Yes, another lawsuit has been filed against Fox News. This one, from radio correspondent Jessica Golloher, alleges that she suffered discrimination and was then fired after she reported it on the company hotline.
In a letter to Ofcom, the British regulatory agency looking into the proposed takeover of Sky television by Fox News' parent company, 21st Century Fox, attorney Douglas Wigdor laid out in great detail Fox's history of discrimination, harassment and retaliation. Wigdor represents the plaintiffs in the racial discrimination class action lawsuit (among others who have previously sued) against Fox He also mentioned a new lawsuit to come:
It is telling that Fox uses attorneys who are so willing to bring meritless retaliatory actions against employees who allege discrimination in order to intimidate those employees and silence their allegations. This practice, in addition to requiring many employees to sign arbitration clauses to prevent them from publicly disclosing Fox’s unlawful conduct, undercut any claim that Fox’s Corporate Governance has any real interest in resolving its internal problems. Indeed, the new Head of Human Resources, Kevin Lord, sent an email to Fox News employees inviting them to raise issues regarding misconduct at Fox with, inter alia, Fox’s outside counsel. Fox News Radio’s Middle East/North Africa Correspondent, Jessica Golloher, followed Mr. Lord’s direction and sent an email to Fox’s outside counsel to put the Company on notice of her intent to complain about additional unlawful discrimination. Ms. Golloher was terminated within 24 hours. Ms. Golloher has retained our Firm and will be moving forward with litigation on her behalf shortly.
Today, Golloher filed suit. Among other claims in her complaint:
Golloher claims she was marginalized because of her gender. She had been based in Moscow in 2013, working as the network's Russia correspondent, but when the Sochi Olympic Games approached they gave the lead reporting gig to a London-based male colleague instead of her. Golloher says she was told to act as Simon Owen's Russian translator and help in in his reporting.
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The correspondent also claims she was bumped to the late reporting shift and forced to cover "the ridiculous and frivolous 'panty protests'" following a ban on the import of lacy underwear, instead of covering "serious and relevant" news.
Stay tuned!
Crossposted at News Hounds.
