For air talent reading this post, here’s a little benchmark trivia bit you can play on your show today:
What well-known media celebrity once said this:
“Public misbehavior by the famous is a powerful teaching tool.”
While you ponder that, let’s have a frank conversation about the ouster of Bill O’Reilly yesterday by Fox News. As expected, the Internet lit up in predictable fashion when O’Reilly’s firing became a “BREAKING NEWS” story.
And Morning Show Boot Camp maven, Don Anthony, saw this high-profile firing of one of mass media’s most successful celebrities as a teaching moment – or at least an opportunity to hear from many of radio’s rank and file talent, most of whom rendered an opinion. There’s no one in radio more invested for more years in radio than Don, and he clearly grasped that reporting on this story required more than the perfunctory “Bill O’Reilly exited Fox News today” treatment.
After all, this is a huge media story. When the face of a hugely successful TV network is shown the door – think Dan Rather or Brian Williams – it’s a juicy topic. And we’re not talking about someone who was anywhere near over the hill. O’Reilly continued to lead Fox News in ratings and was a successful author and speaker. But as the stories of sexual misconduct spilled out and were amplified by the rest of the media, it became untenable for Fox News to keep him around.
Of course, the other piece of this cautionary media tale is advertiser blowback and the taint of having the highest-profile talent on the network allegedly involved in myriad sexual imbroglios. The O’Reilly backlash that led to many cancellations no doubt played a role in this decision by Fox News, and its owners, the Murdoch family. Whether you’re in Fayetteville, Philly, or at Fox News, losing booked ad revenue is never a pleasant state of affairs.
For those of you on the air gleefully celebrating the demise of “The O’Reilly Factor” or those of you convinced he was a victim of a PC-crazed society, don’t miss the larger point.
I once worked for a GM who strongly believed in the axiom, “No one is bigger than the radio station.”
I initially had trouble getting my head around that management philosophy, especially with a brand built around superstar talent – clearly, my 
favorite kind of place to program. We can all think of stations we know or worked for where a dominant DJ or show clearly seemed bigger than the radio station, outflanking even the GM in salary, bonuses, and perks.
But when a jock, a morning show, a news anchor, or a talk show host consistently jeopardizes the mother ship, either by flirting with the FCC, losing advertising revenue, or just acting like an ass, it’s time for management to step up and make a move.
It’s also a lesson for ownership about just how much they’re willing to put up with – good ratings or not. It was reported that Fox News paid out roughly $13 million over the years to buy off and silence alleged sexual harassment allegations. Many female staffers at Fox News reportedly were upset about the environment and culture of the company.
So, a momentous decision like this one by Fox News is, in fact, a teaching tool. There are many lessons here about morals, arrogance, power, and fairness. But in his exit statement, O’Reilly indicated he may not have learned a lot from these events. Here’s his key line:
“It is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims. But that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today.”
Victim or victimizer? We may never know for sure, but Fox News now has the opportunity to recast its image in the wake of this firing, as well as the exit of Roger Ailes earlier this year. Tucker Carlson, who will replace O’Reilly, may never recapture OReilly’s lost ratings or revenue, but the move provides the network with a chance to redefine the way it does business, on and off the air.
Hopefully, for you and your staff, the dispatch of Bill O’Reilly can serve as a teaching moment – a conversation starter for HR, programming, and management to review the company’s standards, and to remind all parties involved precisely where the foul lines are drawn.
By the way, that quote that started this post? It was coined by none other than Bill O’Reilly.
And as a reminder that talent is talent, whether it’s small market radio or the glitz of cable news, O’Reilly was fired while on vacation. On the same day he was let go, he shook hands with Pope Francis in the Vatican.
No one is bigger than the cable network.
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Did FOX fire Bill O’Reilly for bad behavior, because obviously they believed he was innocent by helping him pay-out his lawsuits? Or did they fire him because he was no longer advertiser friendly? (Loss of 8 minutes worth of advertisers in his shows since the NYT article). I would give Mr. O’Reilly the benefit of the doubt if I hadn’t already heard the same statements from Bill Clinton and Bill Cosby. Just another Bill behaving badly. A million women could march on Fox News if The O’Reilly Factor was still billing 8 million dollars a show.
Great observations, Barbara. I love your “Bill” connection. I had not thought of it that way.
Bill may have been the worst predator ever or a victim. Someone, most likely former Fox boss Roger Ailes, made the decision to make his first accuser “go away” with the Fox checkbook. He said, she said deals at this level would get ugly in the media even if he was innocent from the get go. A slippery slope can follow financial decisions like payoffs. Especially if the the guy who covered for O’reilly was a predator as well. If this culture of pay-offs was established at Fox, you have to wonder. Either O’reilly was gulity on the first round and is so stupid or arrogant he couldn’t learn his lesson from that experience or there we’re a few, if not all, opportunistic disgruntled filers along the way. Harassment is an easy private charge to levy and very messy public one to defend and contain.
There’s only so long a company can paper over these types of allegations in order to keep the ratings/revenue flow going. Thanks, Rob.
This probably came down to money more than anything else. Fox was willing to pay up until the allegations were exposed, advertisers bolted and then, all of a sudden, this kind of behavior wasn’t acceptable anymore. Combine that with clearly evidence regarding Roger Ailes, and there wasn’t all that much upside to keeping O’Reilly.
As for his guilt or innocence, while we’ll never know – 5 is a lot of cases to settle if there was no fire behind the smoke. There are plenty of famous men whose pockets are at least as deep as O’Reilly’s who haven’t settled one suit – or even been accused of any misconduct.
Sexual harassment is one of those things like racism – still very much alive – maybe as much as ever, but when exposed, often triggers a cultural zero tolerance response, hence the fleeing ad revenue. Absent that advertiser flight, I can’t help but think it would have been dismissed as “lockah room tawwk.”
It’s always about the money, but in this case, it very likely involves the culture of the place. Thanks, Bob.
The comedian Jarrod Carmichael has a great bit about how talent is more important than morals. And, as this situation proves, that is definitely true. In fact, we can put a dollar value on it. In this situation it was thirteen million dollars that the network paid out to the woman.
But this also proves that there is a top line to how much talent overrules morals and it must be the upwards of 20 million dollars the network was going to lose from the sponsors pulling out.
Talent is more important than morals but it isn’t more important than revenue.
And then we find out yesterday, Fox News is reportedly writing a $25 million check to O’Reilly, so there’s that. But you’re right that everyone of these relationship has its limits.
The words taint and imbroglio used in one post. Impressive. No really, taint and imbroglio don’t get used nearly enough. I’m glad someone found a suitable occasion.
Is anyone surprised at Bill’s behavior. You could kind of feel it in his demeanor. And Fox, typical damage control for a revenue generator until it’s no longer tenable. Business is business… same as it ever was.
You’re right that it’s always been about ratingd and revenue until the pressure becomes overwhelming. As it did here. And I wrestled with “brouhaha” but liked “imbroglio” better. Always good to hear from you, Sean.
I take issue with your comparison of Bill O’Reilly with Dan Rather or Brian Williams. Bill O’Reilly was a right-wing biased entertainer who didn’t know the meaning of objectivity or fairness. He lost his temper in crazy, raging freak-outs with sources while he was on-air. He is no more a journalist than Donald Trump is. Dan Rather and Brian Williams are intelligent, respected journalists in every sense of the word. A more apt comparison for Bill O’Reilly would be Maury Povich.
Jane, I appreciate that. But all three were forced to step down from primetime network seats. I was not comparing their talent, but simply how each feel from grace. Thank you for commenting and offering your thoughts.