In light of the sexy scandal surrounding Bill O'Reilly (and by "sexy," we mean nauseatingly gross), the Observer explores the frequency of sexual harassment in television newsrooms. What they come up with sounds like an average, offensively libidinous work environment:

One prominent and current male on-air host described his view of the social and sexual dynamic of the television news world:

"At the producing level, it s all young women," he said, "99 percent of whom have no chance of being on TV. They like being in TV and they like powerful men. Each host has around him lots of good-looking, unmarried women. Women are excited by power, let s be totally clear. The temptation to fuck your staff is overwhelming literally, almost overwhelming."

Yes, it must be very hard (couldn't resist) to control yourself.

"You just can t imagine how sexually out of control it is. A quarter of the women are bisexual. They re good-looking, they re totally without restraint. Nobody has family around, you re on the road traveling, and you re making $7 million a year and they re making $65,000 a year. That s three grand a month to live in the big city. You ve got all the money in every way, you re the sheik, they re the harem. You can t overstate how true that is. That s a natural dynamic."

The news personality said that the job descriptions of most of the behind-the-scenes staff including the producer is to focus positive attention on the on-air personality, to make him look and sound smart and handsome and to keep his ego well-inflated.

"All they do all day long, they re [sic] job is to serve you," he said. "That s explicitly their job. How you look, how you sound everything is focused on you."

Most of the women interviewed had a pretty easy time reciting tales from the TV-news locker room of unwanted touching and groping, compliments on "fuck-me" shoes, invitations to return to hotel rooms, clunky and incessant sexual innuendo (e.g., "I d like to help you get a-head, ha ha ha!"), unwelcome shoulder rubs, shameless requests for dates, three-way orgies and oral sex all by well-known male on-air personalities and powerful news executives at the top of network and cable channels.

Revolt Of Fox's Hens [Observer]