I don’t watch much Fox News because it makes me physically ill, but I’ve seen enough to know Gretchen Carlson’s face, if not her name. I guess I thought she was still on Fox & Friends in the morning, although she hasn’t done that show since 2013. Instead, she’s been doing a 2pm slot, apparently with solid ratings and good results. I honestly had no clue.
In any case, she recently was fired when Roger Ailes declined to re-up her contract, and now she’s taking Ailes to court.
The lawsuit — filed in Superior Court in New Jersey, where Mr. Ailes maintains a residence — portrays the Fox chairman as a serial sexual harasser, charging that he ogled Ms. Carlson in his office, called her “sexy” and frequently made sexually charged comments about her physical appearance.
Ms. Carlson, who joined Fox in 2005, charges that during a meeting last fall to discuss her concerns about what she considered ill treatment, Mr. Ailes told her: “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.”
Document: Gretchen Carlson’s Lawsuit Against Roger Ailes
When she refused, the lawsuit claims, Mr. Ailes retaliated by reducing Ms. Carlson’s salary, curtailing her on-air appearances and, ultimately, declining to renew her contract last month.
The suit, filed by the law firm Smith Mullin in Montclair, N.J., seeks a variety of compensatory damages.
She also takes a swing at Steve Doocy (in my estimation, one of dumbest men on television) for subjecting her to “severe and pervasive sexual harassment.”
Like I said, I am the furthest thing from a Fox-watcher, so I don’t know how this might be going over at headquarters. I do know that it takes some courage to go after a guy like Roger Ailes. That fact alone leads me to give some credence to her accusations. Suing Ailes for sexual harassment just seems like something a sane person wouldn’t do without a very good reason. He’s nasty. He’s got an media empire at his fingertips (ink by the barrel). He’ll have the most aggressive attorneys. She presumably would like to work again someday, and her history is with rightwing outlets. Can she land a job at a more balanced network?
Of course, I have no idea what did or did not happen. Maybe there will be some settlement and that’ll be the end of it. But if it goes to court, it might get real interesting.
I thought Republican women were perfectly OK being subservient. They are supposed to do what a man in authority tells them to do.
So why wouldn’t Ailes assume he could get sex on demand, and why would Carlson be surprised he’d ask?
What with her being a woman, I doubt very much that she was surprised he’d ask. Also, it’s against the law whether or not one is suprised by it.
No doubt there will also be people questioning the timing of the allegations, etc, etc. But unless one has been personally subjected to such behavior in a workplace, such questions are pretty much the opposite of insightful. To put it mildly.
Booman…you’ve “seen enough to know Gretchen Carlson’s face?”
How can you tell her apart from all the other young(ish), suburban wifey, bottle blonde types on Fox? She and Ailes actually make a typical couple…he’s a little older than the norm with that type (probably why he didn’t get his way and she hers), but it’s a classic combo. Trim, bleached blonde mommy, going-to-fat, hustler daddy. (Gone to fat in Ailse’s case.) It’s a classic couple. I see them by the hundreds when I play fund raiser-type dances and Ivy League college alumni things.
She’s just looking for her payoff without the bother of a divorce.
Look away.
You be bettah off.
It’s too ugly to contemplate.
AG
Yet there is something about this that suggests the turning of the wheel; a chink in Ailes’ armour that won’t go unnoticed among his, many, enemies.
His “many enemies” cannot dislike him more than they already do, SA. How far has that gotten them? He’s still in charge at Fox/ Why? Because he’s good at his job. Look at the ratings.
AG
But this is precisely the type of thing that chums the water; it depends on your take on Ailes’ position. Ratings aren’t everything; Murdoch is a king-maker and Ailes his North American Richelieu. That Fox was wrong-footed by Trump more often than not and utterly failed to direct the outcome of the nomination caused Rupert no end of contortionist postures last year and would be considered a ‘fail’ by Rupert’s exacting standards, it seems to me. It is arguable that Trump beat Ailes at his own game.
So I see Ailes as wounded; in fact, if you read the complaint, which makes direct and mockable attributions regarding Ailes’ comments, character and demeanour which are probably perfectly credible to those whom know him well, this is a difficult thing for Ailes to beat without digging himself in deeper. I suspect Gretchen has allies, or at least a cheer-leading section. Where do Lachlan or James fit in to this tangle? I await Gabriel Sherman’s take on this with considerable interest:
I think this is a hit below Ailes’ waterline and a sign his circle of protection is wearing thin. Why didn’t someone make this all go away?
