Andrea Tantaros, a regular face on Fox News, is saying that she was demoted and then taken off air this past April after she had filed numerous complaints of harassment from Roger Ailes. Tantaros alleges that she complained about the harassment numerous times, beginning in 2015.
Through her lawyer, Judd Burstein, Tantaros says that both she and her agent told Fox executive vice-president Bill Shine, senior vice-president Suzanne Scott, and general counsel Dianne Brandi about episodes of Ailes’s alleged harassment. “She made multiple harassment and hostile-workplace complaints,” Burstein says. As far as Tantaros knows, Fox executives never investigated her complaints, Burstein says; instead, they claim, Fox sidelined her. “I believe it’s retaliatory,” says Burstein.
Fox’s attorneys dispute this. The network says Tantaros was suspended with pay because she violated company policy by not allowing Fox to vet her 2016 book, Tied Up in Knots: How Getting What They Wanted Has Made Women Miserable. Fox attorneys told Burstein the network was embarrassed by her book’s cover, which depicts Tantaros bound by ropes.
Considering Fox News’ policy of having all of its female hosts wear short skirts, and never sit behind a desk that covers their legs, I find it difficult to believe that “bondage” set off morality alarms in their offices. The allegations of inappropriate advances from the former Fox CEO, Ailes begin in 2014 when Tantaros says Ailes asked her to “twirl” so he could see her body. Over the next few months Ailes reportedly made remarks like she must look really good in a bikini to asking for hugs. Tantaros has also accused other Fox higher ups of inappropriate sexual advances. From Buzzfeed:
The four-page letter was made available to be reviewed by BuzzFeed News and read in its entirety on the condition that it not be published. In the March 16 letter, Tantaros, through her lawyer, accused by name four Fox News male personalities — two on-air contributors, a correspondent, and a host — of inappropriate behavior.
Tantaros also alleged that she was receiving threatening tweets she believed were from a Fox News colleague. In the letter, Tantaros’s lawyer claims Fox News was not taking those threats seriously and was putting her life in danger by allowing unauthorized access to the studio.
The long and short of it is this: while Republicans don’t own the copyright on sexism, their organizations—like Fox News—seem to be almost transparent in their condescension towards women.