According to The Hollywood Reporter, attorney Lisa Bloom says that Fox News is preparing to launch an investigation into the many sexual harassment accusations that have been brought against Bill O’Reilly. Bloom is representing one of the accusers, and she told CNN’s Brian Stelter that she recently received a call from Fox News’ attorneys during which they told her that they are “taking it seriously” and that they are “going to do the investigation that’s legally required of them.” We don’t know much more beyond that, but Fox News has not released a statement of its own yet.
This comes a little more than a week after the network renewed O’Reilly’s contract, which came in the wake of a New York Times report that revealed that Fox News and O’Reilly had paid $13 million in sexual harassment settlements over the years. In response to the network apparently turning a blind eye to O’Reilly alleged history, a large number of advertisers—led by Mercedes-Benz—dropped their support for The O’Reilly Factor, with THR saying the current number sits somewhere around “two dozen.”
UPDATE: 21st Century Fox has now released a brief statement to THR. It says, in full: “21st Century Fox investigates all complaints and we have asked the law firm Paul Weiss to continue assisting the company in these serious matters.”