For the case this is a tricky wicket for Ailes:
Your move, Rupert.
From the suits:
Let the games commence. Noteworthy that the Hollywood Reporter (Guggenheim), CNN and People (Time) are leading on this; anyone fisking the Murdoch media on this story?
Double excellent, if I could.
All those mostly skinny bottle blondes in short short tight bandage dresses with stiletto heels look interchangeable to me. I don’t watch Fox ever, but I see very short clips and still photos here and there. Seems like these women are there to cross and uncross their legs to give the male viewership a tingle.
I read recently that following the horrible Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando Carlson actually called for more gun controls on her tv show (I, too, had no idea what type of show she was on but somehow by osmosis am familiar with her name). When that happened, I went: hmmmm… somethings going on here. And et voila: here’s this news today. Was Carlson ready to just go off the farm completely, and her gun control message a warning salvo across the bow?? Who knows. I report, you decide.
I have a slight amount of sympathy for Carlson and wish her well with her law suit. That said, the cynic in me says: hey honey, lay down with a dirty dog and wake up with lotsa fleas.
My sympathy only stretches so far. If women cannot figure out that the GOP and their related media organs, esp Fox, are cesspools of blatant sexism and hyper chauvanism… ???? Well…
They take a job there for the money, mainly, and I suppose that they “agree” with the misogynistic POV. And then yeah, there’s this horrible pervasive sexist atmosphere, which is documented via various lawsuits, the most famous being the one against Loofah/Falafel O’Reilly – who is still there and raking in big bucks. It’s not right, and it’s illegal, but really?? Roger Aisles having to, you know, follow the law? Laws are for the little people, not him.
My guess is that there’ll be some sort of pay off for Carlson in exchange for which she’ll STFU. Maybe there will even be some sort of job found for her elsewhere in a “think” tank or something.
Nothing will change at Fox. Nothing. Guaranteed.
Carlson’s law firm says 10 more women have come to them about Ailes as a result of the filing of the lawsuit.
I’m sending out for more popcorn.
Gretchen Carlson turned 50 on June 21. She was fired effective June 23.
Megyn Kelly is 45. Ainsley Earhardt is 39. Elisabeth Hasselbeck is 39. Heather Nauert is 46. Sandra Smith is 35. Jenna Lee is 36. Julie Banderas is 42. Jamie Colby is 45. Shannon Bream is 45.
Sean Hannity is 54. Steve Doocy is 59. Brian Kilmeade is 52.
Maybe there’s a pattern here?
you be thinking?
All the on-air interchangeable blonds under 50 (or fired two days after they hit that milestone)? All the on-air males over 50?
Random coincidence! Duh! Nothing to see here, move along.
She’s a typical Republican in that if it’s not a problem for her, it’s not a problem. The usual lack of empathy, IGMFU mentality of the right.
She’s an appalling person who has helped create the situation in which she finds herself by demeaning, belittling, blaming, shaming, and otherwise being horrific to others who have suffered as much as she now says she has and worse. There are lots of victims of harassment who haven’t spent a career denigrating the very institutions that exist to protect women and other vulnerable populations from exploitation.
In the end she is protected by the very system that she stood up against.
Should she be free of sexual harassment in the workplace? Yes. Should I be sympathetic to her specifically? Not on your life. The best we can hope for is that she’ll “see the light”. I’ve seen any number of former/embarrassed Republicans over the last decade nominally switch party affiliation because something finally managed to burst their total-lack-of-emphathy IGMFU bubble.
Maybe now she’ll have some empathy.
Betting money is that there will be a settlement in return for a non-disclosure agreement.
Yes. My feelings exactly. Carlson earned huge bucks denigrating and dissing those who were/are in the same position that she now claims she’s in. She’s also stood against the laws that protect women from harrassment.
Hey, I hope she’s successful in her lawsuit, but as I said before: color me utterly cynical. When the chips are down for Carlson, she runs for protection from the very laws and governmental structure that she’s railed against for years.
My guess is that she’s going for a brass ring in the form of a yuuuuuge payout. She probably won’t “see the light,” as long as she gets hers. Eff everyone else.
I find it hard to see this tiger changing stripes. It’s all about the money to her. Fairness? Fahgeddaboudit.
Ailes has been on his way out for awhile now. His health is not good (he’s 75) and the transition to the Murdock kids is taking place. He’s been pushed aside and does not have the pull he used to.
