Harvey Weinstein and Bill O'Reilly have a lot in common: They're both politically outspoken media moguls brought down by sexual harassment allegations.
The two big differences? Their political views — and how much they've been covered on Fox News.
The network has devoted more than 12.5 hours of coverage to accusations against Weinstein, a major Democratic donor, The Associated Press reported. But it has spent only 20 minutes and 46 seconds on O'Reilly, the network's former top prime-time host.
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The disparity is even more shocking when comparing how long these allegations have been publicly known. Weinstein was first exposed in an Oct. 5 New York Times article. Accusations against O'Reilly surfaced back in April.
The vast majority of O'Reilly's coverage — 16 minutes — was on Fox's weekend industry show Media Buzz, Media Matters for America noted. That means less than five minutes of the network's coverage was during major news segments.
Before his ouster from the network, Reilly was the leading man of Fox — and of cable news. So while it's not surprising Fox may have wanted to downplay its O'Reilly coverage, other observers chalk the discrepancy up to politics, with O'Reilly being a major conservative figure more in line with Fox's views while Weinstein is known for supporting liberal causes and candidates.
