Two Sex
Harassment Suits Against Fox News Are
Separated In SDNY Trigger Warnings
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Oct 7, updated – Jennifer
Eckhart and Cathy Areu sued
Fox News, Ed Henry, Sean
Hannity and others.
On October
7 U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Ronnie Abrams held a
proceeding. Inner City Press
covered it.
The
complaint has a label,
"Trigger Warning: This
Document contains highly
graphic information of a
sexual nature, including
sexual assault."
Eckhart states
that Ed Henry "asked her to be
his 'sex slave'... On July 1,
2020, Fox News disclosed to
the public that it had
terminated Mr. Henry."
Ms. Areu
says Sean Hannity threw a $100
bill on the set desk and
"began calling out to men in
the room and demanding that
someone take Ms. Areu out on a
date for drinks at Del
Friscos."
At issue on
October 7 was whether the
separate the two women's
cases. This will be done.
Update: After
Inner City Press published the
above about the October 7
proceeding, we received the
following which we publish in
full:
Statement from
FOX News on the Cathy Areu
amended complaint “As we
have maintained, the
accusations against Tucker
Carlson, Sean Hannity and
Howard Kurtz are utterly
devoid of merit. Ms. Areu’s
allegation that women are not
treated equally at FOX News is
also provably false and yet
another malicious attempt to
smear the network with
baseless claims. In fact, FOX
News has provided more
leadership opportunities for
women than any other cable
news network, including
featuring more solo women
anchors and hosts on-air and
retaining a senior staff
comprised of more than 50%
female
executives.”
Statement from
FOX News in response to Wigdor
lawsuit
filing:
“Based on the findings of a
comprehensive independent
investigation conducted by an
outside law firm, including
interviews with numerous
eyewitnesses, we have
determined that all of Cathy
Areu’s claims against FOX
News, including its management
as well as its hosts Tucker
Carlson, Sean Hannity &
Howard Kurtz and its
contributor Gianno Caldwell,
are false, patently frivolous
and utterly devoid of any
merit. We take all claims of
harassment, misconduct and
retaliation seriously,
promptly investigating them
and taking immediate action as
needed — in this case, the
appropriate action based on
our investigation is to defend
vigorously against these
baseless allegations. Ms. Areu
and Jennifer Eckhart can
pursue their claims against Ed
Henry directly with him, as
FOX News already took swift
action as soon as it learned
of Ms. Eckhart’s claims on
June 25 and Mr. Henry is no
longer employed by the
network.”
The lead case is
Eckhart et al v. Fox News
Network, LLC et al.,
20-cv-5593 (Abrams)
***
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