FOX NEWS FOUNDER WAS FIRED FOR SEXUAL HARRASSMENT: AT FOX, HAS NOTHING CHANGED?

…is Ed Henry, a Roger Ailes spin-off?

The latest lawsuits at Fox are full of horrific allegations.

Anyone that knows me is aware that I have never had any positive comments about Fox News. 

It is not because they have become an outlet for Donald Trump, which is bad enough, but from the beginning I have never had a good feeling when the original Fox leader, Roger Ailes became the Fox TV executive.

I was against Mr. Ailes back in the 70's when he was pushing for a conservative Republican TV network in support of Richard Nixon.

I was very happy when that idea went away with the scandal and the resignation of President Nixon. 

It then took multiple decades for that idea to resurface in the form of what has become the Fox Network.

After the Ailes sexual harassment problem and removal as their Chief Executive, and then a similar issue with Bill O’Reilly and some other Fox personnel, Fox decided to put together an HR organization called the: Workplace Professionalism and Inclusion Council (WPIC).  This operation was supposed to deal with the sexual harassment issues at Fox. 

Unfortunately, at Fox, that organization did not stop the latest lawsuits brimming with horrific harassment allegations.

After Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly were removed for the same reasons, I had hoped that we would have seen the end of that kind of problem at Fox.

But now, here we go again.

Last week, former Fox Business associate producer Jennifer Eckhart and former Fox News guest Cathy Areu brought a complaint against the network claiming yet more misconduct that key executives have allegedly failed to deal with properly.

The complaint, filed by attorneys Douglas Wigdor and Michael Willemin of Wigdor LLP, which includes misconduct allegations directed at former Fox host Ed Henry, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, as well as media correspondent/host Howard Kurtz.

The most disturbing complaint is related to Ed Henry, the former Fox News host and correspondent who has had a stormy time at the network.

Henry was suspended for about four months back in 2016 after carrying on an extramarital relationship with a Las Vegas hostess while on company time.

Henry returned to work as he then again climbed through the Fox system, where he became a co-host of the morning program “America’s Newsroom.”

Earlier this month however, Fox News announced it had fired Henry over more sexual misconduct accusations the network had received on June 25.  “Based on investigative findings, Ed has been terminated,” was all that was said by top Fox News officials in a memo to colleagues.

Now the other shoe has dropped.

The new complaint is so detailed that it has been considered as, “not suitable for republication in a family newspaper.”

It begins with a caution in bright red ink: “TRIGGER WARNING: THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS HIGHLY GRAPHIC INFORMATION OF A SEXUAL NATURE, INCLUDING SEXUAL ASSAULT.”

It then alleges that Henry “preyed upon, manipulated and groomed Ms. Eckhart starting at the young age of 24, by exerting his abuse of power over her and her career. Mr. Henry not only leveraged this power for control over his victim, Ms. Eckhart, but he asked her to be his ‘sex slave’ and his ‘little whore,’ and threatened punishment and retaliation if Ms. Eckhart did not comply with his sexual demands.”

” According to the document, Henry raped Eckhart at a hotel where the network puts up visiting employees”.  Eckhart was “helpless and restrained in metal handcuffs, as Mr. Henry preformed sadistic acts on her without her consent that left her injured, bruised and battered with bloody wrists.”

Included in the complaint are alleged text messages between Henry and Eckhart, messages that “establish Mr. Henry’s delusions and prove his violence,” according to the complaint. “Gonna make you my little whore again,” reads one of them.

That statement echoes Henry’s statement following his dismissal, in which Catherine Foti, a lawyer for Henry, Foti asserted that Henry “will be vindicated after a full hearing in an appropriate forum.”

Attorney Willemin issued this response to Foti’s statement:

“Although Ms. Foti notes that the #MeToo movement has helped to bring to light a number of injustices in our country, she proceeds to engage in just the type of injustice that the #MeToo movement has worked so hard to curb.  Specifically, Ms. Foti invokes a rape myth; namely, that a victim of rape would never send her attacker friendly or even consensual-looking messages. As we know having watched the Weinstein trial (and represented many of his victims), that myth simply is not true.

The statement also seeks to slut-shame Ms. Eckhart and suggests that she was asking to be violently raped.  Nothing could be further from the truth, and it is precisely because of these types of attacks that many victims of sexual assault and rape suffer in silence.”

Fox News’ recent effort to disown Ed Henry is to the point of being ridiculous.

Though not a prime-time host with strong ratings, such as Carlson and Hannity, Henry had shown an ever-present presence at the network.  Before his absence over the Las Vegas fiasco, he had covered the Hillary Clinton campaign, which was an indisputably high-profile assignment.

After his leave time, he was given plenty of camera time, whether co-hosting “Fox & Friends Weekend;” a big-time interview with a Trump appointee; or his stint alongside Sandra Smith on “America’s Newsroom.”

The Erik Wemple Blog had previously witnessed Henry’s skills, live at an event in Scottsdale, Az.  This was for the network’s streaming service Fox Nation, where he showed patience and grace as he hung out with attendees.  He posed for selfies and talked politics, and at that point, the network appeared very happy to call him as one of its own.

It is unknown how Ed Henry is going to be looked by the Fox Network in the future.  But it does appear that to put away any idea that the network has gotten beyond its issues of sexual harassment, you’d better put that idea on a shelf that has easy access.

A network that was originally developed by those that looked at women as lesser personas, apparently those problems aren't going away easily.

For the Fox Network, it appears to still have a long way to go for dealing with professional women.

Copyright G. Ater 2020