NEW YORK – “The View” canceled a scheduled appearance Wednesday by a woman who settled a sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill O’Reilly after the former Fox News Channel personality petitioned and received an injunction against her.
NEW YORK – “The View” canceled a scheduled appearance Wednesday by a woman who settled a sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill O’Reilly after the former Fox News Channel personality petitioned and received an injunction against her.
O’Reilly accused former producer Andrea Mackris of breaching a nondisclosure agreement by sharing her experience with him nearly two decades ago.
ABC’s daytime talk show said in a statement that after being notified of the restraining order, we decided to postpone their interview until further development. We look forward to welcoming you to ‘The View’ at a later date. “
Mackris gave an interview with the Daily Beast earlier this month detailing her experience with O’Reilly. She had accused him of repeatedly making indecent phone calls while accusing Mackris of extortion before he agreed to a $ 9 million settlement in 2004.
Fox News fired O’Reilly, its most popular star at the time, in 2017 after it was revealed the company had paid five women a total of $ 13 million to keep silent about unsettling encounters with him.
O’Reilly accused Mackris in court files filed this week with the New York State Supreme Court in Nassau County of breaching the confidentiality obligations to which she agreed in her settlement. While Mackris apparently believes the terms do not apply to her, “she did not offer to return the millions of dollars she received,” said O’Reilly’s lawyers.
Judge Randy Sue Marber signed the injunction Tuesday and ordered a hearing on July 26th.
Mackris told the Daily Beast on Wednesday, “I hope the days of the law allowing women to remain silent are over. I will continue to fight for my voice. “
In the July 13 article for the website, Mackris talked about her emotional distress and how she was effectively blacked out in the news industry in the years following her fall.
This article was co-authored by “Contributing Reporter” Diana Falzone, herself a former Fox News contributor. Falzone settled a gender discrimination lawsuit against Fox after she accused the network of abruptly taking her off the air when she wrote an article in 2017 detailing her struggles with endometriosis.
The Daily Beast revealed Falzone’s Fox connection and settlement in an editor’s note at the end of the play.
Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that was a potential conflict of interest that raises the question of whether Falzone’s experience with Fox would affect her independence. She said it would be wrong to say Falzone couldn’t write about these subjects, but it was questionable for her to write about when it came to Fox.
Daily Beast editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman said Wednesday the news site was OK with the deal.
“The idea that Diana should somehow be banned from reporting on the subject is insane,” Shachtman said. “We made their story with Fox completely transparent and no one questions the substance of their incredible range of shovels.”
David Bauder, The Associated Press
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