[Vision2020] 10-21-04 LA Times OP/ED: The Missing O'Reilly Factor
Art Deco aka W. Fox
deco at moscow.com
Thu Oct 21 09:23:05 PDT 2004
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-carlson21oct21.story
MARGARET CARLSON
The Missing O'Reilly Factor
MARGARET CARLSON
October 21, 2004
It takes three things for a scandal to reach soap opera status: a celebrity, sex
and cable. The Bill O'Reilly mess promised all three.
O'Reilly, 55, who was sued for alleged sexual harassment last week by a
33-year-old producer, is host of the highest-rated show on the highest-rated
cable news channel. (He also broadcasts on radio two hours daily.)
The sex in the O'Reilly case, like everyone's, is somewhat risible - replace
thong in the Oval Office with loofah in the Caribbean to get an idea. The long
verbatim quotes in the complaint suggests that Andrea Mackris, the woman
bringing the suit, has audiotapes. Add a nice dollop of hypocrisy on the part of
a family-values proponent in an ostensibly happy marriage and you've got
yourself a good month's worth of shows featuring lawyers, counselors and clergy
chewing the whole thing over.
But the O'Reilly scandal lacks one critical factor to drive it forward: constant
coverage on "The O'Reilly Factor." There's no bigger scold or sterner values
enforcer on TV than O'Reilly - he feasted on Bill Clinton like no other - and
ordinarily he'd be on top such a story. Unless, of course, he was the one
sitting in the eye of the storm.
To be fair, right after he filed a preemptive extortion claim against Mackris
and her lawyer, he briefly mentioned his predicament on his show, without
denying the charges or pressing himself on whether they were true.
Otherwise, a hush has fallen over the Fox News commentariat, and its brothers
and sisters in arms. Apparently, there's no morals police to police the morals
police. I like to scold as much as the next person, but when the shocker about
virtues czar Bill Bennett gambling away hundreds of thousands of dollars came
out, I didn't demand he stop gambling, just that he stop scolding the rest of us
for the vices we try but sometimes fail to overcome. Ditto for Rush Limbaugh,
who needed treatment for his addiction, not prison.
Right-wingers, of course, were late to the cause of sexual harassment. (Remember
how they were convinced that Anita Hill was just trying to lynch Clarence
Thomas?) They didn't embrace it until Paula Jones did, and then they worked it
to nearly lynch a Democratic president.
For women, sexual harassment is a dicey proposition. There are no shield laws,
so the complainant needs to be a near saint, or at least never to have worn a
short skirt. Mackris is not an ideal plaintiff. Why didn't she hang up the phone
on O'Reilly? Why go to dinner with him? At the same time, on the face of it, she
has a strong case. She didn't want to give up a job at the top of the talk-show
chain. She returned to Fox News on the promise the sex talk would not resume,
then asked her boss to stop when it continued.
The law aside, you'd think that even a star would have to answer to someone. In
her suit, Mackris alleges that O'Reilly said his boss, Roger Ailes, would give
no quarter to some psycho complaining about the commentator. So far, O'Reilly
continues to broadcast, and Mackris is at home on enforced "sick leave."
O'Reilly is now hiding behind his lawyer while picking his media spots, places
where the grilling goes lightly. The morning after he discussed the case on his
own show, he was perched on a stool next to Regis and Kelly, known for coddling,
not questioning, celebrities. He promoted, without irony, his new children's
book.
This week O'Reilly canceled two other promotional appearances. He knew that on
CBS' "The Early Show" - where Martha Stewart kept maniacally chopping cabbage
with a large knife while insisting she wanted to focus on her salad, not the
"ridiculousness" - no one would let him focus on childrearing.
It's too bad we won't have O'Reilly taking apart O'Reilly. The highest use of
celebrities is to act out morality plays. Brittany Spears' 55-hour marriage
about the time President Bush backed a constitutional amendment banning gay
marriage proved that heterosexuals are by far the greater threat to heterosexual
marriage.
In the end, however, celebrities inhabit a value-neutral zone. If O'Reilly is
anything like Marv Albert or Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Clinton, he will come out
better in the end than his accuser. Even when you win a sexual harassment case
(or settle, like Paula Jones), you lose (Paula Jones).
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