Ailes was the only defendant in the suit and a Fox spokesman said his contract indemnified him from employment-related claims, which is why the company is settling on his behalf. The company, which shares common ownership with Wall Street Journal parent News Corp, issued a rare apology: “We sincerely regret and”.
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Big changes are coming at Fox News, just a couple months before one of the biggest elections in recent memory!
The uproar is somewhat puzzling for Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, who control Fox News’s owner, 21st Century Fox.
Carlson says that she’s “gratified” by Fox’s “decisive action” adding that she’s “ready to move on to the next chapter of my life in which I will redouble my efforts to empower women in the workplace….”
The Fox News report said that Van Susteren, one of several network employees who vocally supported Ailes in the wake of Carlson’s lawsuit, asked to renegotiate her contract after Ailes’ departure and ultimately chose to leave the network when no agreement could be reached on a new deal.
INSKEEP: David Folkenflik, one other question as we learn of this settlement for Greta – rather for Gretchen Carlson – what about other Fox News personalities? “They’ve known each other probably for 30 years I would think, pre-FOX News and pre-presidential politics”.
“21st Century Fox is pleased to announce that it has settled Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit”.
Carlson was paid $20 million, according to a person familiar with the settlement who spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms were confidential. She later said she wasn’t trying to defend him, merely that she wanted to say she hadn’t experienced harassment nor knew anybody who had. In the message, Van Susteren said, “Fox has not felt like home to me for a few years”.
Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, deflected a question Wednesday morning about whether Roger Ailes’ advising Trump on debate prep is inappropriate in light of the sexual harassment allegations made against the former Fox News chairman.
The conservative-slanting political cable giant is experiencing a tumultuous time, all set in motion by former host Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment lawsuit against now-former network boss Roger Ailes.
Greta Van Susteren is out as a nighttime host on Fox News Channel, replaced temporarily by Brit Hume starting Tuesday. New York’s Gabriel Sherman, who famously wrote a 2014 unauthorized biography on Ailes, has already become the target of Ailes’ lawyers for his extensive reporting on the former Fox News CEO throughout the scandal. He said the timing of her departure with the announcement of the settlement with Carlson was a “coincidence”.
The source also said that at least two other women reached settlement agreements with the company.
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Information for this article was contributed by David Bauder of The Associated Press and by John Koblin and Michael M. Grynbaum of The New York Times.
