title:  Fox News Gets Bad News As Advertisers Start Dumping Bill O’Reilly Over Sexual Harassment Pay-Offs
text: Fox News is now probably regretting their decision to keep Bill O Reilly instead of Megyn Kelly.Earlier this week, it was revealed that Bill O Reilly and the conservative network have paid off several women to stave off sexual harassment lawsuits.In all, five women have been paid $13 million of what amounts to hush money to stop them from publicly hauling O Reilly s ass to court.For years, O Reilly s behavior toward his female colleagues at Fox has drawn criticism and outrage, especially since he remains employed by the network.O Reilly and Fox previously settled a lawsuit filed by former Fox host Juliet Huddy and a lawsuit filed by Andrea Tantaros is still ongoing. The worst part of my job is being a target for those who would harm me and my employer, the Fox News Channel,  O Reilly pathetically claimed in his defense after the new revelations came to light.O Reilly is trying to portray himself as the victim, but if that were true he would have fought the charges in court to clear his name rather than pay the women off.Fox News recently renewed O Reilly s contract because his show makes the network a lot of money, but that is all changing now because advertisers are dumping O Reilly.According to CNN,Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, BMW of North America, Constant Contact, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, UNTUCKit and Sanofi are pulling ads from  The O Reilly Factor. In a statement, Hyundai said they would rather seek partnerships with companies that don t condone sexual harassment.We had upcoming advertising spots on the show but are reallocating them due to the recent and disturbing allegations. As a company we seek to partner with companies and programming that share our values of inclusion and diversity. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation as we plan future advertising decisions.Mercedes-Benz said the same thing.The allegations are disturbing and, given the importance of women in every aspect of our business, we don t feel this is a good environment in which to advertise our products right now.In addition, Lexus and Jenny Craig appear to be leaning toward also removing their ads from O Reilly s show since they have condemned sexual harassment and promised to monitor the story as it unfolds.O Reilly may be Fox s cash cow but if more companies pull advertising money from his show they will likely be forced to reexamine his worth to the company. After all, Fox News has spent millions of dollars paying off his victims and paying legal expenses. If the company starts losing millions of dollars from advertisers they ll have to conclude that O Reilly is too much of a financial liability to the company to keep around any longer.And that could finally put an end to the career of one of the most sexist and racist loudmouths in all of cable news history.Featured Image: Screenshot