In what is likely lower on the totem poll compared to the other accusations, Democratic commentator Kirsten Powers told CNN Wednesday night that ex-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly once thanked her for being blonde.
While appearing on his program early on in her career, Powers told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that O’Reilly kept screwing up fellow female commentator Margaret Hoover‘s name on air. Like Powers, Hoover has a blonde mane. Powers says O’Reilly didn’t know their names, but simply knew them for being in a sea of blonde women who appeared on Fox News.
Powers said O’Reilly thanked them for their “blonde-ness.”
The pundit said she approached O’Reilly’s executive producer about what she believed to be his abhorrent behavior. She said she wouldn’t appear on his show again if he acted like this and demanded an apology.
But she wasn’t getting one. O’Reilly refused.
Powers said management brushed it off, saying that O’Reilly was an “Archie Bunker” type, referring to the racist father figure in the priceless 1970s sitcom “All in the Family.”
She then went to her boss, who said there was nothing they could do. She also complained to former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes who she recalled saying, “It’s Bill. He’s a jerk. Nobody likes him. And then Roger said, you know, Bill likes to put up dirty pictures and ask pretty girls to talk about them. And then he said, what am I going to do, he makes so much money, what am I going to do?”
Powers said she quit O’Reilly’s show for three years and then returned. “We actually ended up having a quite a good relationship,” she said.
The pundit knows a little something about dealing with so-called powerful men in public life.
In 2002, she briefly dated Anthony Weiner. Initially, she defended him. But we all know how that soap opera turned out. When news of what his secret sexting and sending out pictures of his ding dong came to light, she called for his resignation from Congress.