Bill O’Reilly’s downfall
weren’t as hesitant, and now maybe we won’t be.”
Carlson, whose nondisclosure agreement prevented her from commenting for this column, said in an interview last summer that her decision to go up against Ailes was frightening, and that she had no idea how it would turn out.
“I thought I would be fighting this all by myself,” she told me.
Her claim was that Ailes had repeatedly propositioned her. (“You’d be good and better, and I’d be good and better,” were his immortal words.) And when she turned him down, she said, he retaliated by demoting and disparaging her. Ailes vehemently denied the charges, but Carlson, who reportedly had tape-recorded evidence on her side, eventually got a $20 million settlement and a public apology.
As it turned out, she was far from alone. A critical mass of Fox women – so many that they could not be ignored – soon joined her. Articles in New York magazine, the Washington Post, and the New York Times told their riveting, often disgusting, stories.
And within Fox, the network’s superstar, Megyn Kelly, was joining the battle, though she did so quietly.
“Gretchen started the public avalanche, and Megyn continued it internally,” Maynard said.
Of course, plenty of women have complained in the past, in companies and organisations, to no avail. Some have been retaliated against. Others ignored, mocked or silenced.
This chain of events helps change that, especially because of the financial toll – an advertiser revolt – resulting from the bad behaviour and a culture that supported it.
The culture at Fox, and in the wider world, will never be the same, longtime media executive Vivian Schiller told me. “Companies are feeling pressure from their own employees, and they are realising that they have to listen,” Schiller said.
The fight is far from over, said Nancy Erika Smith, attorney for Carlson and other Fox women.
Next step, she said: Women should demand that Congress pass the Fairness in Arbitration Act to stop silencing victims of discrimination, harassment and retaliation.