[bryanthompson]

Bonus, from the Fox Extortion lawsuit:

The claimed damages are also inexplicable given that: (a) Mackris does not allege that O’Reilly ever touched her in any way, much less assaulted her, (b) she does not allege that she suffered any adverse employment action such as a demotion or loss of pay or even threatened with an adverse action, and (c) she does not allege that she complained to Fox’s Human Resources Department about harassment, notwithstanding that Fox and News Corp maintain written harassment prevention policies and complaint procedures. In fact, Mackris did not complain prior to the delivery of the letter, and Mackris acknowledged during the meetings with Morelli and the News Corp and Fox representatives that O’Reilly never touched her in an inappropriate manner.

Lest there be any doubt as to their greed, motivation and intent, at the meeting that Mackris and Morelli held with representatives of News Corp and Fox to discuss their demand, Mackris and Morelli made it abundantly clear that their aim was to extort millions from Fox and O’Reilly by threatening to go public with allegations that would subject O’Reilly to scorn, ridicule and abuse, and that neither Fox nor O’Reilly could afford to defend them.

Indeed, at that meeting, Defendants expressly demanded $60 million to resolve the situation. They have never lowered that astonishing demand. When asked to justify that number, Morelli stated that he considered that amount to be appropriate because it would be less than the revenues that he projected that Fox would lose from the adverse publicity, and that “O’Reilly couldn’t afford to let [the lawsuit] go forward.” Morelli never once tried to justify the demand as being in any way supported by existing law.