Amid new revelations about sexual harassment claims against him, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has a small section about consent in his newly released book, “Old School: Life in the Sane Lane.”
The book, which hit shelves last week, is an ode to “Old School folks [who] tough it out” and a criticism of people whom O’Reilly and co-author Bruce Feirstein describe as “Snowflakes: the people who blame everyone else for their failures ... who are sooooo sensitive to every slight.”
In a chapter titled “Social,” O’Reilly and Feirstein impart “some Old School [dating] advice” on readers, which includes:
“5) No means no. It would be easy to make fun of all the hoops college administrators expect their students to jump through today before they engage in any kind of intimacy. But there’s no middle ground here. It’s all about the Old School tenets of respect and responsibility. No means no.”
The chapter and dating advice concludes with the line, “Never let anyone treat you badly. That’s Old School.”
Earlier this week, The New York Times released a bombshell investigation that uncovered about $13 million in settlements O’Reilly and Fox News have paid to women who worked with the host and who lodged complaints about his behavior, ranging from verbal abuse to sexual harassment.
The Fox News host has denied the allegations, though his show has lost more than 40 advertisers since the Times published its article.
Despite the fallout, O’Reilly’s book will debut at the top of the New York Times bestseller list the week of April 16, CNN reported. And as advertisers flee the show, viewers are tuning in to watch. Ratings for the Monday and Tuesday broadcasts of “The O’Reilly Factor” were up 14 percent from the prior week.