Did you guys see Bombshell, the movie about Fox News sexual harassment/abuse? It was based on Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit against Fox News and Roger Ailes, the ousting of Ailes and Megyn Kelly’s attempt to help the other women of Fox News. While Charlize Theron did a great job as Megyn Kelly, I thought Nicole Kidman’s Gretchen Carlson deserved to be “the star” of the story, since she did so much to change Fox News and the workplace culture. That being said, absolutely no one believed that once Roger Ailes and Bill “Falafel” O’Reilly were ousted that the network magically became a haven of feminist gender dynamics. Of course not. Roger Ailes ran the network for decades as a Mad Men-style predator’s playground. So… long story short, two women are suing Fox News because Fox News men are still f–king awful.
A bombshell lawsuit filed by two women Monday accused former Fox News chief national correspondent Ed Henry of raping one of them and says that the network’s star anchor Sean Hannity once offered $100 to staffers to “date” another woman who also accuses Henry of sexual harassment. The federal suit says that one of the plaintiffs, Cathy Areu, also was sexually harassed by other high-profile men at Fox News, including Hannity, host Tucker Carlson, journalist Howard Kurtz and contributor Gianno Caldwell.
The other plaintiff, former Fox Business associate producer Jennifer Eckhart, claims that Henry raped her, in addition to committing other sexual misconduct against her.
Areu had been a frequent guest on Fox News, but the network says she was neither an employee nor a contributor. However, the lawsuit identifies her as meeting the definition of an employee, albeit not a full-time one. The Manhattan federal court lawsuit comes three weeks after Fox News fired Henry for what the network said was sexual misconduct. The suit names as defendants Fox News, Hannity, Carlson and Kurtz and was filed on behalf of Eckhart and Areu by lawyers Douglas Wigdor and Michael Willemin.
Fox News in a statement said that an investigation had found that all of Areu’s claims against the men, other than Henry, were “false” and that it intended to fight her allegations.
The network added that Areu and Eckhart can pursue their legal claims “against Ed Henry directly with him, as FOX News already took swift action as soon as it learned of Ms. Eckhart’s claims on June 25 and Mr. Henry is no longer employed by the network.”
The women’s lawsuit says that in late June, Eckhart’s lawyer put Fox News on notice of legal claims against the network and Henry, and informed Fox “in graphic and specific detail, how Mr. Henry groomed, psychologically manipulated and coerced Ms. Eckhart into having a sexual relationship with him.”
CNBC has further details about the lawsuit and what the women are claiming. The accusations against Ed Henry are particularly disturbing, and he sounds like an absolutely vile and manipulative predator and sadist who got off on humiliating his victim. Cathy Areu’s claims sound like how I’ve always imagined the Fox News workplace: men acting like buffoons and harassing every woman they come across. Also: Fox News firing Ed Henry three weeks ago… that means they knew the lawsuit was coming and they know they’re liable.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
So many punchable faces….
*ucker Carlson is on it and I will cheer if that creature gets fired…
Is that why *ucker Carlson suddenly went on vacation too? Take all these bastards down.
I think that had more to do with one of his writers getting outed and then fired for racist, sexist social media posts. It was like the next day that he had a ‘prescheduled’ vacation. Funny those always seem to happen at Fox when there’s a scandal involving the person.
just what I was thinking.
maybe this vacation will be permanent, like O’Reilly’s sudden one was.
ETA: but Courtney B, it might be because Fox knew the lawsuit was coming, and the combo of his writer being outed and this?…let’s hope he’s GONE.
Yet another reason why Fox is Trumps favorite news network. Filled with lots of like minded folks.
I wish Hannity was out so that I could go back to having normal conversations with my mom without her repeating his lunatic dialogue.
And he’s involved with that airhead Ashley Einsheart (sp) from Fox and Friends. 🤢 May be some overlap with their respective marriages ending.
It’s also very obvious that Henry’s behavior towards women was heavily influenced by a particular type of porn.
how long after they’re ousted before Trump gives them jobs in his administration?
Question for any lawyers: just because Fox fired the guy, doesn’t mean they should be dismissed from the lawsuit. They are still liable, right? It happened while he was in their employ.