In the wake of disgraced former Fox President Roger Ailes’ death from a fall in his Florida home, long-time fellow sexual predator and colleague Bill O’Reilly has come to his defense, arguing that it is haters who killed Roger, not his hemophilia.
In an op-ed published in USA Today, O’Reilly argued that his fellow oppressor of women was a great guy who was unfairly persecuted thanks to the current culture of technology and social media.
“The downside of that is turning us into a nation where hatred is almost celebrated in some quarters. Roger Ailes experienced that hatred and it killed him. That is the truth.”
Bill, if we were to argue that anything other than his obesity, age, and poor health were to blame for his death, the first to blame would not be ‘Ailes being treated unfairly.’ Then again, what can we expect from a man who assumed the mantle of his old boss while the two harassed and assaulted scores of women at Fox News?
As Variety notes, the real cause of Ailes death was complications related to a fall he had taken just under a week ago. The fall led to bleeding in his brain, exacerbated by his lifelong condition of hemophilia which eventually caused him to fall into a coma on Wednesday and later die Thursday morning. For such a hateful, damaging man, it seems a gentle way to go.
O’Reilly’s op-ed maintained Ailes innocence,
“Roger was convicted of bad behavior in the court of public opinion, and it was painful for many of us to watch. He, himself, was stunned and never really recovered.”
Until the end, Ailes likely remained in denial about his crimes, and O’Reilly, intent on forgetting his own crimes, was eager to join him. For these rich, powerful white men, the backlash and public scorn they faced this last year was not the consequence for their crimes, but rather an unfair witch-hunt for which they are completely innocent.
Sound familiar?
Honestly, if we could truly believe Ailes was killed by the sheer power of hatred from the public, shouldn’t O’Reilly wonder why he, too, isn’t dead as a door-nail?
