Over the summer, Katie Benner, a technology reporter for The Times, published a report detailing a culture of sexual harassment perpetuated by Silicon Valley investors, relating the accounts of more than two dozen women. She also reported on the use of clauses that silence women who settle harassment claims, and she and her colleagues Nathaniel Popper and David Streitfeld have since published follow-up reporting.

And on Oct. 5, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey revealed that the Hollywood megaproducer Harvey Weinstein has been confronted with sexual harassment allegations for nearly three decades, and in at least eight cases has reached settlements with his accusers. Many more accusations of harassment and assault have been leveled at Mr. Weinstein — on the pages of The Times, in other publications and on social media — in the days since. As with the case of Mr. O’Reilly, their findings were bolstered not just by testimony but by legal documents and company records.

All of these journalists say they experienced much the same thing while reporting: ever more women telling the same stories about a small handful of powerful men.

“If you look across these various episodes, there are a lot of similarities,” Ms. Steel said. “Men offering career advancements and then asking somebody up to their hotel room, or building a relationship with someone and then making these unwanted sexual advances.”

She and Mr. Schmidt began their investigation into Mr. O’Reilly’s conduct by looking at the case of Andrea Mackris, a former Fox producer who sued him for harassment in 2004. They learned that Ms. Mackris wasn’t the only one who had made allegations of this nature.