In another development at Fox News, longtime anchor Greta Van Susteren is leaving the network.
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“21st Century Fox is pleased to announce that it has settled Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit”, the network said in a statement obtained by TheWrap.
“In a lawsuit filed in a New Jersey civil court on Wednesday, lawyers for Carlson allege Ailes repeatedly dismissed her concerns that her colleagues on Fox & Friends had created a pervasively sexist atmosphere, telling her to learn to ‘get along with the boys'”.
“I want to thank all the courageous women who came forward to tell their own stories and the many people across the country who embraced and supported me in their #StandWithGretchen”, she said. Two weeks after Carlson filed charges, Ailes resigned.
Van Susteren’s departure comes on the same day that Fox News Channel’s parent company Twenty-First Century Fox, reportedly agreed to pay $20 million to former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit she filed against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. For several years, her “On the Record” program aired at 10 p.m. ET, but moved to 7 p.m. when Fox gave a prime-time show to Megyn Kelly.
“All women deserve a dignified and respectful workplace”, she said. There is no indication Van Susteren’s departure is related to the issues surrounding Roger Ailes.
In her lawsuit, Carlson claimed that when she met with Ailes and refused his sexual demands in September 2015, he allegedly ended her career nine months later (on June 23), “causing her economic, emotional and professional harm”. And she says he frequently ogled her, commenting on her figure and telling her to turn around so he could see her rear.
Ailes is said to be considering a lawsuit against NY magazine for a recent feature on his behavior at the network, which included numerous allegations of harassment and questionable conduct, including wire-tapping his own staff and accessing the phone records of journalists.
NY magazine reported last week that Carlson began taking her iPhone into meetings with Ailes in 2014 and secretly recording their conversations.
The company also settled with two other women who were part of a Fox-initiated investigation by the law firm Paul, Weiss, Wharton & Garrison, according to the source, who wished to remain anonymous.
Carlson, a top Fox personality, had been with the network for more than a decade.
Fox News still is fighting sexual harassment claims in a NY state court.
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Ailes, 76, who worked on the presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush before Fox News, became one of the most powerful forces in journalism and politics as the founder of the network.
