Friday Fox Follies – A Great Disturbance in the Factor

My center of gravity wobbled this week after Glenn Beck Predicts the End of Fox News … and I agreed!!! My Fox “News” criticism began many years ago with The Beckerhead. I even introduced myself to him and lived to tell the tale. But, agreeing with someone I compared to a modern day Father Charles Coughlin was disconcerting; that is until Glenn Beck Blames Media Matters For Advertiser “Purge” Of Serial Sexual Harasser Bill O’Reilly and I realized all was right with the world again. Beck didn’t mention the role MMfA had in the advertiser boycott that led to his downfall.

Consequently, he’s hardly unbiased, especially because Glenn Beck could be the ally O’Reilly needs after ouster.

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The War on Christmas Is Over If You Want It

I may have started writing about crazy Beckistan, but it wasn’t long before I branched out, writing about Loofah Lad. Especially after The Beckster starting appearing in the Spinster Zone. That’s where “Family Values” Falafel King launched his ridiculous Phony War on Christmas after he was offended retailers were being inclusive by saying “Happy Holidays.”

However, before we get too deep into the weeds, let’s give ultimate credit where credit’s due:

Gretchen Carlson Can’t Stop
Smiling as Bill O’Reilly Implodes

Carlson wears Cheshire cat grin because a non-disclosure agreement keeps her from commenting on everything everyone wants to know.

Before Loofah Lad’s ouster Fox feared more victims would come forward as one anonymous woman did on Tuesday. Soon she would unmask herself as Perquita Burgess on The View.

ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

Some women have danced around non-disclosure agreements they may have signed, relating cringe-worthy stories:

CNN’s Kirsten Powers Recounts
How Fox News Buried Her
Reports Of Harassment By O’Reilly

CNN’s Margaret Hoover: ‘Never
Put Myself in Position to
be Alone With Bill O’Reilly’

Female Newscasters Recall “Toxic”
Culture While Working at Fox News

One person who’s afraid of that non-disclosure is Half-Governor Sarah Palin. She refuses to go there:

You tell me whether she was harassed at Fox. I think so.

No one is weeping for the Culture Warrior — except his fans who feel this was a vast left wing conspiracy — whose fall is cushioned with a $25 million golden parachute. What’s particularly galling is Bill O’Reilly And Roger Ailes Left Fox News With A Lot More Money Than Their Victims Did. Had I known how lucrative sexually harassment was, I might have made some different life choices.

While I would have loved to have seen Jon Stewart’s take, we can still Watch The Daily Show Discuss Bill O’Reilly’s Ouster:

There was a lot of good writing this week, including this long read, reminding us the business of news is business:

Bill O’Reilly and the Upside of Corporate Cowardice

Boycotts don’t always work, and it wasn’t certain that Mr. Murdoch would agree to kick Mr. O’Reilly to the curb. Don’t forget that he rehired Rebekah Brooks, the disgraced editor of The News of the World after the phone hacking scandal passed. But on Tuesday yet another woman came forward with allegations against Mr. O’Reilly, and there was the gnawing fear that there were even more to come.
 
More important, 21st Century Fox’s stock has slipped almost 6 percent since the Times investigation was published. That decline would make a coward of almost any chief executive. Mr. O’Reilly’s lawyer is laying the blame for his client’s situation on a “smear campaign” that is “being orchestrated by far-left organizations.” That sounds like the kind of all-out political assault that Fox News and Mr. O’Reilly himself excelled at for years. But it wasn’t politics that did in Mr. O’Reilly. It was just business.

The other business Loofah Lad is engaged in — quite successfully — is the Book Biz.

Bill O’Reilly: Fox News Ouster Could Imperil Book Sales

What about Bill O’Reilly’s children’s book, ‘Give Please a Chance’?

O’Reilly’s publisher declined to comment on whether there will be any changes to the book’s publication plan. (Last week Bill Cosby’s children’s book series “Little Bill” made the American Library Association’s list of most banned books of 2016, a status it earned not because of its content but because of the behavior of its author.)
 
Published in November by the Jimmy Patterson imprint of Hachette, “Give Please a Chance” sold briskly when it first hit the shelves.
 
And yet now the book looks like a ribald parody. The cover alone — an image of a little girl with an expression of exuberant begging, her hands clasped almost in prayer — seems ready-made for Stephen Colbert’s show.

Speaking of which:

Stephen Colbert Speculates
on Bill O’Reilly’s Next Move
by Using His Novel for Clues

Reading Bill O’Reilly’s Old Novel
About a TV Newsman Who Murders
Several People After Losing His Job

Which is exactly what I am afraid of: Life imitating bad novels.

