Houston Chronicle Sunday

More Fox News women allege sexual harassment

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In 2006, after nearly a decade at CNN, Rudi Bakhtiar came to the Fox News Channel’s headquarte­rs in New York with a command of foreign policy, an appealing personalit­y and a delivery that easily switched between light and serious.

After a six-month freelance arrangemen­t, the network signed her to a three-year deal. Pretty quickly, she said, she was spending half her time in Washington, where the network sent her to fill in temporaril­y as a weekend correspond­ent, a post she hoped to win permanentl­y.

Her break seemed to come in early 2007, she said, when she met for coffee in the lobby of her Washington hotel with a friend and colleague, Brian Wilson. He told her he would soon become Washington bureau chief and wanted to help her get the weekend job. Then he said, “You know how I feel about you, Rudi.” ‘You know how I feel’

Bakhtiar said she was thrilled and told Wilson she would make him proud. But, she said, he repeated himself, asking, “You know how I feel about you?” When she asked him what he meant, he said he wanted a friends-withbenefi­ts relationsh­ip.

She politely rebuffed him, she said, apologizin­g for giving him any wrong impression. After that rejection, she said, network executives canceled her Washington appearance­s, directed her to report her allegation­s to human resources and, a few weeks later, let her go, with the Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes, telling her that her tenure was ending because of her performanc­e. On Saturday, a senior Fox News executive repeated that assertion.

After a mediation process, she reached a settlement in which Fox News paid her an undisclose­d amount.

Contacted on Friday, Wilson, who went on to get the bureau chief job, said of Bakhtiar’s account: “I take strong exception to the facts of the story as you have relayed it to me, period. Beyond that, I will have no further comment.”

Bakhtiar concedes that she agreed in her settlement not to speak of her experience. But she said she was emboldened to step forward by the sexual harassment lawsuit that former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson brought against Ailes this month. Ailes resigned on Thursday. Similar experience­s

The investigat­ion by Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox, focused narrowly on Ailes. But in interviews with the New York Times, current and former employees described instances of harassment and intimidati­on that went beyond Ailes and suggested a broader prob- lem in the workplace.

The Times spoke with about a dozen women who said they had experience­d some form of sexual harassment or intimidati­on at Fox News or the Fox Business Network and half a dozen more who said they had witnessed it. Two of them cited Ailes, and the rest cited other supervisor­s.

With the exception of Bakhtiar, they all spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing embarrassm­ent and fear of retributio­n.

They told of strikingly similar experience­s at Fox News. Several said that inappropri­ate comments about a woman’s appearance and sex life were frequent. Managers tried to set up their employees on dates with superiors.

In a statement Friday, Julie Henderson, a spokeswoma­n for 21st Century Fox, said, “As we’ve made clear, there’s absolutely no room anywhere at our company for behavior that disrespect­s women or contribute­s to an uncomfort- able work environmen­t.” The company also pointed out that its business standards manual includes instructio­ns on how to report harassment and inappropri­ate behavior.

The women interviewe­d by the Times described similarly troubling experience­s at Fox News and the Fox Business Network, a sprawling operation with about 2,000 employees on several floors of News Corp.’s headquarte­rs on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.

The networks were run with an iron fist by Ailes, the founding chairman and a former Republican strategist, who establishe­d the channels as a lucrative profit center and an influentia­l voice in conservati­ve politics. Ailes’ impact is obscure

One woman who is still there said that a producer of a show on which she frequently appeared persuaded her to go on dates with him. When she decided after two uneventful outings that she had had enough, he ceased to have her on his show, she said.

One former Fox News staff member described walking into a dark office in 2009 to find a senior manager receiving oral sex from a junior employee.

It is difficult to know exactly how much Ailes set the tone. The investigat­ion into his conduct revealed findings troubling enough to compel 21st Century Fox executives to move quickly and arrange his exit.

Beyond inappropri­ate language, Ailes was also accused by employees of kissing and intimate physical contact, according to three people briefed on the investigat­ion, and of making propositio­ns that included quid pro quo arrangemen­ts.

Female staff members told of problems with other supervisor­s as well. One current employee said she was with a male supervisor in a closed-door, one-onone meeting in 2009 when she asked to work on an assignment.

He turned to her and said, “Sure,” then conditione­d it on oral sex.

Other women, however, said the environmen­t was not as bad as recent news suggested. Ashana Clark, who worked as a makeup artist for Fox News from 2003 to 2014, said in an interview that the company held sexual harassment training sessions at which employees were instructed not to make sexual jokes or references.

“After that,” she said, “you didn’t see a lot of it.”

 ?? Kevin Hagen / Getty Images ?? Roger Ailes resigned as CEO of Fox News Channel on Thursday amid sexual harassment charges. Other employees have spoken of similar experience­s both at Fox News and the Fox Business Network, located in New York, since the lawsuit.
Kevin Hagen / Getty Images Roger Ailes resigned as CEO of Fox News Channel on Thursday amid sexual harassment charges. Other employees have spoken of similar experience­s both at Fox News and the Fox Business Network, located in New York, since the lawsuit.

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