Over the past couple of years, a plethora of sexual harassment scandals have surfaced. First it was the fall of Bill Cosby, then Roger Ailes, then Bill O’Reilly, then Harvey Weinstein and now Mark Halperin. All these scandals happened in the field of media/entertainment, so I thought I should write a guide as to how a sexual harasser’s company and fellow employees should act in a similar situation.
1.) The company should ignore the scandal, not addressing it whatsoever, and focus instead on news that serves its own interests.
Fox News has steadily improved in this technique. After Gretchen Carlson came out over a year ago accusing Roger Ailes of sexual misconduct, some fellow employees did the right thing in defending Roger Ailes without knowing all the information. However, Geraldo Rivera and Greta Van Susteren, after learning the details of the scandal, issued apologies. In order to support the morality that is Fox News, they should have clearly just remained quiet.
But after O’Reilly — who is a Boston University and Daily Free Press alumni (so proud) — was outed by The New York Times for being an alleged sexual deviant, the Murdoch family decided to cut ties. While the move was good in that Tucker Carlson was master of deception, it was even better since Fox News barely mentioned it. Sometimes I wonder — was Bill O’Reilly real? Did he ever truly exist?
Fox News has spent only a total 21 minutes talking about Bill O’Reilly, and only five minutes on prime viewing time, while it has spent a total of 12.5 hours on the Weinstein scandal. So, while Bill O’Reilly was a part of the Fox News family for over a decade, Fox made the savvy decision to forget his existence. In contrast, the company made a brilliant move in covering the Weinstein scandal, as proof against Democrats obsession with “equality.” So even though it makes no sense that one Democratic donor is emblematic of the entire party, Fox News makes its viewers somehow believe that. Brilliant.
On the other end of the spectrum, MSNBC has utterly failed in pretending an employee of theirs didn’t commit sexual harassment. CNN recently reported that five women accused MSNBC contributor Mark Halperin of groping them many years ago. Mika Brzezinski, the one who “bled from her face” according to our president, addressed the allegations quite inappropriately.
“Our hearts break for Mark and his family, because he is our friend. But we fully support NBC’s decision here,” Brzezinski said. “We want to know more about these disturbing allegations … We want to know the stories. We need to know what happened. And we’re not going to avoid the story just because he is our friend.”
Brzezinski clearly doesn’t understand the rule of not addressing the sexual misconduct of a long-time fellow co-worker — it’s just wrong.
2.) If you discover your employee has made settlements regarding sexual harassment lawsuits, then use that as leverage in the next contract you sign with him.
According to the fake news New York Times, after Bill O’Reilly reached a settlement with a woman for $32 million (in part because he sent her male, gay pornography), Fox News renewed their contract with O’Reilly for $25 million a year. The top executives stood by O’Reilly based on a business decision, which certainly does not shed doubt on the “morality” of Fox News. However, Fox News should’ve followed similar actions of the Weinstein Company. The Weinstein Company would fine Harvey Weinstein for every sexual misconduct, therefore they would be profiting off women’s degradation. Fox News should’ve known to jump on that bandwagon.
3.) Don’t follow any of the advice given, because if you do, you’re just as complicit to the harassment of women as the men who do it themselves.