The kids may have even told her to go ahead. I doubt the suit gets filed without the lawyers at least sending the kids a letter. It’s probably a corporate hatchet job. I bet some of the other blondes join in.
I don’t see her doing this 6-7 years ago.
.
huh oh
Not surprising. Wasn’t there a profile of him and how he preferred the female anchors/hosts to have their legs always showing?
Would someone please, please turn this thread into another Hillary-is-a-she-devil thread? There hasn’t been one all day and I’m suffering withdrawals.
Sure, since you asked nicely, but I’d just as soon wait until she’s actually waging war and bombing people.
I laughed.
let’s credit booman for his very nice turn of phrase; it was “notorious and nefarious she-devil”.
Oh, so Booman hates her, too, I see. Because we know he is dead serious and would never engage in sarcasm or irony.
I’m suffering from disgust that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be our nominees. What a blotch on our national persona. Not the first or last, that’s for sure.
So it must really gall you that Bernie and Hillary will be on the campaign trail next week, and he will endorse her for president. Doubt Hillary will need your vote anyway.
I wouldn’t be so dismissive about what Rockies is saying, because the feeling is widely shared among Democrats and Republicans both, and fully justified.
Not to speak for Bernie, who as a political relist (surprise, surprise) has said all along that he would support Hillary if she should be the nominee, but the prospect of a Trump presidency is enough to get many people to vote for Hillary who otherwise would not want to. That is hardly enough to cancel out the feeling of disgust with this entire election.
Joel, you are actually the only one here who ever says that. If you find it refreshing, you should spend more time on the right-wing blogs.
The problem with Hillary is not that she’s a she-devil, but that she is a political tool of the oligarchy at a time when the country and the world desperately need some relief from said oligarchy. She does look pretty good against Trump, but considering the man is mentally ill, suffering from megalomania and narcissistic personality disorder and is an ignoramus who is convinced he already knows everything worth knowing — that is not a high bar.
Helloooooooo…..irony alert.
Actually, and I’m sure you’ve noticed this, there is a Hillary Clinton analog to the Godwin’s Law phenomenon when it comes to comments on this blog: (nearly) every thread proceeds towards a denunciation of Hillary Clinton as a she-devil. I simply set the hook, and several commenters were happy to take the bait.
It’s perfectly obvious that you intended irony. Especially since you use this same “joke” over and over again.
However, what is the meaning of the irony?
Unless I’m very much mistaken, it is intended to mean that criticism of Hillary Clinton as a she-devil is ridiculous.
However, since nobody here actually does criticise Hillary Clinton as a she-devil, the irony has no real target here.
Therefore, the only meaning I get from it is that serious criticism of Hillary Clinton (because there that there certainly is here), comes under the same category as calling her a she-devil (by the use of hyperbole, of course), and is therefore ridiculous, and that’s the end of the matter as far as criticising Hillary Clinton is concerned.
There is serious criticism of Hillary Clinton offered here at BooMan Tribune and in the larger public square.
There is also hyperbolic, extremely personal criticism of Hillary Clinton offered here at BooMan Tribune and in the larger public square.
There is also criticism of Hillary Clinton here at BooMan Tribune and in the larger public square which relies on misrepresentations of her record, conflations of her record with her husband’s, and flat dismissals of her campaign planks.
You and others may disagree with me and others about which criticisms of Clinton fit in the last two categories.
Yes, we may. And that’s the point.
Some of you relative newcomers may not realize that before this election season, we were relatively free here at Booman of this kind of baiting and personal deprecation. I mean of supporters. Whatever the case at other blogs, it just wasn’t the style here.
So let’s try to keep it on substance. Because I for one am not going to put up with personal crap.
LOL!
Seriously? What do we get, a bug down our shirt?
.
Well what do you know? Speak of the devil and you see his horns.
And that’s not a personal attack?
You only do your moral crusades against those that disagree politically with you. Those that agree with you and constantly insult commenters here? ‘Nothing to see here, let’s move along’.
You have no moral authority. Your part of the problem, not part of the solution.
.
pot meet kettle
1.
QED
All those blondes at Faux. How many have complied with Ailes? I would bet he has a pattern of solicitation.
Blondes or bleached (not tinted) blondes. Been true for a long time, if not forever. Although modern chemistry has produced more options.
