The left's takedown of Bill O'Reilly was only partly the result of an organized campaign of destruction.  Mr. O'Reilly, like Roger Ailes before him, became a victim of his own bad behavior.

Fox News management made the decision to let O'Reilly go not because of the highly publicized settlements the network made with five women who accused the host of sexual harassment.  The network decided to ax O'Reilly because there are apparently several other women who are deciding whether or not to press forward with similar suits.  (Reports indicate that an internal investigation carried out by a third party shows that there are also other Fox News employees who are going to be accused of sexual harassment in the future.)

Not all the women making these accusations are liberal plants.  But whether you believe that O'Reilly is entirely innocent – the target of radical leftists out to destroy Fox News – or not, the fact is that Ailes, O'Reilly, Michael Flynn, and other conservatives who have recently been victimized by organized liberal attacks are not the primary targets of the left's smear campaigns.

It's President Donald Trump who has a bulls-eye on his back.

Roger Simon of PJ Media:

The real target in the defenestration of Bill was not O'Reilly himself but very obviously Donald Trump.  He's the Big Kahuna the obscenely named "Resistance" (hey, you idiots, that was about Auschwitz, not tax reform) is after and Bill was only a stop along the way.  Indeed, several of Bill's accusers, represented by the daughter of Gloria Allred, appear to be people who find Trump particularly loathsome. And the original story was broken by the New York Times, the literary capital of the "Resistance."

The timing of the attacks on O'Reilly – who everyone knew for years was not a saint, sort of like Bill Clinton and half the stars in Hollywood we hear pontificating on a daily basis – is also far from coincidental.  O'Reilly, although he pretended to even-handedness (no journalist is), was one of Trump's most staunch defenders in the media, arguably his most powerful one. For the "Resistance," he had to go.

If I were Fox talent right now, I'd be very nervous and especially careful about saying anything too positive about Trump.  I'd remember to add a few negatives, maybe more than a few, to undercut any approving statements about the president or his policies, just like they do it on CNN.  The Murdoch boys will be watching.  Like characters in a Greek tragedy, the brothers have taken over and are maneuvering their aged father off stage. And Fox News is the big loser in this drama. ...

Did what Bill supposedly did really amount to a firing offense or were his accusers just looking for money or fame, as O'Reilly himself has implied?  Or was it just a political hatchet job by the seemingly endless legions who spend all their waking hours and seemingly most of their sleeping ones doing their best to oppose, discredit, and destroy all things Trump?

Candidate Trump offered a target-rich environment for liberals.  But President Trump has been more circumspect, more restrained, thus making it hard for the left to zero in on him.  Going after his surrogates and supporters becomes the next best thing.

With the Russian narrative having fallen apart, the left will redouble its efforts to tarnish the president by bringing down his more prominent supporters.  No one is safe.  Pundits, websites, even businesses with CEOs who support the president are all on the firing line.  As I write this, researchers are poring over old news articles, police reports – anything and everything that can be used against Trump supporters.  Every word ever written or spoken publicly is being examined for how it can be taken out of context as fodder for an attack.  It doesn't matter how old the "transgression" might be.  If it's useful, it will be employed.

The radicals are well funded and relentless.  With very little pushback from the right, expect more successes by the left in their efforts to bring the president down.