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Thursday, Nov 26, 2009
Inside the Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment lawsuit.
Oct 13, 2004 | Popular right-wing talk show host Bill O'Reilly, star of "The O'Reilly Factor," and the company he works for, Fox News, were slapped with a sexual harassment lawsuit today by Andrea Mackris, an associate producer on his show. (The lawsuit is posted in its entirety on The Smoking Gun website.) Mackris, who worked for Fox News for more than four years, alleged that O'Reilly repeatedly harassed her verbally, repeatedly making lewd suggestions to her in person and over the telephone while masturbating with a vibrator.
Just before Mackris filed her civil complaint, O'Reilly and Fox's lawyers filed a counter lawsuit (also posted on The Smoking Gun Web site) charging that Mackris and her lawyers were attempting to extort $60 million in "hush money." Although the complaint did not directly deny that O'Reilly had engaged in the conduct Mackris alleged, it called the allegations "baseless, scandalous and scurrilous." O'Reilly's attorneys alleged that the lawsuit was motivated not only by greed but politics, alleging that Mackris' lawyer, Benedict Morelli, his firm and his wife are "known supporters of and contributors to the Democratic Party" who wanted to "embarrass and tarnish the reputations of Fox and O'Reilly" during the election season.
O'Reilly and Fox's complaint states that Mackris never complained to anyone about O'Reilly's alleged harassment, that she left Fox for CNN not because of the harassment but for a higher salary and that she in fact returned to work for O'Reilly, and had dinner and cocktails with him, after some of the alleged harassment had occurred. It also claims that Mackris and her lawyers, after claiming that their damages amounted to $600 million, demanded $60 million in "blood money" and "never once lowered this outrageous, extortionate demand." The complaint asks for unspecified damages.
Newsday quoted Morelli as saying Fox's retaliatory lawsuit was without merit. "The type of negotiations that occurred between us and the attorneys for Fox and Bill O'Reilly happen every day in civil lawsuits," the paper quoted Morelli.
Mackris' lawsuit gives a lurid account of O'Reilly's alleged verbal harassment. The statements she claims he made are quoted at great length and apparently verbatim, making it appear that she repeatedly taped O'Reilly, although at least one apparent O'Reilly quote is prefaced with the characterization "words to the effect."
In the lawsuit, Mackris claims that throughout her employment at Fox News, she was "subjected to the mercurial and unpredictable mood swings of her boss...a personality who can be paternal and engaging at one moment, tyrannical and menacing the next." Her account begins with a dinner to which O'Reilly asked her out, "purportedly to discuss her future at Fox." After some innocuous conversation, according to the complaint, O'Reilly's "demeanor abruptly changed. O'Reilly's eyes became glazed and bizarrely strayed in opposite directions. Suddenly, without provocation or warning, Defendant Bill O'Reilly said to Plaintiff Andrew Mackris, 'And just use your vibrator to blow off steam.'"
The complaint then alleges that O'Reilly told Mackris that he had advised another woman to buy a vibrator and had taught that woman how to masturbate while telling her sexual stories over the phone. O'Reilly boasted that the woman had had her first orgasm in this fashion. He said all of his sexual stories were based on his own experiences, "such as when he received a massage in a cabana in Bali and the 'little short brown woman' asked to see his penis and was 'amazed.'" O'Reilly then allegedly offered to tell Mackris the same stories, which he knew she would "just love."
The complaint then alleges that a year later, in May 2003, O'Reilly took Mackris and a friend to dinner, where he repeatedly propositioned them both, again "singing the praises of telephone sex." He told them that he "was going to Italy to meet the Pope, that his pregnant wife was staying home with his daughter, and implied he was looking forward to some extra-marital dalliances with the 'hot' Italian women."
