From Friday’s New York Times:

O’Reilly Distances Himself From a Video Promotion

Lede:

This summer Bill O’Reilly, the biggest star on the Fox News Channel, lent his name — inadvertently, he says — to a Web ad that lured viewers to sign up for a financial newsletter sold by Newsmax, the conservative Web site.

From that point, we get an excellent he-said/he-said:

He #1:

The appearance was set up by Don Walker, an agent with Harry Walker who books Mr. O’Reilly’s speaking engagements. Mr. Walker said in an e-mail that “we understood Newsmax would mention a financial newsletter service during the program, which was explicitly separate from Bill’s appearance.”

He #2:

Similarly, Newsmax said Thursday that “both parties agreed that Newsmax could offer financial newsletters during our broadcast,” separate from Mr. O’Reilly. The Web site’s chief executive, Christopher Ruddy, suggested that Fox had made a rush to judgment.

The initial judgment about this scheme came from Kathy Kristof of CBS MoneyWatch who, the Times reported, “questioned why Mr. O’Reilly was promoting ‘investment flimflam.'”

Maybe because it’s the next logical step from political flimflam?