host Lis Wiehl; added that she "asked for it"

On the November 3 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly called for "a full-body search" on his co-host, Lis Wiehl. During a conversation about a recent New York Sun editorial (subscription required) on a lawsuit over New York City's policy of subway bag checks, O'Reilly said: "Would you please -- would you please bring in some security to do a full-body search on ... Lis Wiehl." When Wiehl repeated, "I said my bags, not my body," O'Reilly responded, "Full-body search on Lis Wiehl right this minute. She asked for it." Wiehl is also an author, Harvard-trained law professor, and legal analyst for Fox News.

O'Reilly settled a sexual harassment suit filed against him in October 2004. The November 3 comments were not the first he has made to Wiehl about her appearance. As Media Matters for America has documented, on the October 26 broadcast of his radio show, O'Reilly claimed he was "outraged" about a recent CBS poll on border control and asked Wiehl to protest the network while wearing a bikini. In response to her resistance, he asked her, "Don't you love your country?" and, "Don't you want fairness in the media?" In another instance, on the June 21, 2004, broadcast of The Radio Factor, O'Reilly called Wiehl "eye candy" and told her, "You're here because you're good-looking, so I got somebody to look over."

From the November 3 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

WIEHL: I want my bags searched. I want it. When I'm in the subway, I want it.

O'REILLY: Would you please -- would you please bring in some security to do a full-body search on --

WIEHL: [laughing] No --

O'REILLY: -- on Lis Wiehl.

WIEHL: I said my bags, not my body.

O'REILLY: Come on, call security.

WIEHL: My bags, not my body.

O'REILLY: No, no, no, no, we have security right out there. Full-body search on Lis Wiehl right this minute. She asked for it.

WIEHL: My bags.