It can be said in no uncertain terms that Bill O’Reilly, the most successful cable news host in history has been removed from the FOX News lineup. In an email made to staff at the parent company, 21st Century Fox, it was made perfectly clear that he would not be returning to the airwaves at their company.

The letter, which was made public stated: “After a thorough review of the allegations against him, the company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Mr O’Reilly will not return to the Fox News Channel.”

His dismissal comes as the result of a review of the sexual harassment claims made against him by multiple female FOX employees, who he has allegedly (and very likely) sexually harassed, and conducted inappropriate behaviour towards. While O’Reilly himself denies the allegations, FOX News has paid out over $17 million in compensation to five women who have reported harassment.

O’Reilly’s lawyer alleges that O’Reilly was the victim of a character assassination champagne.

“Bill O’Reilly has been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-McCarthyist America. This law firm has uncovered evidence that the smear campaign is being orchestrated by far-left organisations bent on destroying O’Reilly for political and financial reasons,” he said in a statement. “That evidence will be put forth shortly, and it is irrefutable.”

I find it humorous that his lawyer would dare invoke the image of McCarthyism given his notorious false allegation that former US President Barack Obama was a communist. It is also interesting given his rabid anti-communism and anything that merely appears to be leftist. Quite often he conflated left with liberal which is two different things. Almost hypocritical one could say.

I think the firing of Bill O’Reilly is a symbol of the shift in society. O’Reilly is a symbol of the post-World War Two America that no longer exists. He’s a relic from the “golden age” of capitalism where “everything was good”. Back then a man could commit all kinds of disrespectful acts and demonstrate reprehensible behaviour towards women in the workplace, and there was no mechanism by which these women could receive justice. There was nothing they could do about it. In fact, it was expected and considered normal.

He’s a symbol of that time passed, a behaviour that is no longer tolerated. Even as America changed around him, he refused to go along with it. In his eyes, it must have seemed like the death of all things he held dear, the end of how things “should be”. It is only appropriate that as America has changed and began combating this Neanderthal-like behaviour, that he too should be removed as a symbol and perpetrator of it.