Fox’s Andrea Tantaros Reportedly “Says She Was Taken Off The Air After Making Sexual Harassment Claims Against Roger Ailes”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
New York magazine writer Gabriel Sherman is reporting that Fox News host Andrea Tantaros says she was demoted and then taken off the air after “she complained multiple times to senior Fox executives in 2015 about Ailes’s inappropriate sexual behavior toward her.”
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes in early July, which led to numerous women coming forward with similar allegations. Ailes resigned as Fox News CEO during the resulting firestorm. Media outlets have subsequently reported on how Fox News’ workplace has featured rampant misogyny and sexual harassment.
Sherman wrote that 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.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that Tantaros’ lawyer said investigators hired by 21st Century Fox to look into the Ailes allegations have “not called her.” Stelter suggested that this indicates the company’s investigation has been insufficient.
From Sherman’s piece:
According to Tantaros’s account, Ailes began harassing her on August 12, 2014. During a meeting in Ailes’s office, Ailes allegedly asked Tantaros to do “the twirl” so he could see her figure. She refused. Then, in mid-December of that year, Ailes made another advance, Burstein says. “Ailes asked her to turn around, and then he said, ‘Come over here so I can give you a hug.’” Tantaros rebuffed the advance, Burstein says.
In February 2015, Tantaros was pulled off the 5 p.m. program The Five and demoted to working full-time on the midday show Outnumbered. In February 2015, according to Burstein, Ailes allegedly harassed Tantaros again in his office, asking about her workout routine because her body “looked good” and mentioning that she must “really look good in a bikini.”
On April 30, 2015, Tantaros filed a formal workplace harassment complaint about Ailes to Shine, Burstein says. The following day, Burstein says, Tantaros met with Shine to further discuss her harassment claims. Shine allegedly told her, “Roger is a very powerful man,” and that she “should not fight this.”