Longtime Fox News host Geraldo Rivera said Thursday that he was “wrong” to defend his friend, former Fox kingpin Roger Ailes, after he was accused of sexual harassment by female staffers.
“I am filled with regret for stubbornly discounting their various allegations,” Rivera wrote in an anguished Facebook post. “The Murdochs would not have turned the world upside down but for good cause. Moreover, I apologize for my skepticism. Like victims of sexual assault, those alleging harassment deserve the presumption of credibility.”
Rupert Murdoch and his sons Lachlan and James, who run parent company 21st Century Fox, launched an internal investigation at Fox News after former anchor Gretchen Carlson sued Ailes for sexual harassment in July. Ailes resigned shortly after the investigation began, and many other prominent female Fox personalities have since come forward with their own sexual harassment accusations against their former boss. Carlson was awarded $20 million by the network in a settlement this week and Fox issued a rare public apology.
When the sexual harassment claims first came to light, however, Fox hosts including Rivera, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Sean Hannity rushed to Ailes’ defense. Rivera sent a slew of tweets calling the allegations “crap” and insisting they were being promoted by detractors who “hate Fox News.”
I’ve known him 40 years. He’s about as flirty as the grizzly in #TheRevenant. I stand with Roger Ailes
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) July 13, 2016
“Oh the grotesque unfairness of life,” Rivera tweeted the day Ailes stepped down with a $40 million severance package.
Rivera said his longtime friendship and professional relationship with Ailes, who he has known for 40 years, blinded him to the truth of the sexual harassment allegations.
Those blinders have since fallen off, Rivera said, claiming that Ailes “is a deceitful, selfish misogynist, if the charges against him are true.”
“And if they are true, then his shame and banishment are well earned,” Rivera added.
“To all the victims of sexual harassment, direct and indirect, I am sorry for what happened to you. As the father of three daughters, including one in the news business, I urge all who have been offended to reach out. Similarly, if you see harassment, say harassment, even if the alleged offender is an old friend,” he concluded.
Through his lawyers, Ailes has denied the harassment allegations.
