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Posted: 04 Apr 2017 02:59 PM PDT
Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly is under increasing fire after The New York Times reported that five women were paid a collective $13 million for agreeing not to file lawsuits or speak publicly about allegations that he harassed them. The revelations were the latest headache for Fox News, coming just months after cable network’s CEO and chairman Roger Ailes stepped down amidst similar claims. Since the Times report over the weekend, one more woman has come forward with sexual harassment allegations against Ailes, and at least 13 advertisers have pulled ads from O’Reilly’s top-rated cable news show, The O’Reilly Factor. “We value our partners and are working with them to address their current concerns about the O’Reilly Factor,” Fox News said in a statement. The network said the canceled ad buys were shifted to other programming. 21st Century Fox has previously said O’Reilly “denies the merits of these claims.” 21st Century Fox has previously said O’Reilly “denies the merits of these claims.” Here’s everything you need to know about the allegations and the ongoing fallout. Who has come forward against Bill O’Reilly and what have they said?In total, five women have said they were paid either by O’Reilly or Fox News to settle harassment allegations, The Times reports, agreeing not to pursue legal action or publicly discuss the incidents. (Two of these women had already come forward).The women named in the Times report are Rachel Witlieb Bernstein and Andrea Mackris, who were former producers on his show, and Rebecca Gomez Diamond, Laurie Dhue, and Juliet Huddy, former on-air personalities at Fox News and Fox Business Network. All except Bernstein’s involved sexual harassment claims. All of these women either worked with O’Reilly or appeared on his show. The settlements took place between 2002 and 2016. Since the The Times report, another woman, Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky, has filed a harassment claim against Fox News and Ailes, but the allegations don’t involve O’Reilly. How have Fox News and Bill O’Reilly responded?O’Reilly’s show aired Monday night for the first time since the story broke, but he did not address the allegations. In a statement posted on his website April 1, O’Reilly wrote that his fame has made him susceptible to lawsuits, but that no complaints have ever been filed against him internally to the company’s human resources department, even anonymously.“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 said. Noting that he is a father who would never purposely harm his children, he continued: “Those of us in the arena are constantly at risk, as are our families and children. My primary efforts will continue to be to put forth an honest TV program and to protect those close to me.” 21st Century Fox referred PEOPLE to Fox News, which did respond to a request for comment. In a statement to The Times on Saturday, 21st Century Fox said: “Notwithstanding the fact that no current or former Fox News employee ever took advantage of the 21st Century Fox hotline to raise a concern about Bill O’Reilly, even anonymously, we have looked into these matters over the last few months and discussed them with Mr. O’Reilly. While he denies the merits of these claims, Mr. O’Reilly has resolved those he regarded as his personal responsibility. Mr. O’Reilly is fully committed to supporting our efforts to improve the environment for all our employees at Fox News.” What has the backlash been for O’Reilly’s show?The number of companies pulling ads from O’Reilly’s show continues to grow. As of Tuesday evening, at least 13 companies, including BMW, Hyundai, and Mercedez-Benz had pulled advertisements from The O’Reilly Factor.“The controversy around The O’Reilly Factor program and allegations made against Bill O’Reilly are matters that we take seriously and will continue to monitor,” a spokeswoman for the pharmaceutical company Sanofi U.S. told PEOPLE in a statement. “We do not endorse the behavior or opinions of program hosts or the content.”
Donna Boland, a spokeswoman for Mercedes-Benz USA, called the allegations “disturbing.”
“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,” she said. This article originally appeared on People.com |
Thursday, April 6, 2017
What to Know About Bill O’Reilly and the Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Him - People.com
Xi Jinping Needs to Tread Carefully When He Meets Trump - Bloomberg
Jinping Needs to Tread Carefully When He Meets Trump
Bloomberg News
6 April 2017 at 7:00:00 AM GMT+10 6 April 2017 at 2:17:21 PM GMT+10
Nothing is supposed to go off script for President Xi Jinping in what is the equivalent of an election year in one-party China.
Enter Donald Trump, who rarely stays on message and regularly bashes China on Twitter. The U.S. president will host Xi on Thursday and Friday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the first face-to-face meeting between the pair. On the agenda will be everything from trade to North Korea’s nuclear threat.