Megyn Kelly could not be reached for comment as she was having her daily three-hour shower.
skin scraped of with steel brushes after being around Ailes, like Meryl Streep in Silkwood after “accidental” radiation contamination?
She worked for local news outlets out of school before the Early Show so maybe she could return to that?
this story is awful, I hope she wins if she can prove it and it empowers others at Fox to come forward
No one should be harassed regardless of their politics or what they look like
She presumably would like to work again someday, and her history is with right-wing outlets. Can she land a job at a more balanced network?
Ed Henry got a job for a supposed more balanced network.
I have no love for Gretchen Carlson because to me, she is just another FoxNoise mouthpiece, but I hope she wins millions from Ailes, and bankrupts the company.
She was moved from Fox & Friends to her own show in 2013. Even if that was the outcome of her reporting to Ailes that Doocy had been sexually harassing her for over seven years that doesn’t qualify as punishment.
I have no reason not to think that Ailes is disgusting and a boor. He runs Fox news after all. However, even women with zero power and completely dependent on that paycheck to support herself and her family, cannot psychologically handle that degree of sexual harassment for such an extended period of time. Carlson isn’t young, naive, or a dummy.
A review blurb about her 2015 autobiography:
And making on-air statements like this:
Maybe she should have filed her lawsuit before she was fired.
I’ll let someone else defend her.
Say his name.
His name is Philando Castile.
And, he was murdered by the Falcon Heights, Minnesota police during a ‘routine’ traffic stop.
I just read a report about this. Absolutely terrible. On the face of it, that cop should spend some quality time in jail.
looks like blatant summary execution.
yesterday’s execution by cop.
Asked for his information, Philando Castile volunteered to his murderer that he had a weapon, because he had a permit.
And yet, somehow, even after offering that piece of information.
Mr. Castile is Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Funny how all these conceal /carry laws don’t seem to apply to Black people.
as well, I think, as it would be possible to make it (my emph. added):
Just watched the entire video recorded by Philando Castile’s girlfriend and posted to Facebook. I’ve also seen edited videos of the Alton Sterling murder.
This shit is horrible. It does not appear to me that it is possible for young black men to comply with an officer’s orders sometimes.
The NRA’s silence in the wake of all these recent murders committed by police officers is so extraordinarily telling. No real defense of open or concealed carry laws for black men offered by the NRA, ever.
Mr. Castile was killed in front of his child.
Billmon @billmon1 8h8 hours ago
Seems safe bet that cop unions are now going to quadruple their efforts to get state legs to make videotaping police actions illegal.
We might get a very nasty surprise from “our” SC on that issue.
You go to bed and it’s #AltonSterling
You wake up and it’s #PhilandoCastile
White America’s hate of our black skin is too much.
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) July 7, 2016
It’s horrible. Nothing I can say would probably ease anyone’s pain, but it’s not all of “White America” that hates black people. Not by a long shot, although I can see why it might feel that way a lot of the time.
My condolences. I’m not at all happy about this, nor do I agree with it. Peace.
On a serious tip..
The reason why all you DRONES DRONES DRONES…
NSA SPYING ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE….
CIVIL LIBERTIES….BLAH BLAH BLAH….
Can miss me is because, in terms of my life as a Black person…
I told you before… I don’t give two shyts about drones or NSA Spying..
the biggest threat to my PERSONAL security is an encounter with law enforcement..
RIGHT HERE EVERYDAY IN AMERICA.
Mother of Philando Castile:
And yet…
HE’S STILL DEAD
Mr. Castile’s child, who saw her father murdered before her eyes…was FOUR YEARS OLD.
My heart breaks for her.
“Even when we do everything right, the cops still murder us.”-Philando Castile’s mother.
#PhilandoCastile
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) July 7, 2016
#PhilandoCastile’s girlfriend: Police lied about which hospital he’d been taken to.
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 7, 2016
And about Alton Sterling..
As the New York Daily News pointed out on their front page…
HE.DID.NOT.HAVE.A.GUN.IN.HIS.HANDS.
So, where’s the threat from Mr. Sterling?
The threat that warranted his execution.
BWB – breathing while black. That seems to be enough these days.
There are no words.
@Ella in New Mexico:
I’ve been Black in America longer than 3 days.
I don’t believe the officer – AT ALL.
I believe the girlfriend.
Philando did exactly as the officer told him to do – BECAUSE HE WANTED TO GO HOME ALIVE.
You all can believe that bullshyt if you want to that he’d disobey what the police officer said and went for a GUN.
PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.