The gossip claims “The Bill O'Reilly Factor” host tried to get Nassau County police to conduct an internal investigation on an officer he believed to be sleeping with his wife. Fox News preemptively attempts to undermine Gawker’s credibility.
According to Gawker, the top-rated Fox News host is the prime mover behind a highly irregular police investigation in his Long Island hometown. A detective working for internal affairs was allegedly asked to meet with private investigators who were trying to build a case against another detective, who had become romantically involved with Bill O’Reilly’s wife while the two were separated. This, by the way, is the promised bombshell that prompted Fox News’s bizarre and dishonest reports about how Gawker is “dying.”
To build a case that News Corp. constitutes a corrupt organization under anti-racketeering statutes, prosecutors have to show that there exists a pattern of wrongdoing sanctioned at the highest levels of the company.
I’ve said I consider it unlikely that such a pattern can be established. But the charges against Bill O’Reilly make it that much less unlikely. As Gawker notes, his boss, Fox News chief Roger Ailes, has a habit of using local cops as though they’re his personal employees.
Gawker went on to speculate on the state of Bill O'Reilly's marriage to his wife of 15 years, Maureen McPhilmy O'Reilly and offered evidence that Mrs. O'Reilly had moved out on the TV host and was keeping a separate residence.
Perhaps to pre-empt the negative press on a story it knew to be coming, Fox News launched an out-of-left-field attack on the website last week on its show Fox and Friends. (Though this wouldn't be the first time Fox News has bashed Gawker on the air.)
During a segment on once-trendy websites that are past their prime, host Steve Doocy claimed Gawker traffic was down 75 percent in the last year.
Not so, said Gawker writer John Cook, who also wrote the Bill O'Reilly piece. He posted a chart detailing Gawker's traffic numbers, which are up more than 50 percent compared to last year, with unique visitors staying about the same.
Cook claimed the attack was launched because Fox News wanted to undermine the site's credibility before it published the Bill O'Reilly story.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Bill OReilly
10/10/2011
News Staff
