New Accusations Against Former Fox News Head Ailes

@reuters
New Accusations Against Former Fox News Head Ailes

(Reuters) – New sexual harassment accusations against former Fox News network chief Roger Ailes were revealed in a lawsuit filed against 21st Century Fox on Monday.

The lawsuit comes just months after Fox News agreed to pay $20 million to settle separate allegations of sexual harassment of female staff at Fox News by Ailes.

The federal discrimination lawsuit filed in New York alleges that Ailes offered Lidia Curanaj, whose legal name is Lidija Ujkic, an interview to join the Fox News Network after meeting her at a dinner in 2011.

After being interviewed in a group setting, Ailes invited her to a private interview, the complaint said. He then told her it was “important [for female talent] to look good from head to toe,” and asked her to stand and turn around for him.

The suit also alleged that Ailes later contacted a man Curanaj previously dated asking if she would “put out” sexually. The man told Ailes she likely would not, the suit said, after which she was turned down for the job.

An attorney for Ailes could not be immediately reached to comment on the accusations, though he has consistently denied similar sexual harassment allegations.

Curanaj’s lawsuit does not name Ailes or Fox News as a defendant, but rather alleges gender, age, race and pregnancy discrimination on the part of her employer, New York Fox TV station WNYW.

The suit claims that when Curanaj confronted the station’s news director about not being promoted to anchor despite her journalistic experience and successes, he replied she was “not attractive enough to be an anchor.”

A spokeswoman for Fox TV Stations, a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, said in an emailed statement, “We do not think the plaintiff’s claims have merit, and we intend to defend vigorously.”

Fox News in September agreed to pay $20 million to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by former anchor Gretchen Carlson. A subsequent internal investigation of the company turned up more than two dozen women who described harassment by Ailes, according to New York Magazine.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Andrew Hay)

IMAGE: Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News and Fox Television Stations, answers questions during a panel discussion at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Pasadena, California July 24, 2006. REUTERS/Fred Prouser/File Photo

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

How A Stuttering President Confronts A Right-Wing Bully

Donald Trump mocks Joe Biden’s stutter,” the headlines blare, and I am confronted (again) with (more) proof that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee hates people like me.

Keep reading...Show less
Trump at Trump Tower

Former President Donald Trump at Trump Tower in Manhattan

NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - Donald Trump faces a Monday deadline to post a bond to cover a $454 million civil fraud judgment or face the risk of New York state seizing some of his marquee properties.Trump, seeking to regain the presidency this year, must either pay the money out of his own pocket or post a bond while he appeals Justice Arthur Engoron's February 16 judgment against him for manipulating his net worth and his family real estate company's property values to dupe lenders and insurers.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}