Fox Settles With Former Contributor For $2.5M Over Assault Allegations

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Fox News released a joint statement Wednesday announcing that 21st Century Fox had reached a $2.5 million settlement with former Fox News contributor Tamara Holder, who accused a then executive at the company of sexually assaulting her, The New York Times reported.

Holder accused Francisco Cortes, the vice president for Fox News Latino, of trying to force her to perform oral sex on him in his office in February 2015, the Times reported. She reported the incident last fall and he was terminated. Holder left Fox News after her contract expired on January 1, 2017.

Holder and Fox News released a rare joint public statement about the state of the settlement, reiterating the course of events. The company thanked her for her contributions.

“In September 2016 Fox News contributor Tamara Holder reported an incident of sexual assault at Fox News headquarters from the prior year,” the statement read. “Immediately after Ms. Holder notified Fox News of the alleged incident, the Company promptly investigated the matter and took decisive action, for which Ms. Holder thanks the network. Following the completion of her contract on January 1, 2017, Ms. Holder left the network. Fox News is grateful to Ms. Holder for her many contributions during her tenure at the network and wishes her continued success.”

The settlement follows a $20 million settlement to former host Gretchen Carlson last year and the departure of two popular anchors, Greta Van Sustren and Megyn Kelly.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. So, did they ADMIT criminal or civil responsibility or did they just pay her off to “shut up and go away”?

  2. Fox news: home to sexual predators.

  3. Wow, how did they find the time to lie and hate?

  4. I still have no idea, and how did we miss this?

    Fox News Settled Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Bill O’Reilly, Documents Show

    In the weeks after Roger Ailes was ousted as the chairman of Fox News in July amid a sexual harassment scandal, company executives secretly struck an agreement with a longtime broadcast personality who had come forward with similar accusations about the network’s top host, Bill O’Reilly.

    The employee, Juliet Huddy, had said that Mr. O’Reilly pursued a sexual relationship with her in 2011, at a time he exerted significant influence over her career. When she rebuffed his advances, he tried to derail her career, according to a draft of a letter from her lawyers to Fox News that was obtained by The New York Times.

    So conservatives prefer to get all their news from sexual predators, more or less.

    And 53% of White Women voted for Trump. Excellent.

  5. So being FUX News, that works out to about $10 per grope?

    Or just the world’s most expensive case of fellatio non-occurrus?.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

17 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for overreach_this Avatar for ncsteve Avatar for leftflank Avatar for navamske Avatar for mantan Avatar for daveyjones64 Avatar for nymund Avatar for musgrove Avatar for neal_anderthal Avatar for mrf Avatar for khaaannn Avatar for pshah Avatar for floriduh Avatar for hilde45 Avatar for hankscorpio Avatar for circusmax Avatar for maximus Avatar for jakebarnes

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: