In a story that came out in today’s New York Times and picked up by Raw Story, a dozen women have come forward and said that Roger Ailes was the tip of the iceberg. The sort of behavior described from Ailes was rampant at FOX News, with certain male employees going so far as to tie careers to sexual favors.
Former Fox personality Rudi Bakhtiar told the Times about a run-in she had with her then-supervisor Fox News Washington Bureau Chief Brian Wilson. In 2007, Wilson dangled the possibility of a promotion in front of Bakhtiar and when she said she’d be excited to take the job, he reportedly told her, “I’d like to see the inside of your hotel room.” He said that he wanted them to have a “friends with benefits” relationship.
Bakhtiar declined and says that immediately her career at the company went into free-fall. Her appearances were canceled and when she attempted to address the issue with other executives, they told her to go to Human Resources.
Within weeks she was fired. Ailes told her that it was for performance-related reasons.
And it was not just harassment.
Managers attempted to coerce junior employees into going on dates with men higher up in the company. One woman said that in 2009 she walked into an office she thought was empty only to find a male senior manager receiving oral sex from a young female staffer.
Meanwhile, in tomorrow’s Meet the Press, Donald Trump says Mr. Ailes is the victim.
Meet the Press host Chuck Dodd asked Trump about the allegations against Ailes, and the candidate replied, “Well I don’t want to comment. But he’s been a friend of mine for a really long time. And I can tell you that some of the women who are complaining, I know how much he’s helped them. And even recently. And when they write books that are fairly recently released, and they say wonderful things about him.”
He went on, “And now all of a sudden they’re saying these horrible things about him. It’s very sad. Because he’s a very good person. I’ve always found him to be just a very, very good person. Any by the way a very, very talented person. Look what he’s done. So I feel very badly. But a lot of people are thinking he’s going to run my campaign.”
Sometimes, women say nice things about their bosses because they are too afraid of what might happen to their careers if they speak out about the harassment they receive, Donald.