For Xi, the meeting represents an opportunity to establish a personal rapport with Trump and potentially stave off a trade war that threatens to make China’s economic slowdown much more painful. Yet it also carries risk: An errant Trump tweet or off-the-cuff remark seen as disrespectful could give ammunition to party members who want to thwart Xi’s reform plans.
“Major conflict with the United States in the first half of the year would be very bad news for Mr. Xi because it could undermine the leadership credentials he’s been cultivating for the past five years,” said Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based historian whose father was a minister under Communist rule before being purged in the Cultural Revolution. “It’s the most unstable, risky and fragile moment for Mr. Xi domestically. Trump might use this to put pressure on him.”
Five of the ruling Communist Party’s seven most powerful leaders might be replaced at the 19th Party Congress later this year, along with scores of other senior positions. The horse-trading is already underway among party factions.
Helped by state-run media and a landmark speech at Davos this year, Xi has crafted an image of a poor man’s champion at home and a leading proponent of globalization abroad. His government has built artificial reefs to assert territorial claims in the South China Sea and retaliated against South Korea for allowing the U.S. to install a missile-defense system to protect against North Korea, a Chinese ally.
Trump has repeatedly blasted China for stealing American jobs, militarizing the South China Sea and failing to do more to stop North Korea. He threatened to use the One-China policy regarding Taiwan as a bargaining chip to get better trade terms before eventually relenting in a February phone call with Xi.
To read more about the One-China policy, click here.
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“The Chinese have been dealing with a very difficult situation with the Trump administration,” said J. Stapleton Roy, former U.S. ambassador to China who has met every top Chinese leader since Mao Zedong’s successor, Hua Guofeng. “They have calculated that the key to managing the relationship in the short term is trying to establish a relationship of reasonable mutual confidence between the two presidents.”
China has concentrated on wooing the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, presidential adviser Jared Kushner. In Florida, Xi will bring his wife Peng Liyuan, a celebrity folk singer and fashion icon who was once more famous than her husband. The pair are expected to arrive in West Palm Beach shortly after noon on Thursday.
“There will be time, particularly in the first day, for them to get to know one another in a more informal kind of interaction, as well as a dinner,” a senior Trump administration official told reporters ahead of the trip, according to a published transcript. The leaders won’t play golf, which is frowned upon in China as part of Xi’s anti-graft campaign.
‘Very Difficult’
Both sides have sought to set the tone for the summit. In a tweet last Friday, Trump predicted a “very difficult” meeting, complaining about the U.S. trade deficit with China and job losses. Two hours later, a Chinese official deflected questions about the tweets and hailed the possibility of a “new starting point.”
Trump plans to discuss trade, the economy and North Korea at the meeting, according to the senior administration official. In an interview with the Financial Times this week, Trump said he wouldn’t be surprised “if we did something that would be very dramatic and good for both countries.”
Read more about China wooing Ivanka, Jared Kushner
Beijing would view a getting-to-know-you meeting as progress even without a major deal, according to a Chinese official, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. The meeting will probably be difficult as Trump predicted, particularly if he pushes hard, the official said.
China has prepared several options for give-and-take depending on what Trump requests, according to the Chinese official. Beijing has assessed that Trump cares most about visible economic wins and some security issues, according to the official, who added that they saw his tweets on North Korea as a bargaining tactic ahead of the meeting.
When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Trump in February, he proposed investing in infrastructure to create American jobs in a bid to offset criticism over its currency. Xi may try something similar as Trump looks to meet campaign pledges to rebuild the country’s roads and bridges.
pressures he faces as China enters a “complex and critical phase of reforms,” according to Cui Liru, former president of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing. The government is weighing an overhaul of state-run enterprises and opening up more sectors, challenging entrenched interests and raising fears of job losses as economic growth hits the slowest pace in a quarter century.
Xi needs to show a domestic audience that he can manage Trump, said Steve Tsang, director of SOAS China Institute at the University of London. China may have agreed to an early summit because they see an opportunity to strike a better deal before Trump has a full team in place and a clearly defined strategy, he said.
