The Omnibus Deplorables Thread
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BeaverFever @ Sun Sep 24, 2017 8:59 am
$1:
Flint’s lead-poisoned water had a ‘horrifyingly large’ effect on fetal deaths, study finds
The fertility rate in Flint, Mich., dropped precipitously after the city decided to switch to lead-poisoned Flint River water in 2014, according to a new working paper.
That decline was primarily driven by what the authors call a “culling of the least healthy fetuses” resulting in a “horrifyingly large” increase in fetal deaths and miscarriages. The paper estimates that among the babies conceived from November 2013 through March 2015, “between 198 and 276 more children would have been born had Flint not enacted the switch in water,” write health economists Daniel Grossman of West Virginia University and David Slusky of Kansas University.
In April 2014, Flint decided to draw its public water supply from the Flint River, a temporary measure intended to save costs while the city worked on a permanent pipeline project to Lake Huron. Residents immediately began complaining about the odor and appearance of the water, but well into 2015 the city was still assuring residents that the water was safe to drink.
Subsequent testing by Flint authorities and outside agencies turned up lead levels that in some cases were dozens or hundreds times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency's safety threshold. A September 2015 study showed that the proportion of Flint children with high lead levels in their blood had roughly doubled after the water change. The city finally switched back to Lake Huron water in October 2015.....Flint, according to 2016 Census estimates, is 53 percent African American. In addition, 45 percent of Flint's residents live in poverty, and census data released last week showed that it is the nation's poorest city.
The fertility rate in Flint, Mich., dropped precipitously after the city decided to switch to lead-poisoned Flint River water in 2014, according to a new working paper.
That decline was primarily driven by what the authors call a “culling of the least healthy fetuses” resulting in a “horrifyingly large” increase in fetal deaths and miscarriages. The paper estimates that among the babies conceived from November 2013 through March 2015, “between 198 and 276 more children would have been born had Flint not enacted the switch in water,” write health economists Daniel Grossman of West Virginia University and David Slusky of Kansas University.
In April 2014, Flint decided to draw its public water supply from the Flint River, a temporary measure intended to save costs while the city worked on a permanent pipeline project to Lake Huron. Residents immediately began complaining about the odor and appearance of the water, but well into 2015 the city was still assuring residents that the water was safe to drink.
Subsequent testing by Flint authorities and outside agencies turned up lead levels that in some cases were dozens or hundreds times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency's safety threshold. A September 2015 study showed that the proportion of Flint children with high lead levels in their blood had roughly doubled after the water change. The city finally switched back to Lake Huron water in October 2015.....Flint, according to 2016 Census estimates, is 53 percent African American. In addition, 45 percent of Flint's residents live in poverty, and census data released last week showed that it is the nation's poorest city.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/won ... 84ace8f7ba
Before Bart tries to chime in about Flint being run byDemocrats or something, it's important to remember that Michigan's Republican governor, boasting of his credentials as "businessman" with extensive "management experience" used an existing state law to place the city of Flint under "emergency management", to be run by one of the governors hand-picked appointees. The poisonous water was the result of a bungled "cost-saving" initiative and also other things Republicans love like pollution and horribly neglected public infrastructure.
This is what right-wing austerity looks like.
BeaverFever @ Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:19 pm
$1:
Paul Horner, Fake News Purveyor Who Claimed Credit For Trump's Win, Found Dead At 38
Though President Trump often derides the mainstream media as "fake news," we know now that there were people who consciously crafted false news stories during the 2016 election and passed them off as real.
One of those people was Paul Horner, who made his living creating news hoaxes that often went viral. Authorities say Horner was found dead last week near Phoenix; he was 38.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office told NPR that an autopsy found no signs of foul play and that Horner's family said he had a history of abusing prescription drugs. Evidence at the scene suggests that Horner may have died from an accidental overdose, according to the sheriff's office...
The county's Office of the Medical Examiner told NPR that its investigation into Horner's death is open and pending, and thus foul play has not been ruled out.
In a business now associated with Russia and Macedonia, Horner was a homegrown news fabricator.
He considered himself a political satirist. "There's a lot of humor, a lot of comedy in it," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper in December.
He created fake stories for his website National Report that were likely to find a believing audience. In one fake story, The Washington Post reports, he claimed that President Barack Obama used his own money to keep open a "federally funded" Muslim culture museum during a government shutdown. Horner was delighted that Fox News reported that story as fact before they backtracked.
"Is National Report the fake news site, or Fox News?" he asked the newspaper. "You decide."
In an interview with the Post after the 2016 election Horner said, "I think Trump is in the White House because of me."
"His followers don't fact-check anything — they'll post everything, believe anything," he said. "His campaign manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist."
It's difficult to gauge whether Horner was as influential as he claimed. But his stories certainly reached wide audiences, often by masquerading as coming from reputable news sources.
His fake story about Obama invalidating November's election result was shared more than 250,000 times on Facebook, according to the Post. Horner told BuzzFeed that another of his bogus stories, which claimed 20 million Amish people had committed to vote for Trump, turned up in Google News and garnered 750,000 page views in two days.
Horner told the newspaper that he was making $10,000 a month from Google-powered ads on his websites.
"I hate Trump," he said. But he targeted conservatives with his stories because he found it was more profitable.
