I want to talk a bit about this wild @jessicaschulb story about Bill O'Reilly, since you may have missed it Friday: huffpost.com/entry/bill-ore…
@jessicaschulb You have probably heard of O'Reilly, the former Fox host who paid at least six women around $45 million to settle harassment lawsuits. O'Reilly always presented himself as a righteous advocate for truth and common sense who was on his viewers' side.
@jessicaschulb Many Fox viewers still admire and trust O'Reilly. How's his reputation being used now? He's appearing in 1,000+ Facebook advertisements for a company that offers investment advice that is, at best, very bad.
@jessicaschulb The ad is selling subscriptions to email newsletters of investment "tips" that cost between $49 to $99 a year.
@jessicaschulb You also get a copy of O’Reilly’s new book and a report that promises “you’ll discover the company that’s trying to WIPE OUT cancer with its proprietary genetics testing tools, catching cancer long before it’s a threat.”
@jessicaschulb O'Reilly's not the only conservative icon lending his name to stuff like this. 
@jessicaschulb This kind of stuff, frankly, shows CONTEMPT for the people who admire you and look to you for guidance.
@jessicaschulb A lot of this stuff used to reach gullible people via direct mail or email. The big difference now is that Facebook, an enormously powerful private company, is taking over, and taking a big cut of the "taking advantage of gullible, vulnerable people" industry.
@jessicaschulb During one week in early November, the company behind this particular O'Reilly scheme was the tenth-highest political ad spender on Facebook, purchasing $91,775 worth of ads.
@jessicaschulb Anyway, there's lots more in Jessica's story, which y'all should read: huffpost.com/entry/bill-ore…
