Speaking to Breitbart News, the victims of Bill Clinton’s alleged sexual assaults — Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and Paula Jones – blasted the news media for purportedly dismissing their own accusations while hailing the recent sexual harassment charges against Bill O’Reilly that led to the former television host’s dismissal from Fox News last week.
All three women made clear they were not defending O’Reilly, but criticizing what they described as a news media double standard when it came to the treatment of their own serious charges against Clinton.
Juanita Broaddrick, who famously accused Clinton of raping her twice in a hotel room in 1978, stated:
I have no idea whether the accusations against Bill O’Reilly are true or not but I would like to ask, “Where in the world were all these people when Bill Clinton’s victims came forward with more serious accusations? Why is Bill Clinton given a pass over the other Bills?” I would truly like to know because I will never understand it.
In an emotionally charged video interview with this reporter last October, Broaddrick recounted what she described as the life-changing experience of the alleged rape.
Willey and Jones both accused Clinton of sexual assault, with Willey saying that she suffered acts of intimidation in what she has described as a campaign to silence her.
Contrasting the news media coverage of the allegations against O’Reilly with the manner in which some in the media and politics dismissed the charges against “predator and “pervert” Clinton, Willey told Breitbart News:
Though I should not be surprised, I am still astounded by the hypocrisy of the members of the Democratic Party and media. While the revelations of the many scandals of Bill Clinton’s administration are stunning to this day, the left continues to ignore his many, many crimes such as rape, sexual harassment, and lying under oath. They have swept his transgressions and crimes under the rug for many years, only to refer to him as a “randy boy.” There’s nothing “randy” about him. He is a predator and a pervert.
The charges against Bill O’Reilly are serious, but where has he been heard regarding these accusations? He has been judged, tried, and convicted by the Murdoch team. We will never know if these accusations are true or false. The least the powers that be at Fox could have done was to give him a forum on which to respond and say good-bye to his many fans. He helped build Fox News from the ground up. In the meantime, the MSM and the liberals continue to overlook Bill and Hillary’s ongoing lies and cover-ups.
Jones criticized The View as being “hypocritical’ for featuring a friendly interview with O’Reilly accuser and former Fox clerical worker Perquita Burgess last week while some hosts on the same show dismissed the accusations from Jones, Willey, and Broaddrick.
In November, The View co-host Joy Behar apologized on air after seemingly referring to Clinton’s sexual assault accusers as “tramps.”
Stated Jones of the O’Reilly coverage:
I’m disgusted once again about how hypocritical the liberal media can be. Those insane women on The View have the nerve to actually show their feelings on this issue and not see the same resemblance only worse about their man, Bill Clinton! I can’t say that any of this is true with Bill O’Reilly and none of them can say it either!
I’ve not heard that Bill O’Reilly ever raped a lady or showed his tiny peeper to a lady either, like Bill Clinton has. Yet they want to crucify Bill O’Reilly, and think that Bill Clinton has actually paid the consequences.
Clinton was only impeached and kept his job… He was rallied around by the whole media and liberal Hollywood! Bill O’Reilly has been fired from his job and is being railroaded for much less than what Bill Clinton has ever done!
Jones added that “the liberals take these women who make these claims seriously, yet they called me a bimbo, trailer park trash, and the list goes on and on? Bill Clinton was getting his tiny wiener sucked under the Oval Office desk, where was the outrage to that? As long as it’s a liberal, unethical, baby killer who does all this then it’s perfectly okay, but if it’s a conservative against their evil issues then they crucify them until they are gone. Pathetic!”
O’Reilly was dismissed from Fox News last week after the New York Times reported on numerous sexual harassment allegations and private settlements over the years. An internal Fox News investigation reportedly found new harassment claims against the highly-rated host. O’Reilly was ousted nine months after Roger Ailes, founder and former Chairman and CEO of Fox News, resigned in the face of allegations that he sexually harassed female employees and media colleagues.
Fortune magazine featured a piece on O’Reilly’s downfall titled, “Why Bill O’Reilly Got What He Deserved.”
“Bill O’Reilly is vile. His departure from Fox is long overdue,” opined Moustafa Bayoumi writing in the Guardian newspaper.
Variety published a piece featuring celebrities celebrating O’Reilly’s departure from Fox News.
The news media mistreatment of Clinton’s sexual assault accusers, meanwhile, was typified during the 2016 presidential election by NBC News Anchor Andrea Mitchell baselessly calling Broaddrick “discredited” during a segment that aired May 19 on the highly-rated Today Show.
Following a letter from Broaddrick’s attorney demanding a retraction, NBC deleted the “discredited” reference from the Internet version of Mitchell’s report.
In another case, The View co-host Joy Behar apologized on air after seemingly referring to Clinton’s sexual assault accusers as “tramps.”
In the case of NBC, neither Mitchell nor the network provided any documentation or evidence to back up the “discredited” claim. As critics pointed out in response to Mitchell’s claim, Broaddrick’s accusation has not been discredited.
NBC itself vetted Broaddrick’s story when she originally broke her silence by speaking to the network’s show Dateline in 1999.
The network also caught up with Norma Rodgers, Broaddrick’s friend and employee, who confirmed Broaddrick’s story of how Norma found Broaddrick in her hotel room in the immediate aftermath of the incident with a badly swollen lip and mouth and that Broaddrick’s pantyhose had been ripped off. Broaddrick had stated that Clinton bit her on the lip during the alleged rape, which she said transpired in 1978 at her room in a Little Rock hotel.
NBC’s Lisa Myers, who conducted the 1999 interview with Broaddrick for the network, stated in a 2014 interview that “[N]othing has come up since that story was reported that in any way undercuts what Juanita Broaddrick said.” Myers has since retired from the network.
NBC’s treatment of Broaddrick is an important case study when it comes to the news media’s coverage of Clinton sex accusers during Bill Clinton’s tenure in office and after.
After filming the 1999 interview, NBC waited 35 days until finally airing the exclusive. The timeline is critical. The Senate voted to acquit Clinton in the impeachment case on February 12. NBC’s interview, conducted January 20, 1999, did not run until February 24, and the network placed it opposite the highly-rated Grammy Awards.
Some have questioned NBC’s motivation in waiting to air Broaddrick’s charge of rape. “The 35-day interval between tape and air is now one of the legends of the impeachment process. Why didn’t the American public get to hear Mrs. Broaddrick before the Senate voted to acquit Mr. Clinton on Feb. 12?” wrote Philip Weiss in the Observer in 1999.
Speaking in 1999, NBC News Vice President Bill Wheatley vehemently denied the network deliberately held the interview until after the Senate vote. He said NBC took the normal period of time for properly vetting stories. “There was no pressure from the White House, period. Nor as some were claiming was there any pressure from NBC or G.E. corporate higher-ups to kill the story,” said Wheatley.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
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