Abby Grossberg, the former Fox News producer who is suing the network, said Tuesday that Tucker Carlson and his executive producer were responsible making her life a “living hell” when she worked for them.
Ms Grossberg, who was fired by Fox shortly after filing a pair of lawsuits against the network earlier this year, said during an appearance on MSNBC that Carlson’s sudden termination by Fox on Monday left her with mixed emotions.
“There were feelings first of ‘Yes!’ and then also the reality that you don’t want anything bad to happen to anybody,” Ms Grossberg said. “But at the same time, Tucker and his executive producer, Justin Wells, who was also fired, really were responsible for breaking me and making my life a living hell. So there is a feeling of justice, but it’s only partial.”
Ms Grossberg said she was initially motiviated to join Carlson’s show because it was a promotion from her previous position working for Maria Bartiromo and said she liked Carlson’s staff when she interviewed. She hoped that there was more to Carlson than what she and other viewers saw on TV.
“I was hoping that it would be more professional, and what he was portraying on air was just a show, and unfortunately that wasn’t the case,” Ms Grossberg said.
In her lawsuit, Ms Grossberg claims that Carlson fostered a toxic work environment in which his top producers would routinely describe women in vulgar terms and make antisemetic remarks. She claims that when she arrived to work at the show, she found the office decorated with photographs of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wearing a swimsuit.
Carlson has not responded publicly to the allegations made in the lawsuit, and a Fox News spokesperson said on Monday that the network “will continue to vigorously defend Fox against Ms. Grossberg’s unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees.”
Nevertheless, Tanvir Rahman, one of Ms Grossberg’s attorneys, toldThe New York Times that the timing of Carlson’s sudden dismissal from Fox News functions, in part, as “an admission of the systemic lying, bullying and conspiracy mongering claimed by our client.”
Mr Rahman said his legal team intends to take Carlson’s deposition in the near future. Various reports have claimed that Carlson’s allegedly inappropriete behavior was one of the reasons for his departure, though other reports have claimed that criticism of his Fox bosses publicised in the course of Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit agianst the network is to blame.
