Current and former women contributors at the Fox News channel are speaking out against sexual abuse in the workplace, after media mogul and Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch dismissed widespread charges of rape, sexual assault and harassment at the network as “nonsense.” Murdoch made the comments in an interview on the Sky News channel, which he founded.
Ian King: “How harmful has the whole raft of allegations about sexual harassment at Fox News been for the business? Has it?”
Rupert Murdoch: “Oh, that’s all nonsense. There was a problem with our chief executive, sort of over the years, but isolated instances. As soon as we investigated it, he was out of the place in hours. Well, three or four days. And there’s been nothing else since then.”
In fact, it took Fox News three weeks to force out its former chief executive, Roger Ailes, after former host Gretchen Carlson filed suit against Ailes and left with a $40 million settlement. Ailes was also accused of sexual harassment by more than 20 other women. Rupert Murdoch also failed to mention the case of former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who settled sexual harassment claims with at least six women—paying out $32 million to settle one suit alone—before he was eventually fired last April. Fox News host Eric Bolling was suspended by the network in August over accusations that he texted unwanted photos of his genitals to female co-workers. And former TV commentator Scottie Nell Hughes says in a lawsuit she was raped by longtime anchor Charles Payne and then coerced into maintaining a sexual relationship with him.