Paul Horner, Fake News Purveyor Who Claimed Credit For Trump's Win, Found Dead At 38
Laurel Wamsley
September 27, 20174:49 PM ET
In an interview with CNN in December, Paul Horner defended his stories as political satire: "There's a lot of humor, a lot of comedy in it."
CNN YouTube
Though President Trump often derides the mainstream media as "fake news," we know now that there were people who consciously crafted false news stories during the 2016 election and passed them off as real.
One of those people was Paul Horner, who made his living creating news hoaxes that often went viral. Authorities say Horner was found dead last week near Phoenix; he was 38.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office told NPR that an autopsy found no signs of foul play and that Horner's family said he had a history of abusing prescription drugs. Evidence at the scene suggests that Horner may have died from an accidental overdose, according to the sheriff's office.
The county's Office of the Medical Examiner told NPR that its investigation into Horner's death is open and pending, and thus foul play has not been ruled out.
In a business now associated with Russia and Macedonia, Horner was a homegrown news fabricator.
He considered himself a political satirist. "There's a lot of humor, a lot of comedy in it," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper in December.
He created fake stories for his website National Report that were likely to find a believing audience. In one fake story, The Washington Post reports, he claimed that President Barack Obama used his own money to keep open a "federally funded" Muslim culture museum during a government shutdown. Horner was delighted that Fox News reported that story as fact before they backtracked.
"Is National Report the fake news site, or Fox News?" he asked the newspaper. "You decide."
In an interview with the Post after the 2016 election Horner said, "I think Trump is in the White House because of me."
"His followers don't fact-check anything — they'll post everything, believe anything," he said. "His campaign manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist."
It's difficult to gauge whether Horner was as influential as he claimed. But his stories certainly reached wide audiences, often by masquerading as coming from reputable news sources.
His fake story about Obama invalidating November's election result was shared more than 250,000 times on Facebook, according to the Post. Horner told BuzzFeed that another of his bogus stories, which claimed 20 million Amish people had committed to vote for Trump, turned up in Google News and garnered 750,000 page views in two days.
Horner told the newspaper that he was making $10,000 a month from Google-powered ads on his websites.
"I hate Trump," he said. But he targeted conservatives with his stories because he found it was more profitable.
When asked why he would write the stories he did, like peddling the idea that there were paid protesters at Trump rallies, Horner said he assumed someone would fact-check it.
"I mean that's how this always works: Someone posts something I write, then they find out it's false, then they look like idiots," he told the Post. "But Trump supporters — they just keep running with it! They never fact-check anything! Now he's in the White House. Looking back, instead of hurting the campaign, I think I helped it. And that feels [bad]."
"I do it to try to educate people," Horner claimed in the interview on CNN. "I see certain things wrong in society that I don't like."
Facebook announced last week that it would undertake a number of reforms to guard against interference in elections. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social network wouldn't be able to catch everything.
"We don't check what people say before they say it," he said. "And frankly, I don't think our society should want us to."
Horner's brother told The Associated Press that there was "a genius behind a lot of" his brother's work.
"I think he just wanted people to just think for themselves," said J.J. Horner. "Read more; get more involved instead of just blindly sharing things."
Though President Trump often derides the mainstream media as "fake news," we know now that there were people who consciously crafted false news stories during the 2016 election and passed them off as real.
One of those people was Paul Horner, who made his living creating news hoaxes that often went viral. Authorities say Horner was found dead last week near Phoenix; he was 38.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office told NPR that an autopsy found no signs of foul play and that Horner's family said he had a history of abusing prescription drugs. Evidence at the scene suggests that Horner may have died from an accidental overdose, according to the sheriff's office...
The county's Office of the Medical Examiner told NPR that its investigation into Horner's death is open and pending, and thus foul play has not been ruled out.
In a business now associated with Russia and Macedonia, Horner was a homegrown news fabricator.
He considered himself a political satirist. "There's a lot of humor, a lot of comedy in it," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper in December.
He created fake stories for his website National Report that were likely to find a believing audience. In one fake story, The Washington Post reports, he claimed that President Barack Obama used his own money to keep open a "federally funded" Muslim culture museum during a government shutdown. Horner was delighted that Fox News reported that story as fact before they backtracked.
"Is National Report the fake news site, or Fox News?" he asked the newspaper. "You decide."
In an interview with the Post after the 2016 election Horner said, "I think Trump is in the White House because of me."
"His followers don't fact-check anything — they'll post everything, believe anything," he said. "His campaign manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist."
It's difficult to gauge whether Horner was as influential as he claimed. But his stories certainly reached wide audiences, often by masquerading as coming from reputable news sources.
His fake story about Obama invalidating November's election result was shared more than 250,000 times on Facebook, according to the Post. Horner told BuzzFeed that another of his bogus stories, which claimed 20 million Amish people had committed to vote for Trump, turned up in Google News and garnered 750,000 page views in two days.
Horner told the newspaper that he was making $10,000 a month from Google-powered ads on his websites.
"I hate Trump," he said. But he targeted conservatives with his stories because he found it was more profitable.
Paul Horner, Fake News Purveyor Who Claimed Credit For Trump's Win, Found Dead At 38
Laurel Wamsley
September 27, 20174:49 PM ET
In an interview with CNN in December, Paul Horner defended his stories as political satire: "There's a lot of humor, a lot of comedy in it."
CNN YouTube
Though President Trump often derides the mainstream media as "fake news," we know now that there were people who consciously crafted false news stories during the 2016 election and passed them off as real.
