Black woman says Bill O’Reilly called her ‘Hot Chocolate’, made animal noises
The door of sexual harassment allegations against FOX News pundit Bill O’Reilly has opened and it may not close for a while. The latest accusations of improper behavior comes from a former Black clerical worker at FOX News whose attorney, Lisa Bloom, talked to The Hollywood Reporter.
According to Bloom, O’Reilly would commonly refer to the female employee as “hot chocolate” and even made grunting animal noises at her when they were alone.
“He would never talk to her, not even hello, except to grunt at her like a wild boar,” Bloom said. “He would leer at her. He would always do this when no one else was around and she was scared.”
Bloom said her client was too afraid of losing her job at the time, so she didn’t speak out about O’Reilly’s behavior. However, after seeing accusations about O’Reilly in the news, she felt it was time to tell her story. She reportedly doesn’t want any money in exchange for her account.
“She was afraid if she told him to knock it off she’d get fired,” Bloom says. “Now that’s she’s aware this is all in the news, she’s decided to phone in a complaint to the Fox News hotline.”
O’Reilly’s attorneys responded to the accusation to CNN, calling them “outrageous.”
“It is outrageous that an allegation from an anonymous person about something that purportedly happened a decade ago is being treated as fact, especially when there is an obviously orchestrated campaign by activists and lawyers to destroy Mr. O’Reilly and enrich themselves through publicity driven donations,” said Marc E. Kasowitz, who is also an attorney for Donald Trump.
While O’Reilly works to defend the accusations that as many as five women were paid off to remain quiet about sexual harassment, his future with the network is in question. New polls show that nearly half of American viewers want his show, The O’Reilly Factor, to be cancelled. Another 32 percent had no opinion, according to New York Daily News.