O’Reilly, ex-Fox chief hit with additional sexual allegations
NEW YORK—A Fox News contributor came forward to level more sexual-harassment allegations against deposed chief executive Roger Ailes on Monday, two days after it was revealed the network’s most popular on-air personality, Bill O’Reilly, has settled multiple complaints about his own behavior with women.
O’Reilly was due to return to the air on Monday following a weekend report in The New York Times that he and his employer had paid five women $13 million to settle allegations of sexual harassment or other inappropriate conduct by Fox’s ratings king.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for another woman who says she was punished for rebuffing O’Reilly’s advances called on New York City’s Human Rights Commission to investigate O’Reilly’s behavior.
The new lawsuit against Ailes was brought by Fox’s Julie Roginsky and is notable because it accuses Fox’s current management of trying to cover up for Ailes.
Roginsky said Ailes, who lost his job last summer following sexual-harassment complaints he has denied, suggested she have sex with “older, married, conservative men.” She said Ailes would insist upon a kiss hello at their meetings, requiring her to bend over so he could look down her dress.
She was seeking a permanent role on Fox’s show “The Five.” But after an April 2015 meeting at which she turned down Ailes’ advances, he wouldn’t meet with her again, and she never got the regular role, she said.
Later, she said, she was pressured to join Team Roger, a group of people who publicly defended Ailes when the first harassment complaint made public against the Fox boss was brought by Gretchen Carlson last summer. Roginsky refused.
She said that even though Fox executives knew she had her own harassment allegations against Ailes, she was never encouraged to speak to the law firm hired by Fox News parent 21st Century Fox to investigate claims against him. And she said Fox never looked into her charges. Her lawyer would not say Monday why Roginsky never contacted the firm on her own.