One of those people was Paul Horner, who made his living creating news hoaxes that often went viral. Authorities say Horner was found dead last week near Phoenix; he was 38.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office told NPR that an autopsy found no signs of foul play and that Horner's family said he had a history of abusing prescription drugs. Evidence at the scene suggests that Horner may have died from an accidental overdose, according to the sheriff's office.
The county's Office of the Medical Examiner told NPR that its investigation into Horner's death is open and pending, and thus foul play has not been ruled out.
In a business now associated with Russia and Macedonia, Horner was a homegrown news fabricator.
He considered himself a political satirist. "There's a lot of humor, a lot of comedy in it," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper in December.
He created fake stories for his website National Report that were likely to find a believing audience. In one fake story, The Washington Post reports, he claimed that President Barack Obama used his own money to keep open a "federally funded" Muslim culture museum during a government shutdown. Horner was delighted that Fox News reported that story as fact before they backtracked.
"Is National Report the fake news site, or Fox News?" he asked the newspaper. "You decide."
In an interview with the Post after the 2016 election Horner said, "I think Trump is in the White House because of me."
"His followers don't fact-check anything — they'll post everything, believe anything," he said. "His campaign manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist."
It's difficult to gauge whether Horner was as influential as he claimed. But his stories certainly reached wide audiences, often by masquerading as coming from reputable news sources.
His fake story about Obama invalidating November's election result was shared more than 250,000 times on Facebook, according to the Post. Horner told BuzzFeed that another of his bogus stories, which claimed 20 million Amish people had committed to vote for Trump, turned up in Google News and garnered 750,000 page views in two days.
Horner told the newspaper that he was making $10,000 a month from Google-powered ads on his websites.
"I hate Trump," he said. But he targeted conservatives with his stories because he found it was more profitable.
When asked why he would write the stories he did, like peddling the idea that there were paid protesters at Trump rallies, Horner said he assumed someone would fact-check it.
"I mean that's how this always works: Someone posts something I write, then they find out it's false, then they look like idiots," he told the Post. "But Trump supporters — they just keep running with it! They never fact-check anything! Now he's in the White House. Looking back, instead of hurting the campaign, I think I helped it. And that feels [bad]."
"I do it to try to educate people," Horner claimed in the interview on CNN. "I see certain things wrong in society that I don't like."
Facebook announced last week that it would undertake a number of reforms to guard against interference in elections. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social network wouldn't be able to catch everything.
"We don't check what people say before they say it," he said. "And frankly, I don't think our society should want us to."
Horner's brother told The Associated Press that there was "a genius behind a lot of" his brother's work.
"I think he just wanted people to just think for themselves," said J.J. Horner. "Read more; get more involved instead of just blindly sharing things."
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... d-dead-at-
Wow, a nutjob conspiracy theorist would have a field day with this one! Too bad Fiddle plays for the other team.
Funny coincidence that this happened in Joe Arpaios county, and his Sheriff Department's statement that foul play has been ruled out isn't supported by the Medical Examiner.
But only Republicans are allowed to be suspicious of coincidences I guess. Everyone else is apparently obligated to take them at face value.
Thanos @ Tue Oct 03, 2017 9:34 pm
Another heavyweight pro-life GOP politician caught endorsing abortion for girlfriends & mistresses of GOP congress-critters only. 
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/former ... on-report/
$1:
Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), a prominent pro-life conservative previously backed by the National Right to Life Committee, urged a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair with to get an abortion, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
“You have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Murphy’s former lover Shannon Edwards wrote in a text message after the GOP Congressman wrote an anti-abortion post on his Facebook account.
In a transcript of the text message thread obtained by the Post-Gazette, Murphy tried to mitigate Edwards’ charges of hypocrisy. “I get what you say about my March for life [sic] message,” Murphy wrote to Edwards. “I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”
Murphy last month admitted to an affair with Edwards, a forensic psychologist and personal friend, after Edwards’ husband sought to depose the congressman during divorce proceedings.
“You have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Murphy’s former lover Shannon Edwards wrote in a text message after the GOP Congressman wrote an anti-abortion post on his Facebook account.
In a transcript of the text message thread obtained by the Post-Gazette, Murphy tried to mitigate Edwards’ charges of hypocrisy. “I get what you say about my March for life [sic] message,” Murphy wrote to Edwards. “I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”
Murphy last month admitted to an affair with Edwards, a forensic psychologist and personal friend, after Edwards’ husband sought to depose the congressman during divorce proceedings.
Break out the good ol' evangelical crying towel again! (it's OK, he'll be re-elected with 60% of the vote again)
stratos @ Tue Oct 03, 2017 10:55 pm
Thanos Thanos:
Another heavyweight pro-life GOP politician caught endorsing abortion for girlfriends & mistresses of GOP congress-critters only.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/former ... on-report/
Break out the good ol' evangelical crying towel again! (it's OK, he'll be re-elected with 60% of the vote again)
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/former ... on-report/
$1:
Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), a prominent pro-life conservative previously backed by the National Right to Life Committee, urged a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair with to get an abortion, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
“You have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Murphy’s former lover Shannon Edwards wrote in a text message after the GOP Congressman wrote an anti-abortion post on his Facebook account.
In a transcript of the text message thread obtained by the Post-Gazette, Murphy tried to mitigate Edwards’ charges of hypocrisy. “I get what you say about my March for life [sic] message,” Murphy wrote to Edwards. “I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”
Murphy last month admitted to an affair with Edwards, a forensic psychologist and personal friend, after Edwards’ husband sought to depose the congressman during divorce proceedings.
