Fox News founder Roger Ailes – one of the most influential men in the American media landscape – prides himself on being a stand-up guy. In 2004, he stood up for Fox News anchorman Bill O’Reilly when O’Reilly’s former producer filed a lawsuit with lurid details of alleged sexual harassment. With Ailes’ support, O’Reilly settled the suit and kept his job.
This month, O’Reilly, along with other Ailes loyalists, returned the favor and spoke out to support his embattled boss who was trying to stand down a sexual harassment lawsuit by former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson. In lamenting that “every famous, powerful or wealthy person is a target”, O’Reilly suggested that America drop some first amendment protections and adopt the English system of civil law, “whereby if you file a frivolous lawsuit and you lose, the judges are right to make you pay all court costs”.
In the wake of Roger Ailes’ stunning resignation on Thursday, it’s unlikely that Gretchen Carlson will be paying any court costs. She tweeted out thanks to those who had publicly spoken out to support her. Perhaps she also thanked Fox’s star anchor, Megyn Kelly, and the other women who have come forward in the past two weeks to tell Fox investigators that Ailes harassed them, too.
When your boss hits on you, what do you do? The Carlson suit got me thinking about this dilemma and all the women I know in television news who have faced it.
There was my pal at ABC News, a young associate producer not long out of college, who came to me in tears one day in 1984. A box had mysteriously appeared on her desk; inside were a pair of skimpy stilettos with 4in heels. They were her size. A few hours later, our boss, a middle-aged married man, stopped by her office and whispered in a low voice, “I want to see you in those shoes.”
Back then we didn’t have a name for sexual harassment and couldn’t imagine going to our male supervisors to report it. We did our best to keep the offenders at bay, commiserating about the creepy advances; the invitations to “work dinners” that would devolve into tearful accounts of unhappy marriages; the unsolicited backrubs in the office that bosses would bestow on us, and then demand in return. Of course, not all men in the media are harassers, but a lot of men in positions of power have turned a blind eye to the behavior of those who are.
When Carlson filed her lawsuit against Ailes, many people thought the scandal might go the way of the infamous O’Reilly case: supportive lawyers negotiating a secret payoff. But it was a new era at 21st Century Fox when the Murdochs turned to the outside law firm Paul Weiss for an independent investigation that soon uncovered a number of similar complaints.
Gretchen Carlson’s brave decision to come forward and accuse one of the most powerful men in the media marks a turning point. Women are fed up. They are beginning to speak out and people are beginning to believe them.
Still, it is unknown if the Murdochs will address the misogynist treatment of women on-air that has been a hallmark at Fox News – the restrictive dress code, the uncomfortable sexual banter, the see-through desks and revealing “leg cam”.
Roger Ailes is walking away with a golden parachute reported to total $40m. Rupert Murdoch, 85, is taking over Ailes’ job as chairman and acting CEO of Fox News and Fox News Business, but his sons James and Lachlan have reportedly played a big role in the handling of this scandal. In announcing Ailes’ resignation, the father praised him for his “remarkable contribution to our company and the country”. The sons released a joint statement that said, in part, “We continue our commitment to maintaining a work environment based on truth and respect.”
Maybe this public episode in a long tradition of abuse will embolden people to speak up when someone crosses the line. And maybe it will enable others who have turned a blind eye to see the insidiousness of sexual harassment and the difficulty that many still face confronting a boss.
