The foundation is cracking. Whatever you do, do not gloss over the latest seismic event at Fox News, the filing of a lawsuit by suspended producer Abby Grossberg, alleging frank and open sexism in the workplace. This story is a doozy and but for the fact that it’s eclipsed by Donald Trump’s impending indictment and the escalating war between Ron DeSantis and Trump, this would be the biggest news story in the cycle.

Alas, we live in a world today where there are so many bombs going off at once, we’re too busy dealing with deafness and smoke to parse through the details. And these are some details. New York Times:

According to the lawsuits filed by Ms. Grossberg, Fox superiors called Ms. Bartiromo a “crazy bitch” who was “menopausal” and asked Ms. Grossberg to cut the host out of coverage discussions.

Last year, she began working as a senior booking producer at “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” On her first full day, according to the lawsuit, Ms. Grossberg discovered that the show’s Manhattan work space was decorated with large pictures of Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, then the House speaker, wearing a plunging swimsuit.

The next day, Justin Wells, Mr. Carlson’s top producer, called Ms. Grossberg into his office, she said, to ask whether Ms. Bartiromo was having a sexual relationship with the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy.

Mr. Carlson’s staff joked about Jews and freely deployed a vulgar term for women, according to the complaint.

Later that fall, it said, before an appearance on the show by Tudor Dixon, the Republican candidate for Michigan governor, Mr. Carlson’s staff held a mock debate about whether they would prefer to have sex with Ms. Dixon or her Democratic opponent, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

After Ms. Grossberg complained about harassment from two male producers on the show, she was pulled into a meeting with human resources and told that she was not performing her duties, according to the complaint.

This is classic strategy against a woman in the workplace, blame any legal action taken on revenge. It’s impossible for a woman to have a genuine, or genuinely thought through grievance. Any disagreement by a woman has to be fueled by emotion and vengeance. This is straight out of Sexism 101.

And maybe Grossberg had a come to Jesus moment about her own behavior. She was one of the people who encouraged Bartiromo to not talk about a peaceful transition before January 6.

Some text exchanges between Ms. Grossberg and Ms. Bartiromo were released as part of court filings in the Dominion lawsuit. In one instance, Ms. Bartiromo asked Ms. Grossberg if she should have pushed Mr. Trump in an interview on whether he would peacefully transition from the presidency. Ms. Grossberg replied: “To be honest, our audience doesn’t want to hear about a peaceful transition.”

During her deposition, Ms. Grossberg was asked if she cared whether claims made on Ms. Bartiromo’s show were true or false. According to the transcript, Ms. Grossberg answered: “No. Because we didn’t know if they were true or false at that time.” When asked if she felt it was important to correct a false claim made on the air, Ms. Grossberg answered: “No.”

In her lawsuits, Ms. Grossberg said she would have answered those questions differently but had been “coached by and intimidated by” Fox’s lawyers.

Simply put, Grossberg was told by Fox lawyers that she was there to protect the network and the air talent, not to tell the truth. And that’s understandable. The truth will sink the Fox ship.

Read the entire New York Times article linked to. It is an eye opener.

Fox News is a cancer, both politically and culturally. We saw this back in 2016 when Gretchen Carlson had her infamous lawsuit against the company and we see it again now. We will probably see nothing but more of the same as long as the company is still in business. The work culture is toxic and that toxicity has polluted the cultural narrative of this country.

As Dan Rather quipped, “Whatever business they’re in, it’s not the news business.”

 

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8 COMMENTS

    • As long as THEY are the ones being permitted to be crass, horrendous, illegal and totally lacking in integrity and honesty, they’re just FINE with it.

      15
    • Cherl, we should know by now that they have no bottom. If there really is such a thing as a soul they’ve all sold theirs long ago

      13
  1. Her first mistake (well, second, working for Faux was her first) was going to HR.
    In any company HR doesn’t exist to protect you from the company.
    HR exists to protect the company from YOU.

    21
  2. ‘Simply put, Grossberg was told by Fox lawyers that she was there to protect the network and the air talent, not to tell the truth. And that’s understandable. The truth will sink the Fox ship.’

    Well, on a nakedly commercial, business first and only basis, that might be true. But lying to a court is illegal, plain and simple, whatever the assumed motivation.

    But even business has only four tenets, offer, acceptance, consideration, and legality.

    Put simply, planning to commit an illegal act stops it being business, I can’t sue you for my losses when you break our agreement to act as the getaway driver in my bank robbery.

    If Fox news can’t accept the truth and wishes to lie about it, and suborn others to lie for it, to a court of law, then it is no longer a legal business.

    Cherl is quite right, this level of crass behavior is appalling, doubly so when it comes from, or is vigorously supported by, the self proclaimed party of ‘law and order’.

    When you lie and cheat as part of your business model, you are no longer in business and you should be closed down.

    17
  3. This,woman has to be incurable naive or remarkably stupid not to realize that Fox is deeply racist and misogynist.
    She gets no sympathy from me me. She saw what was going on. She had to have heard about the way Roger Ailes treated women. There was even a movie about it. Yet, she stayed. She is suspended, but they have yet to fire her (they will). If she had any self respect she would be looking for a new job.

  4. First I want to thank Ursula for a wonderful article. Second I want to thank other readers like myself. Everyday I learn an new word and have to look it up for the meaning and I really appreciate it. So again thank you all and to Politizoom especially. I keep learning something new everyday! THANK YOU!

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