“You have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Murphy’s former lover Shannon Edwards wrote in a text message after the GOP Congressman wrote an anti-abortion post on his Facebook account.
In a transcript of the text message thread obtained by the Post-Gazette, Murphy tried to mitigate Edwards’ charges of hypocrisy. “I get what you say about my March for life [sic] message,” Murphy wrote to Edwards. “I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”
Murphy last month admitted to an affair with Edwards, a forensic psychologist and personal friend, after Edwards’ husband sought to depose the congressman during divorce proceedings.
Break out the good ol' evangelical crying towel again! (it's OK, he'll be re-elected with 60% of the vote again)
Yep hypocrite scumbags exist on all sides in politics
PluggyRug @ Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:10 am
stratos stratos:
Yep hypocrite scumbags exist on all sides in politics
There are no sides with politicians, they're all self serving scumbags.
BartSimpson @ Wed Oct 04, 2017 9:22 am
BeaverFever BeaverFever:
Before Bart tries to chime in....
Oh, you're so clever with your witty remarks! Now go upstairs to the kitchen and tell your mommy what a man you are.
raydan @ Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:00 pm
Thanos Thanos:
Another heavyweight pro-life GOP politician caught endorsing abortion for girlfriends & mistresses of GOP congress-critters only.
Almost as good as when an anti-gay Evangelist gets caught with his boy-toy in a seedy motel room.
BeaverFever @ Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:13 pm
$1:
O’Reilly Settled New Harassment Claims, Then Fox Renewed His Contract
By EMILY STEEL and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
October 21, 2017
In January, the Fox News host was said to have agreed to a $32 million settlement with a former network analyst, the largest of his known payouts.
Last January, six months after Fox News ousted its chairman amid a sexual harassment scandal, the network’s top-rated host at the time, Bill O’Reilly, struck a $32 million agreement with a longtime network analyst to settle new sexual harassment allegations, according to two people briefed on the matter — an extraordinarily large amount for such cases.
Although the deal has not been previously made public, the network’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, acknowledges that it was aware of the woman’s complaints about Mr. O’Reilly. They included allegations of repeated harassment, a nonconsensual sexual relationship and the sending of gay pornography and other sexually explicit material to her, according to the people briefed on the matter.
It was at least the sixth agreement — and by far the largest — made by either Mr. O’Reilly or the company to settle harassment allegations against him. Despite that record, 21st Century Fox began contract negotiations with Mr. O’Reilly, and in February granted him a four-year extension that paid $25 million a year.
Interviews with people familiar with the settlement, and documents obtained by The New York Times, show how the company tried and ultimately failed to contain the second wave of a sexual harassment crisis that initially burst into public view the previous summer and cost the Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes, and eventually Mr. O’Reilly, their jobs.
In January, the reporting shows, Rupert Murdoch and his sons, Lachlan and James, the top executives at 21st Century Fox, made a business calculation to stand by Mr. O’Reilly despite his most recent, and potentially most explosive, harassment dispute.
Their decision came as the company was trying to convince its employees, its board and the public that it had cleaned up the network’s workplace culture. At the same time, they were determined to hold on to Mr. O’Reilly, whose value to the network increased after the departure of another prominent host, Megyn Kelly.
Lis Wiehl, a former Fox News legal analyst, in 2013. She appeared regularly on Mr. O’Reilly’s show for 15 years.
Taylor Hill / Getty Images
But by April, the Murdochs decided to jettison Mr. O’Reilly as some of the settlements became public and posed a significant threat to their business empire.
Early that month, The Times reported on five settlements involving Mr. O’Reilly, leading advertisers to boycott his show and spawning protests calling for his ouster. About the same time, the O’Reilly settlements arose as an issue in 21st Century Fox’s attempt to buy the European satellite company Sky.
In addition, federal prosecutors who had been investigating the network’s handling of sexual harassment complaints against Mr. Ailes had asked for material related to allegations involving Mr. O’Reilly, according to an internal Fox email obtained by The Times.
“Their legal theory has been that we hid the fact that we had a problem with Roger,” Gerson Zweifach, Fox’s general counsel, wrote in the email, referring to the prosecutors and Mr. Ailes, “and now it will be applied to O’Reilly, and they will insist on full knowledge of all complaints about O’Reilly’s behavior in the workplace, regardless of who settled them.”
He warned the Murdochs that they should expect details from the January settlement to become public. Six days later, Mr. O’Reilly was fired.
In a statement, 21st Century Fox said it was not privy to the amount of the settlement and regarded Mr. O’Reilly’s January settlement, which was reached with a 15-year Fox News analyst named Lis Wiehl, as a personal issue between the two of them.
Interactive Feature | The Women Who Received Settlements
Regarding Mr. O’Reilly’s contract extension, the company said Fox News “surely would have wanted to renew” Mr. O’Reilly’s contract, noting that “he was the biggest star in cable TV.”
It emphasized that provisions were added to the new contract that allowed for his dismissal if new allegations or other relevant information arose. “The company subsequently acted based on the terms of this contract,” the statement said.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. O’Reilly, at times combative and defiant, said there was no merit to any of the allegations against him. “I never mistreated anyone,” he said, adding that he had resolved matters privately because he wanted to protect his children from the publicity.
