Fox continues to lose advertisers as sexual harassment claims against TV personality Bill O'Reilly escalate. Companies have withdrawn and more are planning to withdraw their advertisements from the network's long-running show "The O'Reilly Factor."
According to the New York Times, O'Reilly has faced multiple settlements for sexual harassment, as well as for inappropriate behavior. With the National Organization for Women urging the network to dismiss the TV host, the network has been facing unimpressed companies. The publication reports that over a dozen establishments have mentioned about their plan to withdraw their ads from "The O'Reilly Factor."
Deadline reports that 21 companies have pulled out their ads from Fox News Channel. The list includes Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, BMW of North America, Mitsubishi Motors, Lexus, Constant Contact, Bayer, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, Orkin, UNTUCKit, Allstate, Esurance, T. Rowe Price, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Credit Karma, Wayfair, The Wonderful Company, TrueCar, the Society for Human Resource Management, and Coldwell Banker.
While many have rescinded their ads from the program, the network's top client Rosland Capital, a firm that buys and sells precious metals, has no plans of changing its advertising strategy.
Three employees, women in particular, from Fox spoke to NYT about the work environment perpetuating within the company. According to these unnamed sources, the company continues to stand firm on its support for O'Reilly, which consequently makes them doubt about the company's desire to maintain "trust and respect." Most likely the show will go on.
O'Reilly is not the first employee to be plagued with sexual harassment claims. Former chairman Roger E. Ailes was too, and was later on booted out. 21<sup>st Century Fox is currently in the hot seat since it has pledged zero tolerance for inappropriate work behavior. The company issued the statement shortly after Ailes exited the company. Despite the allegations and the negative feedback from companies, O'Reilly asserts his innocence. He denies all allegations.
More updates should arrive soon.
