CBS Connecticut station WFSB used Fox News host Bill O'Reilly “making headlines this week” to positively highlight his past as a reporter at the station in the 1970s and 1980s without once mentioning his recently revealed sexual harassment settlements. More than 70 advertisers have pulled their advertisements from O'Reilly's Fox News show The O'Reilly Factor following a New York Times report that O'Reilly and 21st Century Fox paid around $13 million over the years to five women “in exchange for agreeing to not pursue litigation or speak about their” accounts of sexual harassment involving O’Reilly. The WFSB segment did not mention this; instead the anchor simply said O'Reilly “was making headlines this week,” and claimed that archived footage of O'Reilly during his time at the station showed he “made his mark” with “some pretty plum assignments” and “never phoned it in.” It comes as sexual harassment continues to be a serious problem in the workplace, with a 2015 study showing one in three women between the ages of 18 and 34 has been sexually harassed in a workplace and another study finding 70 percent of those who are sexually harassed do not report it due to fear of retaliation. From the April 9 edition of WFSB's Face The State:
Bill O'Reilly's Former Station Just Paid Tribute To Him, Completely Ignoring His Sexual Harassment Settlements
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
DENNIS HOUSE (HOST): Bill O'Reilly of Fox News was making headlines this week so in our flashback we queued up some old clips of him when he worked here. The then twenty-something worked at Eyewitness News from 1979 to 1980.
[BEGIN VIDEO]
BILL O'REILLY: Tis the season to be jolly, and for a lot of people that means a little nip now and then. The WFSB Connecticut poll wanted to find out just what Connecticut people think about alcohol. The first question is logical. What percentage of people in Connecticut drink?
[END VIDEO]
HOUSE: He wasn't here long, but Bill O'Reilly made his mark, having just turned 30 years old, the Eyewitness News anchor snagged some pretty plum assignments, covering the Pope, presidents future and past. Channel 3 sent O'Reilly to Dallas as part of an investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
[BEGIN VIDEO]
O'REILLY: Basically, this is Cutler's theory. On a warm, sunny November day, just like this one in Dealey Plaza, a man held up an umbrella, just as President Kennedy approached in his car. The man shot a dart into Kennedy's throat, the umbrella being the firing mechanism. Now, all of this sounds a little far-fetched, but some researchers believe it, and they point to some hard evidence.
[END VIDEO]
HOUSE: But like all of us, O'Reilly was also assigned his fair share of those fluff pieces.
[BEGIN VIDEO]
O'REILLY: But this winter it's a different story. It's mid-January, the skies are sunny, the ground is soft, not frozen, and you don't even need an overcoat.
[END VIDEO]
HOUSE: At least from the archives it appears O'Reilly never phoned it in, even when he had to cover the hysteria over then-teen idol Rex Smith.
[BEGIN VIDEO]
O'REILLY: What about you, what do you think?
WOMAN: I think he's a good singer and I love his eyes.
O'REILLY: Well we've been here for about an hour, they're still coming in like crazy. Rex doesn't have writer's cramp yet, and this thing could go on forever. I'm Bill O'Reilly, Eyewitness News, at the Hartford Civic Center.
[END VIDEO]
HOUSE: And in true O'Reilly fashion that we still see today, he always had a message for the viewers.
[BEGIN VIDEO]
O'REILLY: So this spirits around Christmas seem to be alive and well in Connecticut, and we don't need a poll to tell you only fools drink and drive, so be smart. The WFSB Connecticut poll is a survey of 500 adults and it has a five percent margin of error. Bill O'Reilly, Channel 3, Eyewitness News.
[END VIDEO]
HOUSE: That's the way it was 37 years ago.