Xi wants “a deal that shows that he can do business with Trump,” Tsang said. “If Xi can secure that, he puts himself in a good position in reassuring the domestic constituencies in the run up to the 19th congress.”
Bloomberg News
6 April 2017 at 7:00:00 AM GMT+10 6 April 2017 at 2:17:21 PM GMT+10
Nothing is supposed to go off script for President Xi Jinping in what is the equivalent of an election year in one-party China.
Enter Donald Trump, who rarely stays on message and regularly bashes China on Twitter. The U.S. president will host Xi on Thursday and Friday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the first face-to-face meeting between the pair. On the agenda will be everything from trade to North Korea’s nuclear threat.
For Xi, the meeting represents an opportunity to establish a personal rapport with Trump and potentially stave off a trade war that threatens to make China’s economic slowdown much more painful. Yet it also carries risk: An errant Trump tweet or off-the-cuff remark seen as disrespectful could give ammunition to party members who want to thwart Xi’s reform plans.
“Major conflict with the United States in the first half of the year would be very bad news for Mr. Xi because it could undermine the leadership credentials he’s been cultivating for the past five years,” said Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based historian whose father was a minister under Communist rule before being purged in the Cultural Revolution. “It’s the most unstable, risky and fragile moment for Mr. Xi domestically. Trump might use this to put pressure on him.”
Five of the ruling Communist Party’s seven most powerful leaders might be replaced at the 19th Party Congress later this year, along with scores of other senior positions. The horse-trading is already underway among party factions.
Helped by state-run media and a landmark speech at Davos this year, Xi has crafted an image of a poor man’s champion at home and a leading proponent of globalization abroad. His government has built artificial reefs to assert territorial claims in the South China Sea and retaliated against South Korea for allowing the U.S. to install a missile-defense system to protect against North Korea, a Chinese ally.
Trump has repeatedly blasted China for stealing American jobs, militarizing the South China Sea and failing to do more to stop North Korea. He threatened to use the One-China policy regarding Taiwan as a bargaining chip to get better trade terms before eventually relenting in a February phone call with Xi.
To read more about the One-China policy, click here.
Keep up with the best of Bloomberg Politics.
Get our newsletter daily.
Sign Up
“The Chinese have been dealing with a very difficult situation with the Trump administration,” said J. Stapleton Roy, former U.S. ambassador to China who has met every top Chinese leader since Mao Zedong’s successor, Hua Guofeng. “They have calculated that the key to managing the relationship in the short term is trying to establish a relationship of reasonable mutual confidence between the two presidents.”
China has concentrated on wooing the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, presidential adviser Jared Kushner. In Florida, Xi will bring his wife Peng Liyuan, a celebrity folk singer and fashion icon who was once more famous than her husband. The pair are expected to arrive in West Palm Beach shortly after noon on Thursday.
“There will be time, particularly in the first day, for them to get to know one another in a more informal kind of interaction, as well as a dinner,” a senior Trump administration official told reporters ahead of the trip, according to a published transcript. The leaders won’t play golf, which is frowned upon in China as part of Xi’s anti-graft campaign.
‘Very Difficult’
Both sides have sought to set the tone for the summit. In a tweet last Friday, Trump predicted a “very difficult” meeting, complaining about the U.S. trade deficit with China and job losses. Two hours later, a Chinese official deflected questions about the tweets and hailed the possibility of a “new starting point.”
Trump plans to discuss trade, the economy and North Korea at the meeting, according to the senior administration official. In an interview with the Financial Times this week, Trump said he wouldn’t be surprised “if we did something that would be very dramatic and good for both countries.”
Read more about China wooing Ivanka, Jared Kushner
Beijing would view a getting-to-know-you meeting as progress even without a major deal, according to a Chinese official, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. The meeting will probably be difficult as Trump predicted, particularly if he pushes hard, the official said.
China has prepared several options for give-and-take depending on what Trump requests, according to the Chinese official. Beijing has assessed that Trump cares most about visible economic wins and some security issues, according to the official, who added that they saw his tweets on North Korea as a bargaining tactic ahead of the meeting.
