Ratings Skyrocket, Sponsors Flee as Trump Endorses Fox News Host O'Reilly

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"I wonder why women at the network would take that particularly seriously", he said.

The Times had revealed over the weekend that Fox News' parent company 21st Century Fox had paid settlements totalling $13 million to five women to keep quiet about alleged mistreatment at the hands of Fox's prime-time star. They're taking a look at them because this really is a sexual harassment enterprise.

Bill O'Reilly's ratings for his Fox News program are up 20 percent over the last week, including after The New York Times published a report about sexual harassment lawsuit settlements.

This prompted Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-California, to lash out at the two and the "sexual harassment enterprise" Fox News in an NBC interview Wednesday night.

In a statement on Tuesday, Fox reported that the ads from those companies will be moved to air during other programs, which means there is unlikely to be a big loss in profit to the network.

As of Thursday morning, 55 companies had pulled advertising from "The O'Reilly Factor" amid allegations of sexual harassment against O'Reilly. The Fox News host, whose show has been abandoned by dozens of advertisers, hasn't admitted any wrongdoing. It needs to be stopped.

Trump administration preps for possible government shutdown
The move is leaving the bipartisan bill teetering on the brink of collapse, just a week before a government shutdown deadline. Trump campaigned for president on the promise of building the wall and sticking Mexico with the tab.

Meyers referred to instances when Trump has tweeted out headlines he had just seen on the network as if they were his own ideas, and his fandom of Fox News overall, going so far as to advertise for the network's shows via his Twitter account.

Walsh, a reoccurring guest on "The O'Reilly Factor", is one of the few who is able to share her story because she has not entered into a legal agreement, O'Donnell explained.

It's coming out of the mouth of a man who has said some frightful things about women.

A Fox News spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

But O'Reilly, in a testament to his ratings dominance, has always been a magnet for premium advertisers.

In the wake of the report, advertisers like Mercedes and Hyundai have pulled their advertising from his show to demonstrate that they're on the side of humans, male and female, who respect one another and don't reduce one another to a series of body parts. And so I'm not surprised that he stood up and tried to defend Bill O'Reilly. But this is Fox News, after all.

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