More women accuse Fox News boss Roger Ailes of sexual harassment after Gretchen Carlson lawsuit
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Gretchen Carlson at a Variety event in 2014.
Gretchen Carlson isn’t the only woman who claims that Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes sexually harassed her while working at the cable news channel.
More than 10 other women came forward on Wednesday afternoon with their own stories about Ailes’ behavior, following Carlson’s allegation in a lawsuit that she was fired from Fox News for not responding to Ailes’ sexual advances.
“He asked me to turn around so he can see my a–,” one FNC contributor told Huffington Post reporter Michelle Fields, who previously worked as an FNC contributor herself, about what happened during a meeting with the chairman.
Another contributor recounted Ailes’ explanation of the hiring process for on-air talent.
“He always brags to people about how he doesn’t do polling or testing when he chooses his on-air talent,” she told Fields. “He told me that if he was thinking of hiring a woman, he’d ask himself if he would f— her, and if he would, then he’d hire her to be on-camera. He then said if it was a man he’d think about whether he could sit down for a baseball game with him and not get annoyed of him. If he could, then he’d hire him.”
REUTERS/Fred Prouser
Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News and Fox Television Stations, answers questions during a panel discussion at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Pasadena, California, July 24, 2006.
A representative for Carlson’s attorneys told CNN that at least 10 other women contacted them on Wednesday to share their stories of Ailes’ behavior.
In her lawsuit, Carlson alleges that FNC didn’t renew her contract in June as retaliation for rebuffing Ailes’ sexual advances. The suit also alleges that she was previously removed from its morning show, “Fox & Friends,” after complaining of sexist behavior by her cohost Steve Doocy and that her move to the 2 p.m. time slot with “The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson” was intended to give her a lower profile on the channel.
FNC said it’s conducting an internal investigation of the allegations against Ailes and Doocy.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ailes said that Carlson’s lawsuit is “defamatory” and “without merit.” And he vowed to fight it “vigorously.”
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