Bill O'Reilly's Vacation has Become Permanent

The first sign that Bill O'Reilly wasn't going to weather the sexual harassment allegations this time was the vacation--that sort of seemed like Fox Mushroom Farm Inc. wanted his face off television right away. That had to happen because O'Reilly has a touch of the (in) righteous indignation about him and would have made things worse, if anything. That's my personal guess--I only have a superficial insight that if you wanted to do damage control, whisking the focal point of the shit-storm away from the hot light of the cameras is the way to go. But post-Roger Ailes' nasty sexual harassment scandal, this problem of sexual harassment and cultural misogyny stops being about personalities doing wrong things, and starts looking like a very unhealthy corporate atmosphere.

And, of course, their biggest money-maker was leaking sponsors like a sieve. Away he goes! But this is after losing so many other very familiar faces--Andrea Tantaros? Gretchen Carlson? Greta Van Susteren? Megyn Kelly? So maybe it's a good change that they are now losing a familiar face who has actually consistently proved he deserved to get booted (instead of women who just were trying to do their jobs in a crappy sexist propaganda mill).

After all, this is hardly the first time that we are hearing that Bill O'really is a creep. We've been hearing this for a very long time--Rolling Stone has a detailed timeline of grossness. He's not just reportedly sexist, inappropriate, and abusive, though. He's also super racially-insensitive and kind of a huge liar. This is why, when he alleges that he is the victim of leftist "character assassination", it rings sort of hollow. He's being smeared by people reporting what his co-workers and former co-workers has admitted he does, and what the previous monetary settlements seem to imply? It's like when politicians claim they are being smeared when they have been quoted verbatim--if you don't like the effect, quit hitting yourself!

But as for the future of Fox News, I can't say they are necessarily doing a big turn-around by filling his slot with Tucker Carlson. And the culture of the company, it stands to reason, is still the delightful oink-fest that made up pretend fan-sites to promote their female talent for their other-than-professional attributes. Just because O'Reilly is gone, doesn't mean the problem of what the company has promoted on their news channel and lived and worked by behind the scenes is cleared up. They have problems beyond O'Reilly and Ailes. And I feel like we'll be hearing about more things sooner rather than later.