Stephen Colbert weighs in on Fox News and sexual harassment

On last night’s episode of The Late Show, host Stephen Colbert spoke about the sexual harassment epidemic going on and Fox’s poor handling of Bill O’Reilly.

Allegations of sexual harassment and assault in the entertainment industry are finally being taken seriously. With the fallen Harvey Weinstein finally receiving his comeuppance, more and more victims are coming forward to accuse their own attackers. And the word is that part of the reason this kind of thing has gone on for so long is because the studios behind the stars are turning a blind eye to the behavior.

For example, as Stephen Colbert pointed out last night on The Late Show, we need to look no further than Bill O’Reilly. Yes, O’Reilly has already been given the boot by Fox News after the network could no longer ignore the mounting accusations, which were causing sponsors to withdraw their support. But, as Colbert says, the network seemed more than willing to keep O’Reilly around as long as the allegations remained private, and were willing to spend MILLIONS of dollars to keep it that way.

Colbert points out five separate sexual harassment claims against O’Reilly were settled by Fox, and this is something that we already knew. Now, yet another settlement from back in January has been unearthed. Apparently, Fox News paid out this O’Reilly accuser $32 million to Lees Wheel, who, as Colbert ironically points out, was a regular on O’Reilly’s show for a segment called “Is it Legal?”

After the settlement, Fox News actually gave O’Reilly a contract extension for four more years, paying out at a rate of $25 million per year. “He got a 25 million dollar payout?” Colbert asks, astonished. “What did Bill O’Reilly do to Bill O’Reilly?”

You can watch this segment in the YouTube video below.

Next: Colbert mocks Donald Trump taking credit for JFK files

New episodes of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert air weeknights at 11:35 PM EST on CBS.