A lawsuit filed on Monday morning by a paid political commentator for the Fox News Channel alleges the network’s past chairman, Roger Ailes, made unwanted sexual advances while leading her to believe that a big promotion would follow.
The suit says Ailes encouraged Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky to date older, married men, repeatedly praised her looks and sought to get her to join him for drinks, even in his office, away from prying eyes that could get them “into so much trouble.”
Roginsky spurned the advances, according to the lawsuit, and as a result never received the promotion to become host of the popular early evening program The Five.
Roginsky’s depiction of life at Fox News even after Ailes’ ouster last summer at the height of a sexual harassment scandal suggests a far cry from the changed corporate culture promised by the Murdoch family, which controls 21st Century Fox. Patriarch Rupert Murdoch has led Fox News since Ailes was felled by fallout from the lawsuit by former host Gretchen Carlson that triggered the scandal.
Roginsky’s suit adds to the list of sexual harassment allegations against Ailes, which also includes those made by former Fox News journalists Megyn Kelly and Laurie Dhue. Through his lawyers, Ailes has denied all the previous allegations to date.
Perhaps more troublingly for Fox News and its corporate parent, 21st Century Fox, Roginsky also accuses the network’s current president, Bill Shine; its longtime top lawyer, Dianne Brandi; and other senior executives of complicity in Ailes’ harassment and of punishing her for raising the issue.
Ailes’ lawyer Susan Estrich called Roginsky’s descriptions of meetings with her client “total hogwash.”
“The idea that Mr. Ailes would pressure Ms. Roginsky or any other women to have sexual relations with him is total nonsense,” the statement reads. “This is about someone who wants to pile-on in a massive character assassination in order to achieve what she did not accomplish on the merits.”
Roginsky’s allegations arrive as new attention is being given to similar accusations against Fox News’ brightest star, Bill O’Reilly. The right-of-center opinion host and Fox News have made payments totaling roughly $13 million over a dozen years to settle complaints that he harassed female former co-workers, according to The New York Times.
Suspended Fox News host Andrea Tantaros has also filed suit, citing what she says was sexual harassment by Ailes and O’Reilly. She alleges that Shine also failed to take her complaints seriously. All three men deny her claims.