My fave reactions on the innertubes at his expense:

Michael Moore on Bill O’Reilly:
‘I’m still standing and he’s not’

‘Don’t underestimate the power of women’:
Bill O’Reilly gets no sympathy from celebrities

What will be Loofah Lad’s ultimate legacy? Here are some good reads:

Bill O’Reilly’s Most Shocking Quotes: The Hoodie, ACLU Terrorists and Victim-Blaming • Bill O’Reilly’s Dangerous War Against Dr. Tiller • Rep. Maxine Waters: “Bill O’Reilly Is Not Going To Be Recorded Favorably In History” • Critic’s Notebook: Bill O’Reilly’s Shattered TV Legacy • As He Leaves Fox, Here Are Bill O’Reilly’s Worst Moments On The Air • How Bill O’Reilly used religion to fuel fear — and his show • Bill O’Reilly Once Called For Advertisers To Boycott Outlets That Called Out His Sexual Harassment • Bill O’Reilly’s departure from Fox News draws divergent reactions from conservative media • Conservative Calls Republican Politicians “Cowardly” For Not Calling Out Sexual Harassment At Fox • Fox News Incentivizes Sexual Harassment by Paying Pervs More Than $65 Million • What Brought Down Bill O’Reilly • O’Reilly’s Behavior Said to Have Helped Drive Megyn Kelly Out at Fox • Bill O’Reilly Out at Fox News as Critics Vow ‘This Isn’t Over’ •

How Bill O’Reilly Defined The
On-Air Jerk Culture At Fox News

Yes, O’Reilly’s a liar and a nativist and a bully (to guests and staffers) who has polluted the public dialogue without remorse. But what also defined O’Reilly, and what helped define Fox News for much of the last 20 years, was an ingrained sense of self-aggrandizement coupled with bottomless victimization. That became Fox’s hallmark pathology, suggesting that (wealthy) white middle-aged Christian men in America face an obstacle course full of cultural and political barriers that make life unbearable.
 
It’s a feel-bad fantasy that revolves around the idea that powerful and often-unseen forces are working against Everyday Joes. And O’Reilly has led that gloomy parade as a kind of Eeyore figure, constantly bemoaning the state of affairs and most often blaming others, usually the less powerful.
 
That’s been O’Reilly’s M.O.: self-puffery fueled by narcissism and self-pity, coupled with a deeply flawed view of his own abilities. And that’s basically been the Fox News on-air model for two decades: Be brash, make stuff up, tell guests to shut up, and smear people.

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BUSINESS IS STILL GOOD: Bill O’Reilly’s Exit Not Likely to Hit Fox News Hard Financially, Analysts Say • Michael Wolff: It’s James Murdoch’s Fox News Now • Can Fox News Channel Survive Without Bill O’Reilly? • On The Firing Of Bill O’Reilly: What Is Gone, And What Is Not • Angelo Carusone Tells The Last Word: “I Don’t Think This Ends With Bill O’Reilly”

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DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC: Kicking Loofah Lad to the curb changed so much of the schedule. Here’s the chess moves:

Tucker “with an F” Carlson is moving to 8PM starting Monday, even though he can be worse than The Falafel King:

Here Are Some Of The Sexist Things
Neo-Nazi Favorite And O’Reilly
Replacement Tucker Carlson Has Said

Tucker Carlson Asks Political Science
Professor Caroline Heldman: ‘What
Does Your Mom Think’ Of Your Opinion?

Fox Replaces O’Reilly With Guy
Who Thinks It’s Funny to Joke About
Ejaculating on a Woman in Work Email

Then there’s this odd thing where Tucker Tonight threw Detroit affiliate WJBK under the bus:

Did Tucker Carlson Tonight Broadcast an
Anti-Muslim Subliminal Message? Update

Meanwhile, The Five — which I said upon its debut wouldn’t last — is moving from 5PM to 9PM purely because of the scintalating conversation. Meanwhile, racist Jesse Watters takes over for Bully Boy Bolling in the center square, because Fox News Promotes Eric Bolling, Noted Bigot, Conspiracy Theorist, And Muppet-Hater.

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BURIED ALIVE: Any other week this would have been big news. As it was this story — sadly — never got traction.

Johnny Dollar Outed As Roger Ailes Operative?

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Headly Westerfield has been writing Fox “News” criticism for half of almost half of O’Reilly’s stay at Fox.