May 3, 2017
Page 7
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O PINION
Our School Board Endorsements
Three upcoming open seats
on the Portland School Board
will be decided in the May 16
vote-by-mail election. The Port-
land Observer encourages you to
vote for Jamila Singleton Mun-
son, Julia Brim-Edwards and
Virginia LaForte.
By choosing Monson for
Zone 4, voters can elect a need-
ed voice from the African Amer-
ican community, a dedicated
and experienced educator, and a
candidate to correct board dys-
function with collaborative lead-
ership.
Monson is a Grant High
School graduate, former teach-
er, principal and leader of a
non-profit organization for fu-
ture education leaders. She has
the distinction of empowering
kids in historically underserved
Jamila Singleton Munson
Julie Brim-Edwards
communities and wants to use
that experience to reshape pub-
lic education in Portland and
decrease disparities between
students.
Monson
established
her
teaching credentials as a fifth
grade public school teacher in
the South Bronx after being re-
cruited by Teach for America, a
oppose her work with charter
schools, an unfair attack that
puts the self interest of teach-
ers ahead of students, especially
from Portland’s black commu-
nity and other minority groups.
Consider the value of Self En-
hancement, Inc. for example, the
highly successful, homegrown
public charter school working
hand in hand with Portland Pub-
lic Schools to improve the out-
comes of hundreds of black and
minority children.
In Zone 5 and 6, voters should
choose LaForte and Brim-Ed-
wards, two leaders who have
Virginia LaForte
successfully worked with the
non-profit committed to teaching district in the past and know how
in low-income schools and work- to get things done in a spirit of
ing to increase opportunities for cooperation.
disadvantaged populations.
c ontinued on p age 16
We disagree with critics who
Public Downfall Long Time in Making
O’Reilly’s exit
from right-
wing Fox
m arc h. m orial
“Bill O’Reilly has
helped set the bar for
the
normalization
and
dissemination
of right-wing hatred,
offering incendiary commentary
about sexual harassment and as-
sault, gender, race and ethnicity,
low-income people, the LGBTQ
community, Muslims and refu-
gees, immigrants, and reproduc-
tive rights.” — Media Matters
for America
Bill O’Reilly’s public down-
fall was a long time in the mak-
ing—set in motion by a string
of sexual harassment claims and
the hemorrhaging of high-profile
advertisers from “The O’Reil-
ly Factor,” a Fox News channel
mainstay and money maker.
According to reporting by
the New York Times, for a pe-
riod that spanned 15 years,
O’Reilly and 21st Century
Fox—the parent company for
Fox News—together settled five
separate allegations of sexual
harassment brought by female
Fox employees—which includ-
ed accusations of verbal abuse,
unwanted advances and explic-
it comments—for $13 million.
And since that report was pub-
lished, more women have come
forward alleging gross and inap-
by
propriate behavior by Fox’s big-
gest star.
O’Reilly’s cable news pro-
gram was cash cow for Fox
News. It is nothing short of
a testament to the show’s
money generating power
and vaulted cable ratings
perch that Fox News kept
O’Reilly on payroll as the
company quietly purchased
the silence of his accusers
for over a decade.
In a nod to television’s obses-
sion with re-runs, the so-called
swift end to O’Reilly’s career
at Fox News was preceded by a
similar scandal involving Roger
Ailes, the network’s co-founder
and then-chairman. Accused of
multiple acts of sexual harass-
ment, 21st Century Fox paid out
$35 million to Gretchen Carlson,
a former Fox News anchor, and
several unidentified women to
settle their lawsuit against Ail-
es. Fox News also lost two top
hosts, Greta Van Susteren and
Megyn Kelly (who later accused
Ailes of sexual harassment) and
paid $40 million in severance to
Ailes in the ensuing fallout.
Following the ouster and
made-for-television-scandal of
Ailes, 21st Century Fox released
a statement that vowed to main-
tain a work environment based
on trust and respect, yet, O’Reil-
ly remained on the payroll—his
last contract even included a
clause for his termination in case
any new cases of harassment
came to light—and women who
claimed to have suffered under
his abuse were being quieted, as
per usual.
It is clear that if Fox News
could not be moved by decency
to maintain a “work environment
based on trust and respect,” it
was certainly moved by dollars.
O’Reilly was also a problem-
atic figure in many other ways.
He has a long and well-estab-
lished history of making racist
remarks.
Days before his expulsion from
Fox News, O’Reilly watched a
speech Rep. Maxine Waters gave
from the House floor discussing
patriotism in our nation’s current
political environment, and his re-
sponse was to mock her hair, call-
ing it a “James Brown wig.” Out-
raged that a college president was
criticized as racist for posting a
picture of his staff dressed in som-
breros and mustaches, O’Reilly
claimed that if you go to any Mex-
ican restaurant in the world, staff
comes out, “singing “Guantanam-
era” with the sombreros on.” I’ve
had my own brushes with O’Reil-
ly, including an interview where
he demanded that leaders such as
myself “stop the BS” in relation
to reducing what he coined “the
Black crime problem.”
But it was neither racism, nor
the bitter fruits of sexism that
ended O’Reilly’s storied rise at
Fox News.
Fox News had a choice to
make: Keep O’Reilly, whose
ratings were still strong despite
the scandal, or hurt the bottom
line and lose 90 advertisers, and
counting, who had stampeded
away from the taint of scandal.
Despite O’Reilly’s repeated de-
nials of the harassment claims
and support from people like
Sean Hannity, a Fox news con-
tributor who is now facing his
own accusations of sexual ha-
rassment, and President Trump,
who has his own colorful history
with women, including boasting
about grabbing them, and deal-
ing with his own accusations of
sexual harassment, Fox News
could no longer bear the cost of
keeping their star contributor.
But while O’Reilly may be
down, he is far from out. His
permanently tarnished reputa-
tion aside, we haven’t seen the
last of Bill O’Reilly. Just days
after his unceremonious ouster
from Fox, O’Reilly is making his
media comeback online, resum-
ing his “No Spin News” podcast.
His publisher has said he will
continue to publish O’Reilly’s
books. And he received a size-
able parting gift from Fox News
in the amount of $25 million—a
year’s worth of his salary.
There is a victory to celebrate
here, but it is a qualified one,
if at the highest levels of lead-
ership, we commit to the belief
that women, children, and men
have inherent dignity that should
never be violated. The rise and
money-padded fall of O’Reilly
sends a mixed message, to say
the least, to women and men in
the workplace.
Marc H. Morial is president
and chief executive officer of the
National Urban League.
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