Star conservative TV host Bill O’Reilly out at Fox after fallout from sexual harassment charges

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Bill O'Reilly of "The O'Reilly Factor" on the Fox News Channel, poses for photos in the set in New York. O'Reilly has lost his job at Fox News Channel following reports that five women had been paid millions of dollars to keep quiet about harassment allegations. Photo: AP

Published: 3:45am, 20 Apr 2017Updated: 6:01am, 20 Apr 2017

Twenty-First Century Fox has decided to part ways with star cable news host Bill O’Reilly following allegations of sexual harassment, the company said on Wednesday.

“After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Bill O’Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel,” the company said in a statement.

“Over the past 20 years at Fox News, I have been extremely proud to launch and lead one of the most successful news programmes in history, which has consistently informed and entertained millions of Americans and significantly contributed to building Fox into the dominant news network in television,” O’Reilly said in a statement.

“It is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims,” he added. “But that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today.”

O’Reilly said in an April 1 statement that he had been unfairly targeted because of his public prominence. Marc Kasowitz, O’Reilly’s lawyer, said in a statement on Tuesday that the television host “has been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-McCarthyist America.”

It is not known exactly how Fox News would handle O’Reilly’s exit or whether he would be allowed to say goodbye to viewers on the air, according to the New York magazine report.