At least ten other women have come forward after Fox News host Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit against the CEO of Fox News, Roger Ailes, the Daily Beast reports.
Carlson’s lawsuit alleges that Ailes unlawfully retaliated against Carlson and sabotaged her career because she refused his sexual advances and complained about sexual harassment. Examples of retaliation in the lawsuit include termination of her employment on June 23, 2016 and prior to that “ostracizing, marginalizing and shunning her after making clear to her that these ‘problems’ would not have existed, and could be solved, if she had a sexual relationship with him.”
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The lawsuit also claims that Ailes would ogle Carlson in his office and that he has asked her to turn around so he could view her backside.
Carlson’s attorney’s tell the Daily Beast that Carlson isn’t the only woman who had that experience with Ailes. From the Daily Beast:
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by Ailes and Fox News, several women who formerly worked at the network told The Daily Beast of similar encounters with the defendant. “One time he asked me if I was wearing underwear, and was he going to see anything ‘good,’” said a former Fox News employee, who said she has spoken with other women at the network who said they were targets of Ailes’s sexually charged remarks. “It’s happened to me and lots of other women… He’s a disgusting pig who’s been getting away with this shit for 20 years.” A second ex-employee, who also said Ailes verbally harassed her with inappropriate comments during one-on-one meetings, said the powerful and famously combative executive has so far escaped the consequences of his alleged behavior, because “when it comes to this issue, there’s already a conspiracy of silence. The problem is you don’t want to come forward because you don’t want to be personally and professionally destroyed. You don’t want to bring down Roger Ailes’s wrath on your head.”
“Since the complaint was filed, many women have come forward to report similar sexist and harassing behavior by Mr. Ailes,” attorneys for Carlson told Broadly in a statement. “They will have their own stories to tell should they choose to speak publicly.”
For seven and a half years, Carlson was a co-host of the Fox & Friends morning show. On or around September 3, 2009, according to the lawsuit, Carlson complained to her supervisor that the show’s co-host Steve Doocy treated her in a sexist and condescending manner on a regular basis. According to the complaint, Doocy put his hand on her and pulled down her arm to shush her during a live telecast. The lawsuit claims Doocy mocked Carlson during commercial breaks, shunned her off air, refused to engage with her on air, and belittled her contributions to the show. The complaint states that he was “generally attempting to put her in her place by refusing to accept and treat her as an intelligent and insightful female journalist rather than a blond female prop.”
Carlson’s lawsuit also alleges that Ailes would tell others in Carlson’s presence that he had slept with three former Miss Americas, but not Carlson. Carlson was crowned Miss America in 1989.
Ailes denied all of Carlson’s allegations in a Fox News statement, calling them false and offensive. He instead blamed ratings for Carlson’s termination and stated her contract wasn’t renewed due to “disappointingly low ratings [that] were dragging down the afternoon lineup.”
Attorneys for Carlson fired back in a news statement, saying, “Ailes’ claim that Gretchen Carlson was terminated because of bad ratings is demonstrably false. The publicly available ratings confirm the allegation in the complaint that at the time of her termination Gretchen’s total viewership was up 33 percent year to date and up 23 percent in the key demographic.”
Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox, is now conducting an internal review on Ailes and on Doocy.
