World is Falling Apart Thread (Locked forever)

[Ack]

Still, it's a pretty big shake up for Fox News, considering he was their centerpiece. I'm wondering how this will affect their identity as a network. I'm also wondering if we'll see viewer migration to other networks like Newsmax or to the big names like CNN.

[Sarge]

Once again, I'm not willing to pronounce judgment unless I see some evidence. I think that some of the leadership has wanted to push him out the door for a long time, and this was a prime opportunity to do so. Not that it would actually surprise me if the allegations were true, but the hit in advertising and the optics were bad enough that they convinced Murdoch to bid him adieu.

[marurun]

Fox news paid out millions over the years to settle sexual harassment claims for O'Reilly. Even if some of those claims were overblown, I have trouble reasoning that all of them were. And given Ailes was out for the same reason, it's clear Fox allowed a problematic culture to thrive. Studiers have shown that paying out settlements actually increases the occurrence of habitual sexual harassment, whereas immediate dismissal has a much more powerful effect on changing institutional culture.

O'Reilly and Ailes were bad actors, certainly, but Fox enabled them in pursuit of profit. If you are so afraid of losing a single person that you will pay out millions to enable their bad behavior, you need to look at the structure of your business. It isn't healthy to have so much invested in singular personalities. It's not financially healthy to have one fat pillar and neglect the others.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Once again, I'm not willing to pronounce judgment unless I see some evidence. I think that some of the leadership has wanted to push him out the door for a long time, and this was a prime opportunity to do so. Not that it would actually surprise me if the allegations were true, but the hit in advertising and the optics were bad enough that they convinced Murdoch to bid him adieu.

Now, thanks to the dialing back of a previous Obama executive order, you will not see any evidence thanks to giving corporations the ability to hide their sexual harassment filings from the public.

[dsheinem]

Once again, I'm not willing to pronounce judgment unless I see some evidence.

How would one produce "evidence" that someone said shitty things to them? Isn't a pattern of behavior, noted independently by different people across long stretches of time, enough to raise a reasonable suspicion? Shouldn't a reasonable suspicion be enough for advertisers to pull away and for FOX to have to respond as it did?

[BogusMeatFactory]

Once again, I'm not willing to pronounce judgment unless I see some evidence.

How would one produce "evidence" that someone said shitty things to them? Isn't a pattern of behavior, noted independently by different people across long stretches of time, enough to raise a reasonable suspicion? Shouldn't a reasonable suspicion be enough for advertisers to pull away and for FOX to have to respond as it did?

I am also a very firm believer that being open and honest about situations help your case more than hurt. Being powerful will always attract people trying to take advantage of you, but if you truly did nothing wrong, you open up and talk about it and encourage the process... not try and cover it up

[Sarge]

As a business decision, I understand it. It's all about the money. I do think it's going to bite them in the butt, though; they're in a lose-lose situation here.

The wording in the settlement is pretty standard practice stuff. There may be something there, there may not be, but again, until I actually hear what the allegations were, and have some indication as to them being plausible, I'm not going to knee-jerk my way into a reaction. I've spend the last eight years trying to eliminate that response with various left-wing personalities, because I've been wrong before, just because it fit preconceived notions that I might have had.

[marurun]

Well, sexual harassment stuff can be a little nebulous, but Fox can afford good lawyers, so I can't imagine they would have settled outright that often if they didn't think there might be some teeth to the accusation. That's far from a "definitely guilty" pronouncement, but it's enough to indicate that O'Reilly likely had some personal issues he wasn't willing to deal with. Reports out of Fox News do indicate that they have had recurring structural problems with sexism, and in those kinds of environments settlements are pretty common. And let's be honest, O'Reilly's on-air personality wasn't exactly a feminist-friendly one. Even if he's just a casual, ordinary-class sexist, he's still a sexist.

[ZeroAX]

French elections time

Indeed a good opportunity for the Frenchies to show off against the anglosaxons. Otherwise the only big liberal western countries left are the ones that were fascist during WW2

[emwearz]

North Korea threatens nuclear strike against Australia if it doesn't stop 'blindly toeing US line'

"If Australia persists in following the US' moves to isolate and stifle North Korea … this will be a suicidal act of coming within the range of the nuclear strike of the strategic force of North Korea."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-22/n ... us/8464252