So Much for Fox News Being Home to the ‘Family Values’ Crowd
“Fox News masquerades as a defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency and misogyny,†reads a lawsuit filed by former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros, who is suing the conservative cable news channel in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Tantaros is suing Fox News and five of its executives in a 37-page complaint for $49 million for sexual harassment, lost income and mental anguish.
The allegations include charges against the now-former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, along with “Ailes’ replacement Bill Shine, vp legal affairs Dianne Brandi, vp corporate communications Irena Briganti and executive vp programming and development Suzanne Scott,” as The Hollywood Reporter notes.
Also mentioned in the suit, but not named as defendents, are veteran Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, former Republican Senator Scott Brown, a Fox News contributor, and actor Dean Cain.
Brown, according to ThinkProgress Editor-in-Chief Judd Legum, allegedly engaged in “particularly egregious” conduct, as this excerpt of the lawsuit claims:
On or about August 18, 2015, former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown (“Brownâ€) appeared on Outnumbered. Brown made a number of sexually inappropriate comments to Tantaros on set, including, and in a suggestive manner, that Tantaros “would be fun to go to a nightclub with.†After the show was over, Brown snuck up behind Tantaros while she was purchasing lunch and put his hands on her lower waist. She immediately pulled back, telling Brown to “stop.†Tantaros then immediately met with Shine to complain, asking him to ensure that Brown would never be booked on the show again. Shine said that he would talk to Scott. Thereafter, Shine and Scott ignored Tantaros’s complaint, and continued to book Brown on Outnumbered.
Also detailed by ThinkProgress was a conversation Tantaros claims to have had with Fox News chief Roger Ailes, which included not only stunning comments and questions about her fellow employees, but a stunningly large number of comments and questions:
Tantaros alleges that in that very same conversation, Ailes told her to turn around so he could “get a good look at” her.
 “I bet you look good in a bikini,” Ailes allegedly told her.
“After Tantaros rebuffed Ailes’ advances,” ThinkProgress notes, “she describes a vindictive campaign to smear her in the media by Irena Briganti, who runs media relations for Fox News. According to Tantaros, Briganti denied requests from all legitimate media outlets to interview Tantaros, sought to humiliate Tantaros in outlets controlled by Ailes, and orchestrated the creation of ‘sock puppet’ social media accounts to harass Tantaros online.”
The Hollywood Reporter offers more details:
After she rebuffed advances like a request for a hug, Tantaros claims she was removed from The Five to the “daytime graveyard time of Noon,” where she worked on the show Outnumbered. The plaintiff says the move was a “retaliatory demotion.”
Tantaros says she suffered other indignities.
For example, although the lawsuit doesn’t name Bill O’Reilly as a defendant, Tantaros’ complaint asserts in February 2016, he started sexually harassing her by “(a) asking her to come to stay with him on Long Island where it would be ‘very private,’ and (b) telling her on more than one occasion that he could ‘see [her] as a wild girl,’ and that he believed that she had a ‘wild side.'”
After complaints and allegedly because of O’Reilly’s “rumored prior sexual harassment issues,” according to the lawsuit, Brandi told Tantaros’ former attorney that she would no longer be appearing on The O’Reilly Factor.
CNN’s Brian Steltzer on the lawsuit, via Media Matters:
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