Former Fox News Channel mainstay Bill O’Reilly scored a victory in court today when a federal judge threw out a defamation lawsuit against him. Variety reports that the suit was filed by a former Fox News producer whose allegations against O’Reilly were a factor in his ouster from the network in 2017.
“Rachel Witlieb Bernstein left the network in 2002, following an incident in which O’Reilly allegedly screamed at her,” Variety reports. “Bernstein received a confidential settlement, and her case was among several that were covered in a New York Times article in April 2017, which led to O’Reilly’s firing.”
O’Reilly said in interviews following his exit from FNC that he had been the target of a “political and financial hit job.”
“Bernstein filed a defamation suit in December 2017, in which she accused O’Reilly and the network of disparaging her,” Variety reports. “She accused the network of issuing a misleading statement, in which it claimed that no employees had taken advantage of an HR hotline without stating that the hotline was not in place at the time of her employment.”
U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts ruled today that Bernstein had failed to establish that she suffered any actual harm from comments by O’Relly or Fox, Variety reports.
More luck than brains.