When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Trump in February, he proposed investing in infrastructure to create American jobs in a bid to offset criticism over its currency. Xi may try something similar as Trump looks to meet campaign pledges to rebuild the country’s roads and bridges.
pressures he faces as China enters a “complex and critical phase of reforms,” according to Cui Liru, former president of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing. The government is weighing an overhaul of state-run enterprises and opening up more sectors, challenging entrenched interests and raising fears of job losses as economic growth hits the slowest pace in a quarter century.
Xi needs to show a domestic audience that he can manage Trump, said Steve Tsang, director of SOAS China Institute at the University of London. China may have agreed to an early summit because they see an opportunity to strike a better deal before Trump has a full team in place and a clearly defined strategy, he said.
Xi wants “a deal that shows that he can do business with Trump,” Tsang said. “If Xi can secure that, he puts himself in a good position in reassuring the domestic constituencies in the run up to the 19th congress.”
Steve Bannon Removed From National Security Council - NBC News
President Donald Trump has removed Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, from the National Security Council, according to a filing in the federal registry.
As part of the shakeup announced Wednesday, two officials were added back to the NSC's Principals Committee: the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford. Also added to the Principals Committee: Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.
News that the changes were not the result of any "power struggle" within the administration.
Bannon was given a seat on the Principals Committee only as a check against then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, the official said. Now that Flynn is gone, Bannon is no longer needed in that role, the official said.
Another administration official said the changes were orchestrated by Flynn's replacement as NSA, H.R. McMaster, who was given authority to reorganize when he was brought on.
Bannon, a former executive for Breitbart News, had attended only one NSC meeting. He keeps his security clearance, according to the senior White House official.
Image: Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus
White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, left, walks with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus before a lunch with President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the White House in Washington on April 3, 2017. Evan Vucci / AP
Trump's decision in January to put Bannon, a political operative, on the NSC drew criticism from some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, with Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., calling it a "radical departure."
After the reversal Wednesday, Sen. Ben Cardin, D.-Maryland, said he was happy to hear about it.
"My hope is that he would have no role in government at all, that he be completely out because I do think that is not the type of advice the president should be receiving in regards to diversity and tolerance and the values of our country," Cardin said.
Former NSC spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement that Bannon's removal was a "welcome, if belated, first step."
"The removal of Steve Bannon is as overdue as the addition of leading military and intelligence advisors, whose information and counsel have long been critical to the formulation of U.S. foreign policy," Price said.
Approval rating hits new low only 34% of American voters think he's honest President's popularity slips - Independent
approval rating hits new low and only 34% of American voters think he's honest
President's popularity is slipping as controversies pile up
has hit a new low.
According to a poll by Quinnipiac University, just 35 per cent of voters approve of the President's handling of the top job — and even fewer people, 34 per cent, believe he is honest.
It is a significant drop from the 42 per cent approval Mr Trump held a few weeks into his tenure, which had fallen to 37 per cent by the time of Quinnipiac's 22 March poll. The latest figures are based on calls to 1,171 people across the US.
The university's findings matched those by Gallup last week. That company's results came in the aftermath of Mr Trump's executive order to reverse Barack Obama's "war on coal", and amid an FBI investigation into his campaign team's links to Russia.
Two days after he was made leader of the free world, Mr Trump had a respectable 45 per cent approval rating, according to Gallup.
He had previously teased Barack Obama for his ratings which, at their lowest, slipped to 38 per cent in both 2011 and 2014 with Gallup.
Tim Malloy, assistant poll director at Quinnipiac, said: "President Donald Trump continues to struggle, even among his most loyal supporters.
"Many of them would be hard pressed to see even a sliver of a silver lining in this troubling downward spiral.
"George W Bush, who hit a negative 28 - 67 per cent on 14 May, 2008, had less support, but it took eight years, two unpopular wars and a staggering economy to get there.
"As President Trump's approval tanks, Congress, especially Republicans, follow right behind him."
Mr Trump has faced a number of high-profile defeats in his attempts to implement his domestic agenda.
Two separate travel bans targeting Muslim-majority countries have been stymied by the courts and a long-promised bill repealing the Affordable Care Act did not gather enough support for a vote in Congress.
He has, however, taken swift action through executive orders on issues like the Dakota Access Pipeline and immigration.
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