After Gretchen Carlson sued Roger Ailes for sexual harassment and Megyn Kelly reportedly backed her up, Ailes was ousted from his role as CEO of Fox News. It describes Mr. Ailes as speculating on the sexual habits and preferences of 10 Fox News personalities.
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Fox maintained that Tantaros breached her contract by writing a book without permission, and she concocted the sexual harassment claims.
In an April 2015 meeting, Tantaros claimed to have met with Bill Shine, a senior news executive and close aide to Ailes at the time, to ask him if he had told Irena Briganti, the network’s head of publicity, about her encounters with Ailes and instructed Briganti to go after her.
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.
It argues that Ailes, who stepped down last month after being overrun by accusations of sexual abuse, “did not act alone” and his actions were “condoned by his most senior lieutenants”. Carlson’s suit alleges that Ailes made “sexually-charged comments” about her appearance and made “demands for sex as a way to improve her job standing”, and then “unlawfully retaliated against [her] and sabotaged her career because she refused his sexual advances and complained about severe and pervasive sexual harassment”.
The New York Magazine story says that Ailes asked Tantaros to do a “twirl” in August 2014, and told her in February 2015 that her body “looked good”.
The lawsuit also accuses Fox News of setting up fake Twitter accounts, known as “sock puppets”, to harass her online.
Ailes resigned in July after former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson charged in a lawsuit that she was sacked because she refused his sexual advances. Tantaros’s lawyers have accused Fox News of using the book as an excuse for her termination.
She is now asking for approximately $50 million in the lawsuit, which also names the network’s current co-president Bill Shine, Executive Vice President Dianne Brandi, publicist Irena Briganti and Executive Vice President Suzanne Scott as defendants.
Fox officials said Tuesday that they can’t comment on pending litigation. It stirred up rumors and questions, but no one knew where she was until a few weeks ago, when she revealed that after she went to executives with her complaints that Ailes harassed her, she was unceremoniously pulled from the air. According to the lawsuit, Shine “told Tantaros that Briganti is like a rabid dog on a chain that we can’t control. Sometimes that dog gets off the chain”, and that Tantaros “needs to let this one go”. Ailes has denied all the allegations.
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But earlier this month, a person with knowledge of the legal situation told TheWrap the sexual harassment issue is a way for Tantaros to “muddy the waters when the real issue is her contract”.