“It’s politically and financially motivated,” he said of the public outcry over the allegations against him, “and we can prove it with shocking information, but I’m not going to sit here in a courtroom for a year and a half and let my kids get beaten up every single day of their lives by a tabloid press that would sit there, and you know it.”
He declined to specifically address questions about the settlement with Ms. Wiehl or any others.
Mr. O’Reilly’s lawyer, Fredric S. Newman, described his client’s relationship with Ms. Wiehl as an 18-year friendship in which she at times gave him legal advice.
Asked about the allegation of a nonconsensual sexual relationship, a representative for Mr. O’Reilly, Mark Fabiani, said that 21st Century Fox was “well aware” Ms. Wiehl had signed a sworn affidavit “renouncing all allegations against him,” adding that after receiving the document Fox News offered Mr. O’Reilly “a record breaking contract.”
Lawyers for Ms. Wiehl, Jonathan S. Abady and O. Andrew F. Wilson of the firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, declined to comment.
Details of the settlement and how the company handled the O’Reilly situation emerged from interviews with two people briefed on the agreement and several others familiar with the dispute; all of them spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive private negotiations. The Times also viewed a copy of a document partly outlining the agreement and other documents related to the dispute, and received answers to written questions from 21st Century Fox.
The disclosure of Ms. Wiehl’s settlement follows a wave of public accusations against the Hollywood studio mogul Harvey Weinstein, which has increased scrutiny of sexual harassment in the workplace. The Times reported this month that Mr. Weinstein had reached at least eight settlements with women, most of whom received between $80,000 to $150,000.
Ms. Wiehl’s $32 million deal dwarfs other previously known sexual harassment settlements at Fox News. The largest of those was the $20 million payout the former host Gretchen Carlson received after she sued Mr. Ailes in July 2016.
The settlement with Ms. Wiehl was more than three times the amount of any of Mr. O’Reilly’s previously known deals; in 2004, he had settled a lawsuit with a producer, Andrea Mackris, for about $9 million. Publicly known harassment settlements involving Mr. O’Reilly have totaled about $45 million.
Claims Covering 15 Years
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Ms. Wiehl started making regular appearances on Mr. O’Reilly’s show in 2001, when she joined Fox News as a legal analyst. During a segment in September of that year, Mr. O’Reilly announced that Ms. Wiehl had landed a job at the network and said she owed him.
Hey, you know, Lis, I got you this job,” he said. “You know that?”
“I know you did, I know,” she replied.
“So you owe me,” Mr. O’Reilly said. “You owe me big.”
“No, no, no,” Ms. Wiehl said.
Mr. O’Reilly also made suggestive remarks to Ms. Wiehl on the air. During one segment on his radio show in 2005 about a strip club, he suggested that she learn how to dance for a $10,000 tip.
Ms. Wiehl last appeared on Mr. O’Reilly’s show on Dec. 20, 2016. On Jan. 2, Mr. O’Reilly received a draft of a lawsuit Ms. Wiehl was threatening to file outlining her allegations of sexual harassment, and 21st Century Fox received a copy of the complaint soon afterward.
Both Mr. O’Reilly and 21st Century Fox were at critical junctures. If the allegations became public, they would not only embarrass Mr. O’Reilly and harm his career, but could jeopardize his yearslong custody battle with his ex-wife. A hearing was set for later that month, when Mr. O’Reilly’s lawyers planned to argue that he should be given more time with his son, according to two people familiar with the dispute.
At Fox News, Ms. Kelly had just announced that she was leaving the network for NBC. Her departure made Mr. O’Reilly’s presence in the prime-time lineup even more crucial, with his show pulling in top ratings and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Mr. Newman told 21st Century Fox that Mr. O’Reilly considered it a personal matter and that he would resolve it on his own. Mr. Newman handled the negotiations with lawyers for Ms. Wiehl....
By EMILY STEEL and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
October 21, 2017
In January, the Fox News host was said to have agreed to a $32 million settlement with a former network analyst, the largest of his known payouts.
Last January, six months after Fox News ousted its chairman amid a sexual harassment scandal, the network’s top-rated host at the time, Bill O’Reilly, struck a $32 million agreement with a longtime network analyst to settle new sexual harassment allegations, according to two people briefed on the matter — an extraordinarily large amount for such cases.
Although the deal has not been previously made public, the network’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, acknowledges that it was aware of the woman’s complaints about Mr. O’Reilly. They included allegations of repeated harassment, a nonconsensual sexual relationship and the sending of gay pornography and other sexually explicit material to her, according to the people briefed on the matter.
It was at least the sixth agreement — and by far the largest — made by either Mr. O’Reilly or the company to settle harassment allegations against him. Despite that record, 21st Century Fox began contract negotiations with Mr. O’Reilly, and in February granted him a four-year extension that paid $25 million a year.
Interviews with people familiar with the settlement, and documents obtained by The New York Times, show how the company tried and ultimately failed to contain the second wave of a sexual harassment crisis that initially burst into public view the previous summer and cost the Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes, and eventually Mr. O’Reilly, their jobs.
In January, the reporting shows, Rupert Murdoch and his sons, Lachlan and James, the top executives at 21st Century Fox, made a business calculation to stand by Mr. O’Reilly despite his most recent, and potentially most explosive, harassment dispute.
Their decision came as the company was trying to convince its employees, its board and the public that it had cleaned up the network’s workplace culture. At the same time, they were determined to hold on to Mr. O’Reilly, whose value to the network increased after the departure of another prominent host, Megyn Kelly.
