Judge dismisses defamation suit against Fox News, Bill O'Reilly
A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a defamation suit filed against the Fox News Channel and Bill O'Reilly by a woman who claimed the network and its former host portrayed her as a liar after she reached a settlement with him.
Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, a former Fox News producer, had filed suit in U.S. District Court in December 2017 alleging that O'Reilly has defamed her in his comments to defend himself against the harassment claims that led to his dismissal from Fox News in April 2017.
She and two other women who joined her suit – Rebecca Gomez Diamond, a former Fox Business Network host, and Andrea Mackis, a former producer on The O'Reilly Factor – had reached separate settlements with O'Reilly over alleged sexual harassment claims.
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But in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Deborah Batts Tuesday dismissed Bernstein's suit, stating in the ruling that Bernstein had not established specific damages suffered and that her "bare allegation of defamation per se is also wholly insufficient."
Bernstein's claims against Fox suffered "serious" flaws, including the fact that Fox's statement in an April 17, 2017, story in The New York Times did not directly call Bernstein a "liar," Batts said in the ruling.
Also, statements that 21st Century Fox co-executive chairman Rupert Murdoch made in a Dec. 14, 2017 interview with Sky News were "not about (Bernstein)," the ruling said. Murdoch had said that after the departure of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who left the network in July 2016 after being sued for sexual harassment by former "Fox & Friends" host Gretchen Carlson, "there's been nothing else since then" involving harassment allegations. Fox settled that suit involving Ailes in September 2016.
Bernstein can re-apply her defamation complaint alleging damages against O'Reilly, the judge said, but not against 21st Century Fox or Fox News.
"We will amend the pleading to add more detail regarding the damages suffered by Ms. Bernstein as a result of Bill O’Reilly’s defamation," Bernstein's attorney Nancy Erika Smith said in a statement sent to Paste BN.
The cases involving the two women who had joined Bernstein's suit are proceeding separately.
Follow Paste BN reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.