Sexism is alive and well in the US. First we elect a president who publicly brags about grabbing women by the pussy. I mean, seriously? However, I suppose Trump voters could possibly excuse this by claiming that they voted for him for other reasons.
But consider this. Recently, Bill O’Reilly and Fox News paid out around $13 million to at least seven women to settle lawsuits accusing the Fox News host of sexual harassment of fellow employees at Fox News. O’Reilly was criticized in the media (including on NPR), a prominent women’s organization called for him to be fired, and over fifty advertisers dropped their sponsorship of O’Reilly’s show.
But when the next O’Reilly show aired, the number of viewers soared from 2.3 million to 3.8 million viewers. That’s right, O’Reilly’s viewers not only stuck with him, they rewarded him after the news broke. Not only that, but Fox News renewed his contract despite knowing about the lawsuits.
Originally published at Political Irony.