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发信人: WCNMLGB (CCC), 信区: Military
标 题: 收了钱又反悔？
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Mon Dec 4 23:15:10 2017, 美东)
Bill O’Reilly Is Sued by Woman Who Settled Over Harassment Accusations
A woman who reached a settlement with Bill O’Reilly over harassment
allegations sued Mr. O’Reilly and Fox News on Monday for defamation and
breach of contract, saying that public statements he and the network made
violated the settlement and portrayed her as a liar and politically
motivated extortionist.
The woman, Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, is one of six known to have reached
settlements after making accusations against Mr. O’Reilly. (Her allegations
did not include sexual harassment.) None of the others have said anything
publicly about their claims, which involved sexual harassment.
Mr. O’Reilly has repeatedly said that the harassment allegations that led
to his ouster from Fox News in April have no merit, that he never mistreated
anyone and that he resolved the matters privately to protect his children.
“In fact, Mr. O’Reilly is the liar,” states the lawsuit, which was filed
in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“He mistreated Ms. Bernstein. She was forced out of her job at Fox News and
paid a settlement because of his mistreatment.”
Settlements involving harassment allegations often contain strict
confidentiality and nondisparagement clauses, which some employment lawyers
have said build a culture of silence around these issues and allow
misconduct to continue.
Ms. Bernstein’s lawyers, Neil Mullin and Nancy Erika Smith, have been vocal
critics of the use of nondisclosure agreements and nondisparagement clauses
to silence victims of harassment. They represented the former Fox News host
Gretchen Carlson in her July 2016 suit claiming she was harassed by the
network’s founding chairman, Roger Ailes. In the wake of the lawsuit,
issues of sexual harassment at Fox News burst into public view.
“Knowing Ms. Bernstein and Mr. O’Reilly’s other victims are afraid to
speak out because he and Fox forced them to sign nondisclosure agreements, O
’Reilly and Fox have made false and disparaging claims,” Mr. Mullin said
in a statement. “They should release all victims from their NDAs and let
the truth out. It is cowardly to publicly attack these women knowing they
have been subjected to contractual provisions requiring absolute silence.”
Fredric S. Newman, a lawyer for Mr. O’Reilly, said in a statement that Mr.
O’Reilly had never mentioned Ms. Bernstein’s name publicly in any context.
“As the original New York Times story makes clear, this was absolutely not
a case of sexual harassment,” Mr. Newman said. “So today’s lawsuit has
absolutely no merit, and Mr. O’Reilly will respond aggressively in court.”
A spokesman for 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, declined
to comment.
Ms. Bernstein, in her lawsuit, said that she had reached a settlement with
Fox News and Mr. O’Reilly in July 2002 after she made repeated complaints
about his behavior to the network’s human resources department and other
executives. The agreement included a confidentiality clause, which barred
both sides from talking about the dispute, as well as a nondisparagement
clause.
The New York Times reported on Ms. Bernstein’s settlement in April as part
of an investigation that exposed how the network had stood by Mr. O’Reilly
as he faced a series of harassment allegations. The Times reported that the
network was aware of complaints involving Mr. O’Reilly since at least 2002,
when, current and former employees who witnessed the incident said, he
stormed into the newsroom and screamed at Ms. Bernstein. Ms. Bernstein soon
left the network.
The exact amount of Ms. Bernstein’s settlement was not known, but it was
far less than the five other publicly known settlements involving Mr. O’
Reilly. The six settlements have totaled about $45 million, including one
for $32 million.
In her suit, Ms. Bernstein said she was not the source of the information
printed in the Times article.
Ms. Bernstein claims that statements made by Mr. O’Reilly and Fox News in
response to the article disparaged and defamed her and violated the
confidentiality clause of the settlement, which required that if asked about
the dispute, the parties could respond by stating, “The matter has been
resolved (or settled).”
“O’Reilly portrayed himself as a ‘target’ and claimed that complaints
against him are extortionate,” Ms. Bernstein’s lawsuit said. “This is
false. In fact, he is a serial abuser and Ms. Bernstein’s complaints about
him were far from extortionate.”
Ms. Bernstein said Fox News had made a “deliberately misleading” statement
by stating that no current or former Fox News employee ever used a hotline
to report complaints about Mr. O’Reilly. She said that there was no hotline
at Fox News during her employment and that she had repeatedly complained to
the human resources department at Fox News, as well as other executives,
about Mr. O’Reilly’s behavior.
“This cynical falsehood about a nonexistent hotline was made to bolster O’
Reilly’s claim that the women who received settlements must have fabricated
their claims or they would have complained,” Ms. Smith said in a statement
. “But Ms. Bernstein did complain. There is ample evidence that Fox News,
with the complicity of top executives, enabled the abuse of women for many
years, then silenced them nondisclosure agreements and nondisparagement
clauses.”
In the suit, Ms. Bernstein said she had suffered reputational harm,
emotional distress, physical sickness and loss of income as a result of the
statements made by Mr. O’Reilly and Fox News.
RELATED COVERAGE
Bill O’Reilly Settled New Harassment Claim, Then Fox Renewed His Contract
Oct. 21, 2017
A Long-Delayed Reckoning of the Cost of Silence on Abuse Oct. 22, 2017
Bill O’Reilly Is Forced Out at Fox News April 19, 2017
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