Bill O'Reilly was good at his job, but he was bad at being a nice or even decent person. Some of the things he said were just mean, and others were sexual harassment. Did he deserve to get fired for it? Well, that was up to Fox executives, and they said yes. Did Bill Clinton deserve to get fired for his sexual indiscretions? That ultimately ended up being a no (though almost a yes for lying about adultery under oath), but Clinton's list of alleged sexual misconduct accusers included several alleged rape victims, and like O'Reilly, millions in payoffs. He deserved to be fired and jailed for those things, if any of them were true, though he never deserved to be President in the first place. But Bill Clinton was good at his job in that he was probably the best Democratic President since JFK. The list of people who were worse at the job since then includes LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama. So even though I'm no fan, I'll even admit that Clinton did at least a few good things while he was President, but my opinion is that, regardless of political persuasion, workplace sexual misconduct should generally result in firing, no matter how good you are at your job or what that job is.
Rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment are all terrible things, and we as a society need to do what we can to encourage women (and men) who are victims to speak up and report these things to the authorities immediately when they happen. We need to create an environment where victims will not be shamed for having the courage to report assailants, and where they will know that if they do not report these things, there will likely be other victims. But we also need to stop conflating everything. Sexual harassment is bad, but rape is way worse, and not everything is sexual harassment, nor is all sexual harassment equal. Some of the things O'Reilly is accused of, if true, should have absolutely resulted in his firing. Calling someone to harass them while audibly masturbating is not an acceptable thing to do, and telling women that you will help impact their careers for better or worse depending on whether or not they have sex with you is terrible, but there are other mean-spirited and morally questionable things that people say, including O'Reilly, that should not be classified as sexual harassment.
Parading people on television to talk about things that O'Reilly said that they didn't like should be a bit more selective, because it can diminish the seriousness of the truly problematic things he (or others) said to other alleged victims of harassment if we're calling everything harassment. Saying that someone looks good is not sexual harassment. If you're saying it constantly, and the person makes it clear that it's bothersome, then it is, but otherwise, my goodness, give me a break. If I tell a female (or a male) co-worker that her (or his) shirt looks nice on a day when it looks particularly nice, that is an observation and a compliment, but it has nothing to do with sex, and it is not harassment of any kind. If I say something of that nature to you and you don't like it, act like an adult and tell me before going to HR. And, in the particular case of O'Reilly, saying that you forgot someone's name because there are a lot of blondes on the network, and then later thanking her for her blondness is not sexual harassment. It's not nice, it's not professional, and the picture of O'Reilly that has been painted is that of a giant asshole, but it's also not sexual harassment.
I don't understand the comparison of O'Reilly to Cosby though. I really don't. There are people calling for O'Reilly to be publicly shamed the same way Cosby was. As far as I'm aware, no one has accused O'Reilly of rape or drugging. In the hierarchy of terrible famous people named Bill, if even a few of Cosby's accusers are telling the truth, Cosby's crimes should be punished far more than O'Reilly's. He deserves to spend his life in jail, even though he too was very good at his job. Say what you want about Cosby, but he could be pretty damn funny, yet he deserves to never see the light of day again. And as far as Clinton? Well, if any of the rape allegations against him are true, he's even worse than Cosby. At least Cosby had the courtesy to knock the women unconscious before raping them. In all seriousness though, both of those guys should be in prison for the rest of their lives. The only time I can turn a blind eye to rape is when rapists are raped in prison for raping other people. It's still wrong, but I don't have much sympathy for the criminal victims there.
What would be a fitting punishment for O'Reilly, in addition to the firing? Maybe forcing him to have a show on CNN where he would be doomed to have terrible ratings, eventually fading into irrelevancy? Or maybe they can strip him naked and walk him through town Game of Thrones style, where people can just keep yelling "Shame" at him while they laugh at his tiny Irish penis (that statement is both racist and sexual harassment if you don't know what a joke is). Regardless of what becomes of O'Reilly though, his firing means that mainstream news media political pundits have become even more irrelevant, which is a win for Independent podcasts and Internet stars. But the real question is: Which famous person named Bill will be accused of sexual misconduct next? Maybe Bill Nye? He looks like a mean-spirited guy who's into weird shit. Or Bill Maher? The far left doesn't like him anymore since he's in favor of free speech, so maybe they're trying to dig up some stuff up on him. Maybe it's a good idea to avoid being alone with famous people named Bill for a while, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do if you're a woman, but only if it isn't Vice President Mike Pence's idea.
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