As noted below, Fox News former anchor and host Gretchen Carlson, who departed the network just a few weeks ago, has filed a sex harassment lawsuit against Fox supremo Roger Ailes. For those who don’t follow the intricacies of the Fox News world, Carlson wasn’t just any talking head. She was a big star on the network. The facts alleged are about as direct and egregious as one can imagine. Carlson claims Ailes pushed her to start a sexual relationship with him; Carlson refused and, she claims, that led to the end of her career at Fox News.
This is fundamentally a dispute about facts and a sexual harassment case which, whoever is right, needs to be understood and adjudicated on its own terms. But sexual harassment, sex in the workplace and the much broader issue of coercion and the concept of consent are hot button political, legal and cultural issues today. We can’t ignore the fact that Fox News is one of the institutions at the center of charged atmosphere.
It’s not too much to say that in the Fox News bubble, and certainly among many Fox News viewers, sexual harassment is barely even a real thing. It’s a charge that temperamental or uptight women bring against gregarious or just non-PC guys either because of their ‘uptightness’ or to leverage some professional advantage. That’s an unvarnished way to put it, but it is the mindset that informs huge amounts of Fox News coverage and chatter and the same for many, though obviously not all, Fox News devotees.
I doubt very much that Carlson has ever espoused those views specifically. But she’s definitely been a top purveyor of the general Fox News worldview. So I think this development will come as quite a shock for many Fox News viewers – not just in the sense that it’s shocking for everybody but particularly discombobulating as Fox viewers try to figure out who’s the good guy/gal and bad guy/gal in the saga.
Even more than would be obvious from the filing itself and the actions alleged, this will get really ugly.