Lis Wiehl, a former Fox News legal analyst, in 2013. She appeared regularly on Mr. O’Reilly’s show for 15 years.
Taylor Hill / Getty Images
But by April, the Murdochs decided to jettison Mr. O’Reilly as some of the settlements became public and posed a significant threat to their business empire.
Early that month, The Times reported on five settlements involving Mr. O’Reilly, leading advertisers to boycott his show and spawning protests calling for his ouster. About the same time, the O’Reilly settlements arose as an issue in 21st Century Fox’s attempt to buy the European satellite company Sky.
In addition, federal prosecutors who had been investigating the network’s handling of sexual harassment complaints against Mr. Ailes had asked for material related to allegations involving Mr. O’Reilly, according to an internal Fox email obtained by The Times.
“Their legal theory has been that we hid the fact that we had a problem with Roger,” Gerson Zweifach, Fox’s general counsel, wrote in the email, referring to the prosecutors and Mr. Ailes, “and now it will be applied to O’Reilly, and they will insist on full knowledge of all complaints about O’Reilly’s behavior in the workplace, regardless of who settled them.”
He warned the Murdochs that they should expect details from the January settlement to become public. Six days later, Mr. O’Reilly was fired.
In a statement, 21st Century Fox said it was not privy to the amount of the settlement and regarded Mr. O’Reilly’s January settlement, which was reached with a 15-year Fox News analyst named Lis Wiehl, as a personal issue between the two of them.
Interactive Feature | The Women Who Received Settlements
Regarding Mr. O’Reilly’s contract extension, the company said Fox News “surely would have wanted to renew” Mr. O’Reilly’s contract, noting that “he was the biggest star in cable TV.”
It emphasized that provisions were added to the new contract that allowed for his dismissal if new allegations or other relevant information arose. “The company subsequently acted based on the terms of this contract,” the statement said.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. O’Reilly, at times combative and defiant, said there was no merit to any of the allegations against him. “I never mistreated anyone,” he said, adding that he had resolved matters privately because he wanted to protect his children from the publicity.
“It’s politically and financially motivated,” he said of the public outcry over the allegations against him, “and we can prove it with shocking information, but I’m not going to sit here in a courtroom for a year and a half and let my kids get beaten up every single day of their lives by a tabloid press that would sit there, and you know it.”
He declined to specifically address questions about the settlement with Ms. Wiehl or any others.
Mr. O’Reilly’s lawyer, Fredric S. Newman, described his client’s relationship with Ms. Wiehl as an 18-year friendship in which she at times gave him legal advice.
Asked about the allegation of a nonconsensual sexual relationship, a representative for Mr. O’Reilly, Mark Fabiani, said that 21st Century Fox was “well aware” Ms. Wiehl had signed a sworn affidavit “renouncing all allegations against him,” adding that after receiving the document Fox News offered Mr. O’Reilly “a record breaking contract.”
Lawyers for Ms. Wiehl, Jonathan S. Abady and O. Andrew F. Wilson of the firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, declined to comment.
Details of the settlement and how the company handled the O’Reilly situation emerged from interviews with two people briefed on the agreement and several others familiar with the dispute; all of them spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive private negotiations. The Times also viewed a copy of a document partly outlining the agreement and other documents related to the dispute, and received answers to written questions from 21st Century Fox.
The disclosure of Ms. Wiehl’s settlement follows a wave of public accusations against the Hollywood studio mogul Harvey Weinstein, which has increased scrutiny of sexual harassment in the workplace. The Times reported this month that Mr. Weinstein had reached at least eight settlements with women, most of whom received between $80,000 to $150,000.
Ms. Wiehl’s $32 million deal dwarfs other previously known sexual harassment settlements at Fox News. The largest of those was the $20 million payout the former host Gretchen Carlson received after she sued Mr. Ailes in July 2016.
The settlement with Ms. Wiehl was more than three times the amount of any of Mr. O’Reilly’s previously known deals; in 2004, he had settled a lawsuit with a producer, Andrea Mackris, for about $9 million. Publicly known harassment settlements involving Mr. O’Reilly have totaled about $45 million.
Claims Covering 15 Years
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Ms. Wiehl started making regular appearances on Mr. O’Reilly’s show in 2001, when she joined Fox News as a legal analyst. During a segment in September of that year, Mr. O’Reilly announced that Ms. Wiehl had landed a job at the network and said she owed him.
Hey, you know, Lis, I got you this job,” he said. “You know that?”
“I know you did, I know,” she replied.
“So you owe me,” Mr. O’Reilly said. “You owe me big.”
“No, no, no,” Ms. Wiehl said.
Mr. O’Reilly also made suggestive remarks to Ms. Wiehl on the air. During one segment on his radio show in 2005 about a strip club, he suggested that she learn how to dance for a $10,000 tip.
Ms. Wiehl last appeared on Mr. O’Reilly’s show on Dec. 20, 2016. On Jan. 2, Mr. O’Reilly received a draft of a lawsuit Ms. Wiehl was threatening to file outlining her allegations of sexual harassment, and 21st Century Fox received a copy of the complaint soon afterward.
