Come on, Andrea Tantaros.
Tell us how you really feel about Fox News!
A former Fox News host, Tantaros filed a lawsuit in Manhattan State Supreme Court on Monday, naming former network chief Roger Ailes and other top executives as defendants.
She states in scathing, specific terms that Ailes sexually harassed her during her tenure on the network.
Ailes resigned from his post this summer after Gretchen Carlson also accused him of very inappropriate behavior.
In her legal documents, Tantaros holds nothing back when assessing what life was like as a Fox News employee.
“Fox News masquerades as a defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency and misogyny,” Tantaros charges in the suit.
Pretty damning, huh?
Last month, it came out that prized anchor Megyn Kelly had also accused Ailes of sexual harassment.
Tantaros explains that her complaint is not just about Ailes but that “it also gives life to the saying that ‘the fish stinks from the head."”
Meaning what, exactly?
“For Ailes did not act alone,” Tantaros said, adding:
“He may have been the primary culprit, but his actions were condoned by most senior lieutenants, who engaged in a concerted effort to silence Tantaros by threats, humiliation, and retaliation.”
She also names William Shine in the lawsuit; he was named co-president of Fox News after Ailes resigned a few weeks ago.
Tantaros’ legal battles with Fox Corp. started last winter when the network said she had breached her employment contract by authoring a book without first receiving company clearance.
Fox has said she has made up these sexual harassment allegations as a way to distract from that previous contract dispute.
However, Tantaros says it’s actually the opposite: in her complaint, she accuses Fox executives of using the dispute over the book to try to silence her sexual harassment claims.
What sort of “demeaning conduct” does Tantaros say she was subjected to?
Having to strip in front of Fox News wardrobe personnel when she picked her on-air clothing, for starters.
She says her job “devolved into a nightmare of sexual harassment” by Ailes (pictured above and below) in the summer of 2014.
According to Tantaros, Ailes once asked her twice to “turn around so I can get a good look at you,” adding, on one occasion, “come over here so I can give you a hug.”
Along similar lines, Carlson says Ailes once told her that the two of them “should have had a sexual relationship.”
She then claims the former Fox Corp. Chairman punished her at work after she refused his advances.
Tantaros says that when she complained about the harassment to Shine in the spring of 2015, he told her Ailes was “a very powerful man” and that Tantaros “needed to let this one go.”
If what she is saying here is true, then kudos to Tantaros for not taking this advice.
In related news: Roger Ailes is now serving as a contibutor on Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign.