The O'Reilly Factor run by political commentator, Bill O'Reilly on Fox News has recently faced backlash after allegations from different woman that the host of the show had sexually harassed them. The recent revelation has made Mercedes Benz and Hyundai pull their advertisement from the show.
According to a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson;
We had advertising running on The O'Reilly Factor (we run on most major cable news shows) but it has been reassigned in the midst of this controversy. The allegations are disturbing and, given the importance of women in every aspect of our business, we don't feel this is a good environment in which to advertise our products right now.
Hyundai who is also looking to advertise its new ad on the show won't be doing so anymore, and that the automaker;
currently has no advertising running on The O’Reilly Factor. We had upcoming advertising spots on the show but are reallocating them due to the recent and disturbing allegations. As a company we seek to partner with companies and programming that share our values of inclusion and diversity. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation as we plan future advertising decisions.
According to New York Times, Bill settled five women out of court for the sum of $13 Million. Bill then denied that the claims have any merit.
One of Bill O'Reilly regular contributor, Wendy Wash said that she was promised to be a network contributor on the show, but because she denied an invitation to a hotel by Bill after they had dinner at the Bel-air hotel, the man got very hostile very quickly.
Fox News denied request for comments, as other advertisers also looks into withdrawing in the near future, but right now are only studying the situation.
After the news of the allegation, Kevin Lord, the company's new executive vice president of human resources, sent out a memo to employees to report any inappropriate behaviour to the upper management.
Former news chairman, Roger Ailes was ousted out of Fox News after different reports from women about sexual harassment.