Fox News Extortion Scheme

[media]

Fox's O'Reilly sues over alleged extortion scheme
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fox News personality Bill
O'Reilly sued one of his associate producers and her lawyer
Wednesday, alleging they threatened him with a high profile
sexual harassment case unless he and Fox paid $60 million in
"hush money."
The conservative commentator, who is seeking unspecified
damages, states his reputation has been damaged and that the
scheme has caused him to suffer "great mental strain, anguish
and severe emotional distress."
O'Reilly along with Fox News Network filed the suit in New
York State Supreme Court in Nassau County. The network is part
of the Fox Entertainment Group which is controlled by
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Benedict Morelli, the lawyer named as a defendant in the
case, did not immediately return phone calls. The associate
producer, Andrea Mackris, still works at Fox but could not be
reached for comment. Her voice mail recording identified her as
an associate producer of "The O'Reilly Factor."
The suit states that Mackris began working as an associate
producer on the program in April 2000. She left for a few
months earlier this year to work for CNN but returned to Fox in
July.
Although Mackris had never previously complained to anyone
in authority at Fox about sexual harassment by O'Reilly, last
month her lawyer began threatening to sue Fox over offensive
statements made to her, the suit said.
During a meeting Morelli had with Fox and News Corp
representatives, he showed them a draft of the complaint
containing lengthy quotes that came from O'Reilly. The suit
charged that the length of the quotes and the "specific
verbiage" made it appear that Mackris had taped O'Reilly.
Morelli demanded $60 million in "hush money to keep quiet,"
according to the suit.
Fox and O'Reilly charged in their suit that the defendants'
actions were motivated by greed and Morelli's Democratic
political connections.
REUTERS