FOX News CEO Roger Ailes Has Been Sued For Sexual Harrassment
Former Fox News anchor, Gretchen Carlson, has filed a lawsuit against the company's CEO Roger Ailes for claims of sexual harassment and wrongful termination.
Her lawyers sent out an email to multiple reporters detailing the alleged assault. You can see the email here:
If you're like me and have the attention span of a goldfish, let me give you some of the highlights.
Gretchen Carlson was fired the exact day her contract ended, despite her show, "The Real Story With Gretchen Carlson," being the leading show in its afternoon time slot.
This all happened suspiciously after a September meeting Carlson decided to hold with Ailes about what she felt to be unequal treatment from her male colleagues at work. When she tried to discuss her "ongoing discriminatory treatment" after 11 years of employment over at Fox, Ailes retorted by saying, "I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago and then you'd be good and better and I'd be good and better." He went on to say, "Sometimes problems are easier to solve that way."
Yeah, right... because completely demeaning yourself is totally worth it if it makes things "easier."
To make matters worse, Ailes is being accused of even more sexist comments that he made to Carlson about her being a "man hater" who tried to "show up the boys."
Because if she wasn't sleeping with him, she OBVIOUSLY hated men, right?
Gretchen Carlson has been with Fox News since 2006 and already endured what was considered by some as a demotion after she was moved from Fox's morning show, "Fox and Friends" to her afternoon show. In her complaint, Carlson claims that this move also coincided with a pay decrease.
Roger Ailes helped found Fox News channel in 1996 and has been CEO since then. This is not the first time he has found himself in hot water for his sexist behavior. Journalist Gabriel Sherman chronicled in his biography of the powerful man a series of his sexist acts ranging from making interviewees uncomfortable with suggestive questions to expressing dismay that female employees had gained weight.
Carlson addressed Ailes' controversial dress code for female anchors on an episode of "Fox and Friends" when she joked that she wasn't allowed to wear pants to work.
In the complaint, Carlson requests compensatory damages but no dollar amount is set.
Citations: Anchor sues Fox News CEO for sexual harassment (Mashable), "I Can't See Her Legs!": Roger Ailes' Rampant Sexism (Media Matters)
