Well, today in Fox News-is-crazier-than-we-all-thought news, another former cohost has filed suit against the organization with allegations of sexual harassment, charging the network with berating sexism and just overall grossness.
Andrea Tantaros, former cohost of “The Five,” has filed a major lawsuit against the network. Her suit alleges that she received unwanted sexual attention from former chairman, Roger Ailes, other senior level executives and even Bill O’Reilly, a former colleague of Tantaros. Tantaros slams the network in her suit, calling it hypocritical in the worst of ways. “Fox News masquerades as a defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates as like a sex fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency and misogyny,”  the lawsuit reads. (I would normally express an emotion at the end of statements like this, but truly, I don’t know which one is more appropriate here. I think an ‘eww,’ ‘yuck,’ a ‘gasp’ and a ‘BURN!’ all apply.)Â
According to Fox, Tantaros was let go in April when she allegedly wrote a book without network approval. Tantaros counters this claim in her lawsuit, stating her resignation was in fact in retaliation for complaining about the sexual harassment in the first place. The book dispute was just the cover behind the retaliation.
This suit comes amid the mounting allegations against Roger Ailes, who was accused by another former anchor, Gretchen Carlson, regarding sexual harassment. In private intestigations, even Megyn Kelly admitted she was once the target of Ailes harassment. During this time, it also came out that a booking agent from the network had was repeatedly harassed by Ailes and was coerced into starting a years-long affair with him, later leading to mental breakdowns. However, Tantaros claims that he did not act alone in his sexist behavior but was instead “condoned by most of his senior lieutenants.” In fact, she said she met with Ailes’ replacement before her firing, and she was told to “let this one go.”
According to Business Insider, the lawsuit says she was told repeatedly not to wear pants so that Ailes could see her legs and was once asked to spin around for the former CEO so that he could, in the creepiest way possible, “get a good look at her”—an advance she refused. She also alleges in the suit that the network created Twitter bots designed to harass her online.
Fox told The New York Times they would not be commenting on the lawsuit.