Both Mr. O’Reilly and 21st Century Fox were at critical junctures. If the allegations became public, they would not only embarrass Mr. O’Reilly and harm his career, but could jeopardize his yearslong custody battle with his ex-wife. A hearing was set for later that month, when Mr. O’Reilly’s lawyers planned to argue that he should be given more time with his son, according to two people familiar with the dispute.
At Fox News, Ms. Kelly had just announced that she was leaving the network for NBC. Her departure made Mr. O’Reilly’s presence in the prime-time lineup even more crucial, with his show pulling in top ratings and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Mr. Newman told 21st Century Fox that Mr. O’Reilly considered it a personal matter and that he would resolve it on his own. Mr. Newman handled the negotiations with lawyers for Ms. Wiehl....
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/b ... google.ca/
Thanos @ Fri Oct 27, 2017 10:23 am
Here's Alex Jones' real "contribution" to the world - stirring up the potentially dangerous mentally ill conspiracy lunatics with his nonsense in a co-ordinated attack on survivors and families of victims of mass-shooting violence:
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-polit ... -survivors
$1:
Some of the concertgoers who survived the Las Vegas mass shooting have been targeted by death threats from online conspiracy theorists.
Like many mass shootings, the Las Vegas massacre that left 58 dead and hundreds wounded has prompted claims that the tragedy was a hoax, and some of those conspiracy theorists have spammed social media with threats and abuse against the victims and their families, reported The Guardian.
YouTube and other social media sites are filled with posts and videos claiming the survivors are “crisis actors,” a concept popularized by InfoWars broadcaster Alex Jones after Sandy Hook, hired to pose as victims.
“You are a lying piece of shit and I hope someone truly shoots you in the head,” someone wrote on Facebook to Braden Matejka, who survived a gunshot to the head. “Your soul is disgusting and dark! You will pay for the consequences!” wrote another.
A Facebook meme circulated with a photo of the 30-year-old British Columbian after the shooting, captioned, “I’m a lying cute!”
Matejka was forced to shut down his social media accounts, but his family and friends have also been targeted for abuse.
“There are all these families dealing with likely the most horrific thing they’ll ever experience, and they are also met with hate and anger and are being attacked online about being a part of some conspiracy,” said his brother, Taylor Matejka, told The Guardian. “It’s madness. I can’t imagine the thought process of these people. Do they know that we are actual people?”
Like many mass shootings, the Las Vegas massacre that left 58 dead and hundreds wounded has prompted claims that the tragedy was a hoax, and some of those conspiracy theorists have spammed social media with threats and abuse against the victims and their families, reported The Guardian.
YouTube and other social media sites are filled with posts and videos claiming the survivors are “crisis actors,” a concept popularized by InfoWars broadcaster Alex Jones after Sandy Hook, hired to pose as victims.
“You are a lying piece of shit and I hope someone truly shoots you in the head,” someone wrote on Facebook to Braden Matejka, who survived a gunshot to the head. “Your soul is disgusting and dark! You will pay for the consequences!” wrote another.
A Facebook meme circulated with a photo of the 30-year-old British Columbian after the shooting, captioned, “I’m a lying cute!”
Matejka was forced to shut down his social media accounts, but his family and friends have also been targeted for abuse.
“There are all these families dealing with likely the most horrific thing they’ll ever experience, and they are also met with hate and anger and are being attacked online about being a part of some conspiracy,” said his brother, Taylor Matejka, told The Guardian. “It’s madness. I can’t imagine the thought process of these people. Do they know that we are actual people?”
How much has a society truly fallen when this kind of behaviour is now acceptable to a large portion of internet users?
CharlesAnthony @ Fri Oct 27, 2017 10:27 am
Eventually Alex Jones will go away along with the rest of the fake news industry. Most people can see that he is just a bad cotrolled opposition actor. His gig is on life support now.
DrCaleb @ Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:24 pm
$1:
U.S. drug company founder charged with bribing doctors to prescribe addictive opioid
The founder of U.S. drug company Insys Therapeutics has been charged with leading a nationwide conspiracy to bribe doctors and pharmacists to widely prescribe an opioid cancer pain drug for people who didn't need it.
John N. Kapoor was charged along with group of his colleagues on Thursday with pushing prescriptions for the highly addictive drug. It was the same day that President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a nationwide public health emergency.
Kapoor, 74, of Phoenix, was listed by Forbes several years ago as having a worth of $2.4 billion US. That worth has fallen amid the indictments of numerous fellow Insys executives, but Forbes still listed Kapoor's worth at $1.75 billion US on Thursday as he went to U.S. federal court in the fraud and racketeering case.
The case naming Kapoor follows indictments against the company's former CEO and other executives and managers on allegations that they provided kickbacks to doctors to prescribe a potent opioid spray called Subsys amid a drug epidemic that is claiming thousands of lives each year.
The new indictment alleges Kapoor and the other defendants offered bribes to doctors to write large numbers of prescriptions for the fentanyl-based pain medication that is meant only for cancer patients with severe pain. Most people who received prescriptions did not have cancer.
The founder of U.S. drug company Insys Therapeutics has been charged with leading a nationwide conspiracy to bribe doctors and pharmacists to widely prescribe an opioid cancer pain drug for people who didn't need it.
John N. Kapoor was charged along with group of his colleagues on Thursday with pushing prescriptions for the highly addictive drug. It was the same day that President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a nationwide public health emergency.
Kapoor, 74, of Phoenix, was listed by Forbes several years ago as having a worth of $2.4 billion US. That worth has fallen amid the indictments of numerous fellow Insys executives, but Forbes still listed Kapoor's worth at $1.75 billion US on Thursday as he went to U.S. federal court in the fraud and racketeering case.
