NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 2004--Bill O'Reilly, host of the FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor, filed suit today in Nassau County Supreme Court against a Manhattan attorney, his law firm, Morelli & Associates, and a FOX News employee for attempting to extort $60 million dollars from Mr. O'Reilly.

Benedict P. Morelli, a Manhattan attorney, and the FOX News employee, threatened to sue Mr. O'Reilly and FOX News claiming Mr. O'Reilly allegedly engaged in offensive conversations with the employee. The employee worked for Mr. O'Reilly for four years before moving to Cable News Network (CNN) earlier this year. After just five months at CNN, the employee asked Mr. O'Reilly to return to Fox News, and did so in July of this year.

The complaint filed by Mr. O'Reilly alleges that Mr. Morelli and the employee engaged in an extortion attempt by threatening to file a well-publicized lawsuit and demanding an exorbitant financial settlement for hush money. The complaint describes Mr. Morelli's demand that Mr. O'Reilly pay the pair "nothing less than $60 million." In addition, Mr. Morelli claimed he "wanted to punish not only O'Reilly, but FOX News."

Mr. O'Reilly said, "As a public figure, I have received many threats. But enough is enough...the threats stop now. I will not give in to extortion." While Mr. O'Reilly is seeking unspecified damages, he stated that he would donate "one hundred percent" of the monetary damages to charity.

In addition to the extortion lawsuit, Mr. O'Reilly has also sued Mr. Morelli, his law firm, and the employee for intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful interference with contractual relations, alleging that their accusations threatened to impair his reputation and standing with his employers and the public.

wtf?

-LS

kick

O'Reilly is a pompous assclown, but he's the kind of guy that has the time and resources to call this shyster onto the carpet. I hope he wins.