Following news in June that conservative opinion outlet Fox News had been fined a record $1 million by the New York City Commission on Human Rights for repeated worksite sexual harassment of female employees and rampant job retaliation, the cable station is now embroiled in another workplace controversy.
The Associated Press reported that “an associate producer on Monday [August 2] filed a lawsuit against Fox News Network, saying he was discriminated against because of his gender and subjected to unwelcome attention from an on-air personality.”
According to the AP, “John Fawcett, who works on the Kudlow show hosted by Larry Kudlow on Fox Business Network, claims in his lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan that ‘sexual harassment, sex discrimination and racial discrimination are still tolerated at Fox.’”
In his suit against the network, Fawcett said executives “will bend over backwards to protect such behavior so long as it is perpetrated by senior management or prominent on-air personalities.”
Fawcett alleges that during an elevator ride one day, Fox personality Andrew Napolitano “stroked his arm and made suggestive comments.” He claims that after the incident, he told his then-boss, Lou Dobbs, about the incident, but nothing happened afterward, and HR remained dismissive of his claims.
He also alleges that while employed on Kudlow’s show, which he joined after Dobbs’ show got canceled, Fawcett heard the host repeatedly use racial slurs and make sexually inappropriate remarks, none of which was met with any recrimination.
Elsewhere, Fawcett claims a female executive producer discriminated against men and attempted to get him and other male staff members fired to replace them with women staff.
For its part, Fox News has denied all allegations saying that the company would “defend the matter vigorously in court.” The network also added that after Fawcett made his initial claims, it took “immediate, appropriate action.”
In an additional statement, the network has also claimed that Fawcett’s allegations are “baseless and nothing more than a desperate attempt at a payday.”
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