The case naming Kapoor follows indictments against the company's former CEO and other executives and managers on allegations that they provided kickbacks to doctors to prescribe a potent opioid spray called Subsys amid a drug epidemic that is claiming thousands of lives each year.
The new indictment alleges Kapoor and the other defendants offered bribes to doctors to write large numbers of prescriptions for the fentanyl-based pain medication that is meant only for cancer patients with severe pain. Most people who received prescriptions did not have cancer.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/john-kapo ... -1.4375037
BartSimpson @ Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:27 pm
I just don't see the difference between this asshole and a common street pusher.
Hope he hangs.
Thanos @ Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:42 pm
By all the rules of the capitalist milieu he's worked his entire life in he's really done nothing at all wrong, and he can probably successfully argue in court that what the authorities are calling bribery was really just bonuses issued beforehand by his company in anticipation of an incredible sales success. That the customers he created for his product end up living and dying in misery is really not his problem, any more than it is for cigarette manufacturers. I'm not saying this as a supporter of anyone who thinks this way. I'm just saying it as objectively as I possibly can that it's kind of empty to condemn someone for playing by the existing rules of business, even if the system he's playing in is as amoral as anything the human mind has ever created. It's like all the pearl-clutchers in Machiavelli's day wanting him burned at the stake when all he did when he wrote The Prince was to put into words what every knew to be true of how their social system operated.
BartSimpson @ Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:47 pm
People don't like the truth.
I say that with an office full of managers who can't bear basic facts be told to them when those facts don't comport with their politically correct worldview.
Yes, I'm the one who's wrong for mentioning that the Chinese citizens who have access to our databases are downloading them onto USB drives and sending them back to China.
How dare I say such a thing. 
Thanos @ Wed Jan 03, 2018 10:35 pm
Bump. Frank Castle tells weaponized-autistic trilby-wearing meme-"warrior" internet Nazi pieces of human garbage to go fuck themselves.
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/20 ... isher.html
$1:
Actor Jon Bernthal has some blunt words for any alt-right fans of his work, which he was happy to share in a new interview about his role as the Marvel character, The Punisher.
Speaking in a lengthy interview for the latest issue of Esquire, Bernthal was asked how he feels about his character’s logo, a skull with long fangs, appearing on helmets and other military member’s clothing as well as some alt-right protesters at the controversial 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
To the men and women in uniform, Bernthal said he was, “honored to play a guy who people putting their life on the line identify with.”
As for the alt-right, his response was significantly less measured.
“F--- them,” he said.
Bernthal’s portrayal of the Frank Castle character on Netflix has resonated with many military fans as well as gun enthusiasts. For those unfamiliar, he plays an ex-special forces soldier who returns home to see his family gunned down by criminals. In an effort to seek justice for their deaths, he methodically goes on a killing spree of those that are guilty. He first appeared on Season 2 of Marvel and Netflix's "Daredevil" before being given a standalone series all his own. The character’s easy access to weapons, as well as the show’s handling of military-centric stories has attracted a lot of fans, not all of which the star is on board with.
Interestingly-enough, Bernthal addressed gun ownership as well, noting that he’s a gun owner himself in the same interview.
“I’m a gun owner,” he said. “I have a gun in my house to keep my family safe. I’m trained in that gun’s use. I know how to keep it away from my kids, and I know how to use it if I need to.”
The former “The Walking Dead” star said that despite his ownership, he believes in stricter regulation.
“Should there be a way that a guy with mental issues like the asshole in Texas can’t get guns? Absolutely. We have to have a dialogue, and that’s not happening.”
“The Punisher” dropped its 13-episode first season in November after being postponed a month following the Las Vegas shooting in October. It was recently given an order for a second season.
Speaking in a lengthy interview for the latest issue of Esquire, Bernthal was asked how he feels about his character’s logo, a skull with long fangs, appearing on helmets and other military member’s clothing as well as some alt-right protesters at the controversial 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
To the men and women in uniform, Bernthal said he was, “honored to play a guy who people putting their life on the line identify with.”
As for the alt-right, his response was significantly less measured.
“F--- them,” he said.
Bernthal’s portrayal of the Frank Castle character on Netflix has resonated with many military fans as well as gun enthusiasts. For those unfamiliar, he plays an ex-special forces soldier who returns home to see his family gunned down by criminals. In an effort to seek justice for their deaths, he methodically goes on a killing spree of those that are guilty. He first appeared on Season 2 of Marvel and Netflix's "Daredevil" before being given a standalone series all his own. The character’s easy access to weapons, as well as the show’s handling of military-centric stories has attracted a lot of fans, not all of which the star is on board with.
Interestingly-enough, Bernthal addressed gun ownership as well, noting that he’s a gun owner himself in the same interview.
“I’m a gun owner,” he said. “I have a gun in my house to keep my family safe. I’m trained in that gun’s use. I know how to keep it away from my kids, and I know how to use it if I need to.”
The former “The Walking Dead” star said that despite his ownership, he believes in stricter regulation.
“Should there be a way that a guy with mental issues like the asshole in Texas can’t get guns? Absolutely. We have to have a dialogue, and that’s not happening.”
“The Punisher” dropped its 13-episode first season in November after being postponed a month following the Las Vegas shooting in October. It was recently given an order for a second season.
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