Latest lawsuit against Fox shows network’s toxic and sexist culture persists

A new lawsuit against Fox News, filed by a bookings producer, highlights the network’s misogynistic and hostile work environment and describes how it affects all of its employees, including some of its biggest names. The lawsuit shows Fox’s toxic culture — which dates back to when former chairman and CEO Roger Ailes founded the network — lingers on over 25 years later.

On March 20, Abby Grossberg sued Fox Corp., Fox News Network and a number of individual employees for numerous alleged violations relating to equal pay, gender discrimination, religious discrimination and protection from retaliation. Grossberg initially continued to work while she was employed by Fox Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo as Senior Booking Producer and then continued to work Tucker Carlson tonight.

During that time, Grossberg says, she experienced or witnessed wage discrimination, misogynistic group discussions and portrayals by other employees, anti-Semitic remarks about herself and other Jewish colleagues, and harassment of female employees by Fox News bosses. Grossberg reached out to human resources about this culture, but “no meaningful investigation has taken place.” Eventually, after Fox insisted that her “work environment will remain free of harassment,” Fox filed a preemptive retaliatory lawsuit that the network has since withdrawn, placing her on administrative leave.

As Media Matters has previously documented, misogyny has been ingrained in the network’s culture since its inception. Over the years, employees have filed dozens of sexual harassment complaints against Fox Corp. and Fox News Network, including reporting unwelcome sexual advances by Ailes. There have also been reports of other staff members, including current hosts, being sexist and condescending.

The network is currently embroiled in several other lawsuits, including a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for spreading lies about the company and the 2020 election. Fox’s Maria Bartiromo is singled out throughout Dominion’s lawsuit for being baseless made claims of the company’s involvement in non-existent voter fraud – and hosted guests who proposed without acknowledging that these claims were unfounded. Fox is also facing a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic over similar lies.

Here are a few examples from Grossberg’s lawsuit that detail Fox’s toxic culture: