Fox Corporation has agreed to pay $12 million to settle a lawsuit by former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg, who leveled allegations against the network for promoting a hostile working environment.
Grossberg, who was the head of booking for Tucker Carlson for several months, filed a lawsuit in March claiming she was subjected to vulgar comments while she worked in Fox News’ office in New York.
The complaint (pdf), which was filed in the U.S. Southern District of New York on March 20, said that the “toxic work dynamic” allegedly fostered by Carlson had “severely” impacted her health.
While Carlson hasn’t made public comments in response to the lawsuit, Fox News denied Grossberg’s allegations after she filed suit.
Following news of the settlement on Friday, a Fox News spokesperson expressed satisfaction that the matter had been resolved.
“We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter without further litigation,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement.
Grossberg said in a statement obtained by The Epoch Times that she’s hopeful that “this resolution represents a positive step by the Network regarding its treatment of women and minorities in the workplace.”
“While I stand by my publicly filed claims and allegations, in light of today’s settlement of $12 million, pursuant to which I have now withdrawn those claims, I am heartened that Fox News has taken me and my legal claims seriously,” Grossberg added.
The settlement drew comparisons to when former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson in 2016 settled with the network for $20 million after suing her old boss, Roger Ailes, for sexual harassment.
“Proud of @abby_grossberg for her bravery in coming forward about bad behavior at Fox, including the same kind of sexism & misogyny I brought forth 7 years ago,” Carlson wrote in a tweet.
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Grossberg, who had worked for Fox in various roles since 2019, was fired after filing her lawsuit on March 20 in federal court in Manhattan.
In firing her, Fox said her legal claims were “riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees.”
Grossberg, who sought unspecified damages, claimed to have been subjected to a hostile and discriminatory work environment. She accused Fox of gender and religious discrimination as well as pay equity violations, among other allegations.
In the Manhattan lawsuit, Grossberg’s lawyers hinted at the network’s history of past settlements with female employees.
“This case is as troubling as it is familiar; it is yet another in the long line of cases chronicling the misogynistic environment that permeates Fox News and fosters a toxic workplace where truth remains a fugitive while female workers are verbally violated on almost a daily basis by a poisonous and entrenched patriarchy,” they claimed.
Grossberg had also sought unspecified damages in a similar lawsuit in Delaware Superior Court, which she dismissed in May.
Tucker Carlson was among the defendants in Grossberg’s Manhattan lawsuit, with the program “Tucker Carlson Tonight” being the top-rated prime-time U.S. cable TV news show when it was unexpectedly canceled by Fox in late April.
Tucker Carlson Controversy
Amid Carlson’s departure, Fox News issued a statement saying it had parted ways with him for unclear reasons. Neither Fox nor Carlson has publicly commented on the split, although Carlson hinted in a video last month that he may have reported on topics that the company’s management disagreed with.
While Fox News has seen its primetime ratings slump since Carlson’s departure, Fox remains the No. 1-rated cable news channel overall.
Carlson on June 6 launched the first episode of his new show on Twitter, which focused on the destruction of a dam in Ukraine.
“As of today, we have come to Twitter, which we hope will be the short wave radio under the blankets,” Carlson stated toward the end of the video. “We’re told there are no gatekeepers here. If that turns out to be false, we’ll leave.
“But in the meantime, we’re grateful to be here.”
He signed off the show, dubbed “Tucker on Twitter,” saying that he will be back on the platform with “much more, very soon.”
Following the launch of his new program, Fox attorneys reportedly sent him a cease and desist letter saying that, with the new show, he “is in breach” of his contract with Fox.
The letter claimed that Carlson’s contract states that he’s “prohibited from rendering services of any type whatsoever, whether ‘over the internet via streaming or similar distribution, or other digital distribution whether now known or hereafter devised.’”
Following the letter, a lawyer for Carlson issued a response.
“Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds. Now they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events,” Carlson’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said in a June 7 statement to Axios.
After testing a rotation of various hosts in place of Carlson on 8 p.m. slot, Fox News announced recently that “Jesse Watters Primetime” would me moved to Carlson’s old timeslot.
The changes will go into effect next month, Fox said.
